| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Google Calendar | Canvas | Asana | Trello | Google Tasks | Pen and Paper Planner | ||
2 | Products/Services Offered (What is it?) | Google Calendar is a cloud based calendar service that is connected with the user's other Google apps like drive, mail, etc. | Canvas is a course management system where professors can post assignments, grades, and other information for students. Students can use Canvas to check on assignment deadines and to submit their assignments. | Asana is a project management software, typically meant for team collaboration in the corporate or academic world. It allows team members to collaborate without losing track of project tasks or deadlines | Trello is another project management software meant for team collaboration. It is similar to Asana, but is more customizable on the tasks and allows for more flexibility | task manager app you can download into your phone, integrates with google calendar, the tasks automatically show up on your calendar if you input them into the app manually | A pen and paper planner is an old traditional way of managing your schedule and tasks. A planner is typically in the form of a physical paper calendar in a booklet form. | |
3 | Customizability | can create different lists and edit their labels, but can only view them one at a time | ||||||
4 | Can a user add in their own events and tasks? | Yes | No - there is a "Create New Event" button on the calendar view, but it does not work. It is possibly disabled. | Yes - tasks can be added by anyone on the team that the project is assigned to | Yes | yes | Yes - a user can write in anything. | |
5 | Is there a way to filter and sort information? | Yes | Yes - you can sort assignments based on the course in the calendar view under the Agenda tab, but it could be more clear and organized. | Yes - in the "my tasks" view it shows only what you have to do | Yes - you can filter by due date, labels, and more | no | No | |
6 | Is there a way to prioritize tasks? | No, or not an obvious one | No | Yes - you can set due dates | Yes - you can set due dates | no | Yes - a user can circle or highlight items with a pen/highlighter. | |
7 | Ease of Use | |||||||
8 | What does the interface look like? | The calendar view shows the week divided by day and made into a grid so users can see the divisions of hour and half hour. Check boxes o the side make it so users can filter which events on the calendar are visible. | A user can view a list format of assignments due within each course page or they can view a similar list format in the calendar view under the Agenda tab. | Similar to Jira Work Management - don't know if I had it in dark mode, but the background was dark grey. Pops of color to alert people to things. Not too much clutter, but more settings visible than Jira | Similar to the others, but a bit more customizable. Can add custom backgrounds and images to aid with tasks as well as "liking" and "commenting" on tasks as well. A little more cluttered than the other ones, but not awful. | relatively simple | This varies and it depends on the type of planner purchased. Normally, a planer is in a daily calendar format with space to write in events and tasks. | |
9 | What does the organization look like for recording tasks, completing them, etc.? | This interface seems more suited to displaying events, not necessarily tasks, as there is not a clear feature where users can notate that tasks are done, besides them having taken place in the past. | When assignments are submitted, the assignment will reflect that with an annotation below the subject under the Assignments section within each course page. | Looks just like Jira Work Management - has the same four views (board, timeline, list, and calendar). Presents more of an individualistic account with a team project. Plenty of account settings and ways to edit *Calendar view is only for the upgrade | Can add multuple things under tasks - looks like each task holds more features (checklists, photos, comments, maps, and more). Has a team chat feature for teams as well which is nice. Lots of templates - more than the other apps, but the project management one looks most helpful. Map feature is there, and not on any of the rest. Dashboard view also aggregates data from lots of different places | all list views, each list is a separate tab at the top. Select the tab, click circular "plus" icon in the middle bottom of the screen, fill out info for new task. Option to add notes, and date/time | There are typically lines to write in events and tasks. Sometimes there are checkboxes next to those tasks, but other times, a user can manually cross them out. | |
10 | Important Features | |||||||
11 | List view | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | yes | Yes - manual | |
12 | Calendar view | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | no | Yes - manual | |
13 | Alarm/Reminder | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | i don't think so | No | |
14 | Integration with assignment platform | Yes, very clunky though, and omits events | N/A (it is an assignment platform) | Does not integrate with Canvas but does integrate with Google applications | Not that I have been able to see | integrates with google calendar, but not canvas | No | |
15 | Can check off tasks | No | No | Yes | Yes | yes | Yes - manual | |
16 | Can prioritize/label/group tasks | Not sure how | No | Yes | Yes | yes, can create separate lists and edit the labels, and re-organize the list items | Yes - manual | |
17 | Add due date | not a due date, but maybe a meeting task? | Yes - due date is already included under each assignment | Yes | Yes | yes- manual | Yes - manual | |
