Creating a Task List app for Families

This week I turned to Designercize.com/ for inspiration for my weekly design challenge. Admittedly, I did hit the reload button more than a few times, and one of the options it gave me was to create an edit settings form for a todo app to help families. I decided to ignore the first part of the setup in order to challenge myself to create a full app and not just the settings form.

As always, I started with some paper sketches:

Next, I started translating these paper sketches into digital wireframes using Adobe XD. It was my first time using Adobe XD so there were a few issues with the learning curve, but I pushed through and learned a lot in the process. Now that I have experience with Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD, I can say that each of them definitely has their own strengths and weaknesses.

I took inspiration for this app from my own childhood. When I was younger, my parents would give us "tokens" (poker chips) when we did chores around the house. When we'd saved up enough tokens, we'd get to go "shopping" and pick out some toys or candy from their rewards stockpile. I remember being super excited when I'd saved up enough to buy something, and wondering what cool new things would be available.

This app allows parents to create tasks for their children to complete, assign points to them, and then let the children redeem their points for rewards from a list the parents set up. The parents are in control of how many points each task is worth, and how many points each of the rewards cost.

Children earn points by doing tasks on their own schedule, and get to redeem them whenever they want. Of course, in order to stop children from trying to game the system, parents are able to see a list of all the tasks the children have completed so they can verify it all has actually been done correctly. Parents can see how many points each child is earning per day and easily see the total each child has.

When a child wishes to redeem points, they can "shop" from the available rewards and spend their points however they wish. Parents get to review the request and may make any edits if needed before deducting the points and granting the rewards. Through this system, children get a small taste of what it's like to earn money and have control over what they do with their money, while parents can supervise their children and promote good habits.