Building an all-in-one productivity tool from scratch

Inko Cat planner page displaying a cat image, calendar, and three lists

Inko Cat is a productivity tool that provides you the building blocks to create your own spaces. As the founding designer, I owned all the visuals and product. It’s one of the coolest feelings to use something you designed every day.

  • Role

    Product Designer

  • Team

    Ian Huang (Engineer)

  • Duration

    2023 - Present

  • Link
    inko.cat
Why this project?

None of the current tools help us manage tasks well and actually get stuff done

Gallery of different productivity tools and a message in the middle saying so many tools, but not one that really works for us
What is Inko Cat?

So, we built Inko Cat, a tool that gives you the building blocks to create your own productivity spaces

At its core, Inko Cat is flexible and interconnected.

  • Flexible - You can add in different blocks (calendar, list, timer, etc) and customize them to your needs.

  • Interconnected - Tasks are all synced. And you can drag them across different types of blocks.

Architecture

In Inko Cat, there are blocks and spaces.

Blocks

On the base level, Inko Cat is composed of blocks. Some blocks examples are calendar, kanban board, image, and timer.

Gallery of different blocks in Inko Cat: Calendar, list, board, note, journal, timer, and image

Spaces

But, where do you place these blocks? Answer: A space. Think of space as a page or a canvas. You can add as many blocks in a space to fit your needs.

Seven blocks inside a space
Key concept / Block
Gallery of different blocks which includes list, calendar, timer, journal, image, board, and calendar
Block 1

Calendar

View your tasks and events on the calendar.

Calendar block
Gallery of the different colors designed for the calendar block
Selected state of a calendar task that displays a popup
Calendar task popup
Setting priority in a calendar task popup
Set priority
Choosing a focus in a calendar task popup
Set focus/tag
Setting a date and time of a task
Set date & time
Block 2

List

A list view of your tasks.

List block
Drag task in an un-sorted list
Dragging task in a un-sorted list
Hover over a task to view delete icon button
Hover to delete
Block 3

Board

Great for tracking projects.

Board block displaying three status columns with tasks in each: to do, in progress, and completed
Block 4

Note

Go-to place for brain dump and quick ideas.

Notes block
Tooltip labeled 'View all notes' when user hovers over the icon
View all notes tooltip
List of all the notes
List of all notes
Selected of a more button that displays a button labeled 'Delete Note'
Delete a note
Hover over a text to see the drag icon
Drag a line of text
Block 5

Journal

Safe space to record your day and thoughts.

Journal of September 1, 2023
Popup to navigate different journal dates before today
Choose date entry
Tooltip labeled 'Go back to today' when user hovers over the icon
Go back to today
Block 6

Timer

A nod to the famous pomodoro technique.

Gallery of timer blocks
Hover state of the task checkbox on a timer block
Complete a task
Edge case of a long task title in a timer block
Edge case: Long title
Block 7

Image

Add in GIFs / images to decorate your spaces.

Image block
Key concept / Space
Space

Create a new space

Space

Edit space icon

Space

Add block to a space

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Branding/Marketing
Inko Cat landing page
Feature cards on Inko Cat landing page that shows drag block to calendar, multi-select, and more
Learnings

One of the most satisfying moments so far and a perfect project for me to hone my skills

What's Next

We're still figuring it out

Right now, Ian is working at Cursor, and I’m wrapping up my final semester at Tufts. So, though we don’t have a lot of time & big goals, we do intend to work on Inko Cat during nights & weekends. We also plan to apply for buildspace season 5.