Automating Everyday Tasks with iOS Shortcuts - A User-Centered Approach to Enhance Efficiency
A personal post about using automation to reduce duplication of effort.
As a UCD practitioner and same applies for pretty much anyone with experience of working on complex services and systems, that are used on a daily basis, reducing duplication of effort and the rekeying of information is a well documented goal. It leads to more accurate data, time saved doing mundane tasks, and working towards giving users of those services more time doing more meaningful work.
I've always been fan of automating mundane tasks, and letting humans do what we do best. Make connections, build relationships use creativity to solve problems, and collaborate to work towards visions and real transformation, when those opportunities arise.
This post documents me using IOS Shortcuts to automate some repetitive tasks, but lets start with the problem.
What's the problem I'm trying to solve? #
As always, its best to start with the problem not the solution. I'm quite aware of this, and as a User Centered Designer, I do have a slight bias towards technology, and I could quite easily fall into the trap of saying, this tech is cool, what problems can I fix with this... This would lead to me over exaggerating the problem so it would warrant the effort and fit to the technical solution.
In this instance, the problem was real... although more of an inconvenience, but I do think if we can remove lots of small niggles it can have a significant impact on user experience and life in general.
Pain points #
So last year I took out a lease on an EV. I've never owned a new car, or even driven one, so had a few concerns, these included:
- Will I need to charge the car on longer journeys - to my parents up north!
- Will it cost me a lot if I go over the contracted milage allowance?
As I started using my phone less, using it for mundane tasks made me we more conscious about using the device. This got me thinking:
- I don't want to use my phone to capture ideas.
- I don't want to use my phone to make weeknotes.
Job story #
Let rephrase these as user or job stories.
- When making journeys, I need to feel confident in the remaining range, so that I can get home comfortably.
- When making longer journeys, I need to feel confident, when to charge and how long to charge for, so that I can get home comfortably.
- During the contract period, I would like to understand the current excess milage cost, so that there's no surprises at the end of the contract.
- When I have an idea, I want to capture the note with minimal distractions, so that the idea is captured accurately.
- When capturing weeknotes, I want to make the process as painless as possible, so that I'm more likely to maintain the practice.
How might we resolve them #
Well, in work I would explore a few options, landscape different approaches that are used in private and public sector. But to be honest, I had access to IOS Shortcuts, and chatgpt, so seemed the best solution. Also I knew it would be very minimal effort to automate some of these, so could alway try a different approach in the future.
IOS Shortcuts IOS Shortcuts, is an APP inbuilt on IOS and Mac OS. Much like tasker on Android. It allows you to create shortcuts of tasks and then automate them. All these shortcut can be triggered by siri.
Calculate range to destination #
So this first pain point I want to address was range anxiety. There are apps for this, A Better Route Planner (ABRP), however it was a little overkill for what I needed.
This shortcut does the following:
- Ask me to for the remaining battery %
- Works out the number of miles from the current location to my home location
- Calculates the average kwh I should maintain in order to allow me to get home with 20 miles remaining
- If the recommended kwh was unrealistic for the car to achieve, it would suggest stopping for charge, and work out how much charge would be needed.
This proved very useful, however I felt that I would like to have the insight before getting to the destination.
Iteration The iteration on this, is that it asks me for the destination, then the remaining battery %. The shortcut then works out the total miles needed to get to the destination and back home, and as above recommends a kwh to maintain or to stop for a charge.
Calculate milage costs #
So this was a small niggle and a very easy one to solve.
This one came about, as I often asked siri to do a number of calculations, and soon became cumbersome.
This shortcut does the following:
- Takes the annual milage allowance and then divides it by 365
- Asks for input around the current mileage
- Works out how many days have passed since the contract started
- Takes the number of days and multiplies it by the daily allowance
- Takes the above allowance and subtracts the current mileage
- Multiplies the difference by the excess mileage cost per mile
- Then get siri to say "You currently owe x"
Iteration To build on this, I automated this to run once a week, once my phone was connected to the car by car play. This allowed me to get the right information, at the right time and in the right place!
Capture idea #
This shortcut allows me to capture an idea without having to look at my phone. It does this by doing the following:
- Siri asks "Whats your idea?"
- Takes that audio input and adds it as text to a specific Note
- Provides feedback, "Idea captured"
Iteration As I started using notebooks more, and prefer the friction and consideration that comes with writing ideas down, I created a new version that did the following:
- Opens camera and takes a photo of hand written notes
- Extracts the words from the image
- Adds it as text to a specific Note
- Provides feedback, "Idea captured"
I then went a bit too far with it and got Chat GPT to expand on these ideas, and created an shortcut that does the following:
- Captures the idea as above
- Takes that input and asks Chat GPT to provide a detailed analysis of that idea, with pros, cons and first steps.
- Provides feedback, "Idea explored"
Record weeknote #
I used a similar approach as above to capture and record weeknotes.
Summary #
I hope you enjoyed some of these shortcut ideas. I will add a link to them all, once I work out how to remove any personal details.
Some others I've found online and used, include prompting me if I'm near a supermarket and have items in my shopping list.
A bit about me: I'm a UCD specialist focused on Service and Interaction Design, with a passion for accessibility and creating services for all. I navigate the world with a dry sense of humor, finding the funny side in the most mundane tasks.