Planning a Planner v2018, Part IV August 17, 2017 05:00 2 Comments

In the Planning a Planner v2018 series thusfar, we've filled you in on some of the smaller (but still important!) changes that we made to the 2018 UPstudio Planner, like the graph page updates, future planning improvements, and sturdier pockets with nicer finishing (I personally am so excited about the changes to the front pocket!)  Each week we get a little more in depth, and there are only 2 weeks to go of reveals.  Today, we are sharing a big deal change.. and we hope you love it.  

When we first created the 2016 UPstudio Planner, we knew that we wanted to include both week layouts and month layouts for use.  We also knew that having small month calendars as reference on the week layouts would be helpful - and those small month calendars ended up going everywhere.  We didn't think twice about including a traditional calendar initially, because that was what we were used to - and why change that?  When looking at the week layout however, it was clear that a Monday - Sunday layout was preferable in order to group the week in a more practical way, with weekend days lumped together.  Even before the launch of the 2016 Planner, we instilled the help of a focus group with a smaller test-planner in order to get opinions from different users.  All focus group users agreed that this was a good layout despite the unconventional Monday start.

The lack of consistency in the Sunday - Monday organization on the month layout vs the Monday - Sunday organization on the weekly layout started to really get to us with the 2017 Planner.  And, we weren't alone.  We've had multiple people with strong opinions request that the month layouts change to a Monday start.  You guys.  We debated this SO. MUCH.  But, we took some polls, did some research, asked some questions, and are officially taking the leap.  All calendars in the 2018 Planner will start on Monday!  Nice, fresh, 100% consistent calendars.  

I can almost hear some of the squeals of delight now, but also some groans of disappointment.  If you're in the latter half, hear us out on why we think this is the right decision, and a really good change.  First of all, we would never make a change that we think would not be welcome by users.  Remember that versatility is one of our top priorities with all products, and this is no exception.  We also listen to each and every comment and suggestion made by users.  The request for a Monday start was initiated by many planner purchasers.  When we asked for feedback about this, only a few weren't jumping for joy at the thought of the change, but most were still open to trying the revised layout.  

Additionally, consistency within the planner was important.  When going from the month view to the week view, the weeks would not line up, which could cause confusion.  We don't want confusion.  The counter-argument here is that most other calendars still start on Sunday.  This is true, and for printed calendars, it's something we cannot change.  But, we felt that the consistency within one product was more important than the consistency in what users might be referencing outside of the UPstudio Planner.  Here's some good news:  we researched, tested and confirmed that the most popular digital calendars can have settings adjusted to start on Monday (Google, iCalendar, Outlook). 

Finally, as we mentioned above, the weekly layout practically begged for a Monday start just due to the practicality of how most people think of their week - lumped together as a work / school week Monday - Friday, and the weekend Friday - Sunday.  It only makes sense to want to be able to look at the month in the same way, with weekends together.

We've said it before (in this post even!) and we'll say it again now: we welcome your feedback.  So tell us what you think!  Do you love a Monday start for both weeks and months?  Hate it?  Excited to try it?  Won't ever buy a planner that starts on Monday for the months?  We want to hear it!