18 | Add subtasks | No | No | Yes | Yes - can also comment on tasks and like comments similarly to a social media platform | yes | Yes - manual | |
19 | Widely Known | |||||||
20 | Is this tool commonly used in the workplace? | Yes | Widely used in learning institutions | Over 3,000,000 individual users | More than 1,000,000 teams use it worldwide | not sure if it's used in the workplace, but yes very common | It's typically used on an individualized basis. | |
21 | Is there enough documentation for help if needed? | Yes | Canvas provides "Canvas Guides" on their website and a phone number for support. | Asana provides chat support as well as product support for their tool | Specific guide for their board, support, etc. No live support like Asana though | i don't see any documentation | N/A | |
22 | Will the tool be continuously updated in the future? What has the past looked like? | Google Calendar has frequent updates, Google leads UX practice | Canvas has frequent update releases. | Asana doesn't look like they're slowing down soon, and will be used | Trello is growing and has even been updated since I used it last, so it seems like it'll be around | yes, seems continually updated | N/A | |
23 | Cost | |||||||
24 | Cost per license? | N/A | N/A (Cost is covered by the learning institution) | $10.99 per user/guest per month (no limit) *can get expensive with many users | $10/month for premium (standard is 5 but not worth it in my opinion) | no cost | $0 | |
25 | Free software available? | Free | N/A (Cost is covered by the learning institution) | Yes (15 users) | Yes (unlimited users) | free app on phone, and free ability to use in google calendar | N/A | |
26 | Strengths | Integration with Gmail, docs, and strong mobile app/notifications features | Canvas provides an accurate way for students to view assignments due for each of their courses and their due dates. | Asana is a very sleek and professional platform. It is well built and allows users to add all sorts of tasks. It allows people to be specific about what the tasks mean, when they're due, and what projects the tasks are related to. It also helps that users can view things in multiple views | Trello is a solid platform that allows lots of views for tasks, with multiple ways to filter and organize what needs to get done. It also allows people to make notes and comments on the tasks that are already written. | simple, inuitive enough, integrates seamlessly with google calendar | A pen and paper planner is an easy to use management tool for people who prefer to not use software. A user is free to write in whatever they might need which makes it very customizable. | |
27 | Weaknesses | This does not seem like a platform suited to the prioritization on tasks due to the lack of checkboxes/prioritization, | Canvas lacks customizability and an interface that is easy to view in a calendar and list format for assignments across all courses. | This is mostly meant for teams and not individuals. It can be tailored for the individual, but it's not as useful. Also, there's no other way to prioritize rather than due date. Lastly, it does not integrate with Canvas at the moment | This is more meant for teams and collaboration. Also, there is no way to integrate Canvas or any other platform, so those would all have to be physically written in | can't see list of all to-do items in one place, can't really customize order of importance aside from specifying a date, the user needs to manually populate the list rather than having things pop up automatically from school assignments | A user needs to manually enter in items which takes more time and filtering and adding alarms/reminders is not possible. | |
28 | Overall Thoughts | Google Calendar is a good tool for the most basic of calendar functions, more nuanced planning like prioritization could be better on another platform though. The interface would be a good reference for user-centered/intuitive UI design though, and google's UI standards are public, so we may keep this in mind when developing our interface. | Canvas is an effective tool for professors to post assignments for students, but it is not an effective tool for students to manage their assignments and everyday tasks given the lack of customizability. | Asana looks very similar to Jira work management. There are some features blocked with the basic view, but I don't think they're necessary for small teams. You can also integrate outside apps with Asana which is nice as well. However, I don't think it would be the best choice for a singular person | A lot of features aren't available until you get to the premium upgrades. However, there are unlimited users on the free version, so depending on what you are willing to compromise, it might be worth your while | works really well, but doesn't quite have enough customization and doesn't predict or automate anything | A pen and paper planner can be an effective tool, but it is an old way of doing things, and software can make managing your schedule and tasks faster and provide greater options such as filtering and adding alarms/reminders. | |
29 | Citations | N/A | The Easiest Way to Manage Team Projects and Tasks. Asana. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://asana.com/product?&utm_campaign=Brand--NAMER--EN--Core--Desktop --Exact&utm_source=google&utm_medium=pd_cpc_br&gclid=Cj0KCQjw18WKBhCU ARIsAFiW7Jy4NR6GA09fv8NTabicyvmdsFYbB8xRZEFqt_tGAKnahesAOsV5IlMaAq AEEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds | Trello Helps Teams Move Forward. Trello. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://trello.com/home | N/A | |||
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