General Task
Calendar
ROLE
Product Designer
TOOLS
Figma, Linear, Notion
TIMELINE
2022-2023
Context
General Task is a task management software that caters to knowledge workers, aiding them in optimizing the organization of their daily workflow.
I designed the calendar feature, one of the core elements within the consumer segment of our product. The calendar proved to be highly interactive and widely utilized by our user base.
Challenge
Software engineers face a unique set of challenges when it comes to task and time management as they are often juggling multiple tasks and projects at a time.
💭
How might we facilitate the process of allocating time for tasks?
Research
As I set out to improve the calendar experience for software engineers, I conducted a series of interviews, surveys, and close observations to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges they face in managing tasks and time.
"I often spend extra time manually adding tasks to my calendar"
"Coordinating my schedule is tough, with tasks scattered across different tools"
"Not having a central calendar makes it hard to see all my commitments in one place"
"I wish there was one simple way to connect and organize everything in my life and work"
Key findings
🧩
Lack of integration
Engineers expressed frustration with the lack of integration between task management tools and their calendars.
🐌
Productivity concerns
Engineers highlighted the importance of improving productivity by efficiently allocating time for coding, meetings, and other critical tasks.
📅
Need for multiple calendars
Many software engineers use multiple calendars (ex. work, personal, project-specific) and need a way to visualize them side-by-side.
Proposed solutions
👉
Drag tasks onto calendar
Allow tasks to be easily dragged onto the calendar from the task list.
👉
Support multiple calendars
Add support for multiple calendars to ensure complete visibility of all events.
Design explorations
Task to calendar
Initial user feedback highlighted confusion around the drag-and-drop functionality of tasks. Users noted that it was unclear that tasks could be easily moved to the calendar, and some were unable to discover this feature until it was explicitly pointed out to them. This prompted me to explore ways to enhance user education about this feature as well as consider improvements such as expanding the grabbing area and enhancing the visibility of the selected time slot on the calendar interface.
User feedback on V0
Considerations for V1
⚠️
Confusion around the drag-and-drop functionality of tasks
💡
Improve user education
⚠️
Unclear that tasks could be easily moved to the calendar
💡
Expand grabbing area
⚠️
Some were unable to discover this feature until it was explicitly pointed out to them
💡
Enhance visibility of the selected time slot
Multiple calendars
During the research phase, interviews revealed that software engineers often utilize multiple calendars throughout their workday and seek a centralized space to access a comprehensive list of all their events.
I added this functionality by introducing dropdown menus at the bottom of the calendar interface. Users can now easily show or hide calendars they wish to view and select a default calendar for event creation. This improvement aims to eliminate the need to switch between various calendars or accounts, so users can manage everything on a single interface.
Final design
Many rounds of iterations later, we rolled out the calendar to our users with the following features:
Menu and card components:
Takeaways
Embracing iterative processes
Throughout the design process, I received a lot of valuable feedback from both users and team members. While I would have liked the feedback loop to be tighter at times to expedite the process, it led me to recognize the significance of iterative refinement in achieving user-centric solutions.
Clear communication
Given the extensive scope of this project, maintaining clear communication with engineers at each stage was important to ensure smooth implementation. Beyond creating design mocks, a significant portion of my efforts was dedicated to documenting my work. This included taking the time to explain my design decisions thoroughly and address any questions from the engineering team.
© 2026 Ji Yoon Ahn