People stay with Todoist because of the design, not the features

This time we're going to take a quick look at todoist.

So for those not aware, Todoist is a to do list app, super popular, got about 50 million people using this so a huge user base and I suspect that the design is one of the reasons why.

So I'm going to take a little bit of time to go through the process of creating a task inside todoist.

I'm going to share with you what's working, what's not working, what I think can be improved in the hope that you could take some of these learnings and then you can apply them to your product as well.

All right, so you can see I'm already in the product here and I'm in the inbox over here on the left.

Now I'm a big fan of the simplicity of this app.

It doesn't try to be anything it isn't.

I think that's one of its biggest strengths.

One of the things that's obvious right off the bat here is just how simple and clean this interface is.

There's very few distractions in the inbox screen and I think that's very intentional as well.

The end of the day, it's a to do list app.

People are here to create their tasks and get things done So we've got a really nice elegant illustration here for the empty state.

Got a very short and to the point headline here as well as a, little bit of blurb underneath and then one button add.

Now it does look like you can do the same thing from the nav on the left here or you can do it within the empty state in the inbox itself.

So we got multiple entry points there, which makes sense when you are navigating through different areas of the product.

And I think it's useful to be able to add a task from the nav over there on the left.

So let's add a task now then.

So presumably they do the same thing if we add a task from here.

it's the same as if we were adding a task from the nav on the left.

All right, so let's hit task.

Then we'll go through this process.

I was half expecting a modal window to pop up there, but no.

looks like we are creating a task inline inside the inbox.

Now as soon as I've hit add task I can start typing.

So my cursor's inside the task name field that sits up here and I can just start typing and adding the name of my task.

now that might only save a few seconds, but it's definitely more convenient than having to click inside the box itself.

We've also got descriptions here as well, Which work, as you'd expect really.

And then underneath we have a couple of different options.

So we've got date, attachment, priority, reminders or this other option here.

Now you see this quite a lot when there are arguably too many options to fit in here.

Well, we use this, and then we get a bunch of other ones.

Now I would be curious to know what the thinking is behind adding labels inside and location and deadline inside the menu as opposed to showing them here clearly prioritizing the date, the attachment, priority and reminders.

Now that could be based on usage data.

I think it's I think it's unlikely to be random.

So there's an interesting choice they've made there.

Now it looks like by default, this task is going to sit in the inbox here.

Makes sense.

That's where we started it from.

And then obviously we've got option, to cancel and then add the task itself over here on the right.

So let's add a date then and we'll go through that process.

Now these are quite tricky to get right But I have always been a fan of how todoist sure.

Their calendar here, this calendar picker, is one of the best I've seen.

Right, let me tell you why.

So calendars are notoriously bad for navigating using They just tend to slow users down for whatever reason.

And then when you're combining dates and times and other actions, it can get quite complicated quite quickly.

But I think todoist have handled this really well.

So instead of having to browse through the calendar to do is to give you an option date in which is really neat and convenient feature here.

So you can type in a date.

And then as you're doing that and then once you've done that, it gives users feedback to tell them that they can also add reoccurring dates here as well.

So it's not just the date, but it's the recurrence that you can add simply by typing in So I think that's a really neat feature.

They've also got some options to fast track to today, tomorrow and this weekend.

but they do have the day of the week obviously shown on the right as well which I think just makes things a little bit easier to understand.

Then you've got the calendar itself which you can obviously navigate like I did before, if you scroll too far then you can click this little icon which just takes you back to the current date.

Now one of the neat things about this calendar so when you hover over each of these different dates you can see that it gives me the number of tasks that I do on that day which which I think is helpful.

And then we've got some time and repeat options down here as well so we can add the time.

So we've standard picker here so we can add time.

Yes it looks the duration is a paid feature here.

So you can hover over this icon and you can upgrade and then you can use the duration.

Now I like this because it gives users a nod towards a paid feature that they might not otherwise know about.

But it's been done within the context of creating a task.

it isn't just a random pop up that interrupts users workflow.

here and then time zone if that's Something we wanted to make some changes to.

So let's click Cancel then and quickly look at repeat.

they've clearly thought about these options, these default options here to make it easier and more intuitive for users.

so they've got you know, five options here, which presumably are the most common.

And again, just in case you're in any doubt, you have the context of the day of the week and the days it refers to and the date itself.

Next, to each of these repeat options.

And then it looks like we've got a custom option as well.

And we can do that based on a schedule date or a completion date, change the frequency here and then when it ends.

So plenty of options there for users and I think if you're a power user you're going to be happy as well.

I think for new users you've got some really convenient options.

And then for power users you have custom repeat options should you want to dive a bit further, All right, so I'm going to hit today.

And you can see the title's updated now as well.

So so you can see, the date has been included into the title.

And then we can see beneath here we've got confirmation that the date set is the one we've chosen here.

Now we've also got a, to attach anything here and we've also got priority.

let's take a look at priority here.

Okay, so this looks simple enough, four options for priority.

Looks like by default they've chosen priority four, which to me looks like something that's unprioritized given the color of the flag.

But again, I think the colors they've chosen here are deliberate.

It makes sense to have a red flag for something that's priority one, and maybe an orange flag for something that's priority two.

So all of these to me feel like deliberate design choices.

Now next up we've got reminders here.

So it looks like we've got date and time options or we've got a, remind it before the task itself.

Both useful options.

And I can see here based on this little icon we saw before that, the time and date option is a paid feature.

So it's obviously set to default.

And we can only do that at the time of the task.

So I'm a little unsure why there's a drop down there, if it's a single choice item.

but I do like the fact that they're reinforcing this here.

So it tells us that we're going to get a notification when it's time for this task.

So I'm not going to work those, but let's see what else we had in here then.

So we got labels as well.

So let's add a label Okay, so this is another really interesting way of implementing labels.

it's brought us back up to the title of the task which seems to suggest that we can type labels in by using the symbol as well.

So we've got two labels in here by default.

work or personal.

Let's click on work and then let's just test that theory then.

So when we click on our keyboard, we get this drop down and it shows us the labels that are available to add to this specific task.

So what I love about this is we're learning how to use the product as we're going through the process of creating a task, which I think is a great way of teaching users how to use the product without spoon feeding them or relying on tutorials or anything else for that matter.

All right, so I think we're nearly done added our title, we've added a description, we've chosen the date.

we know we can add an attachment if we need to and we can add the priority, reminders and then also we've added the labels too.

All right, so let's hit our task then.

And we're doing pretty straightforward.

And we got confirmation down here.

So the task has been added to the inbox.

what I like about this is we can either dismiss it or we can just open it immediately.

You saw the link inside that notification, which, again, is really convenient for users.

So adding a task should be simple within a to do list app.

and it is because todoist, their design is awesome.

Like, they just don't overcomplicate things.

I feel like every decision they've made is intentional.

And it shows that you can see how intuitive this product is.

And I'd argue it's one of the reasons why, this product is so popular.

All right, guys, I'm going to leave it there.

Thanks, for watching.

Hope you found this useful, and I'll, see you in the next one.