Reserve a Space

After completing my Cornell Workplace Strategy Proposal, I felt motivated to independently design the space reservation app through an accelerated UX design process.

OBJECTIVE To facilitate efficient space reservation on Cornell’s campus to enable students and faculty to perform their best work.

DURATION 1 week sprint

TYPE Mobile UI/UX Design

Overview

The digital dimension for my previous project, Cornell Workplace Strategy Proposal, explored a space reservation concept that efficiently and effectively facilitated the booking of study spaces in college buildings. I decided to further refine this idea by designing the app through the UX design process.

Cornell’s current solution for space reservation is an app on Cornell Chatter (a Cornell community communication platform) called “Book a Study Space.” However, I had heard students complain about this app and have had difficulties using it myself.

The Problem

Users want to find and reserve a study space that’s best for them at a given time, but they have trouble doing this because the current reservation process is fragmented and doesn’t give the user control

To address this challenge for users, I aimed to design an app experience for students and members of the school community to reserve work desks/spaces in campus buildings.

Starting Out

To begin, I outlined a few questions relevant to my objective. I kept these questions in mind throughout my design process to ensure that I was effectively addressing the problem.

What problems are Cornell Chatter users currently facing? How can this experience be improved?

What do Cornell students value when they are looking for a study space?

What are user patterns when finding a study space?

My Approach

Since this was only a 1 week-long sprint, I condensed the UX design process into the following.

1. Research

I began exploring user needs and patterns by interviewing three members of the Cornell community who have used the school’s current solution: the “Book a Study Space” platform. I asked them about their experience specifically using the app as well as investigated their goals, motivations, and actions when choosing a study space.

Key Takeaways

Users want to find a study space that best suits their needs and wants at a given moment:

“I choose a study space depending on the work I need to get done.”

Users can’t quickly modify their search criteria for different results.

“It’s not until the third step that I can see the time slots, and usually they’re not the ones I want, so I have to go through the whole process again.”

Users don’t have enough information about the study spaces.

“When I click ‘Additional Room Information,’ it just says N/A.”
“I couldn’t even find my reserved room, so I left.”

Users want flexibility in reserving chunks of study time.

“I don’t like that I’m limited to 1 hour time slots.”

These were just some of the pain points users had with the current solution, which I intended to alleviate in my own design solution.

Competitive Analysis

I observed current reservation apps to inspire and inform my design process in terms of key elements and visual design.

Assumptions & Constraints

Based on user interviews and an analysis of the current space offerings on Cornell’s “Book a Space,” I decided to identify several assumptions for the physical spaces promoted on the app. I then used these space assumptions to better focus the app design.

2. Ideate & Design

Based on my findings in the Research phase, I began iterating on user flows and a refined visual design.

MVP Features

Informed by my user interviews and market research, I defined the following MVP features to help the user achieve their goal. I used these features as the basis for my design explorations moving forward.

Sketch Explorations

I first sketched low-fidelity wireframes to gain preliminary user feedback on the reservation flow.

I found that users preferred being able to set relevant reservation filters first and then seeing reservation slot options.

Wireframing & Design Decisions

I then designed medium fidelity wireframes in Figma to inform specific design decisions. I presented these wireframes to five participants to understand which they preferred.

Users felt that Option B gave the optimal amount of both visual and physical accessibility. To simplify information, I used icons to communicate the app’s pages (Reserve, Report Issue, My Reservations, and My Profile).

Users liked Option C because the spatial context would allow them to better assess study space options and help them navigate.

Users felt that Option B sped up the reservation experience because it made it easier to visually compare space availability options.

3. High Fidelity Prototype

The final flow considers both the physical and digital user experience by integrating way-finding elements, gives user flexibility in tailoring search results, and makes time slots visually accessible.

Making a Reservation - Entry & Filtering

User can customize search results to find the best study space for their study needs.

app Extras

When reporting an issue, quick select of past reservations eliminates tedious user inputs. “My Reservations” page allows users to reference previous reservations for quick re-booking and to stay on top of upcoming ones. User profile eliminates the tedious input of personal details for each reservation.

4. Test

I then conducted a cognitive walkthrough of my prototype and asked users for their feedback after completing the prompt. Overall, users had very positive feedback:

“It was really intuitive and easy to browse.”

“My current location and the library locations helped me decide what space to book since I usually look for the closest option.”

“I liked that I could adjust the filters while staying on the reservation availability screen.”

However, there were also some areas to improve:

“It could be useful to have pictures of the space under Space Details.”

“I would want a more immediate way to get a response for an issue because there’s an unknown wait time with the form.”

“I might want directions after I confirm a booking if the reservation is that day.”

Here is a demo of a user reserving a space through the app:

What I Learned

1. Prioritizing research and design initiatives. The time constraint required me to evaluate the most important steps in my design process and focus on these. For instance, given more time, I would have explored the “Define” phase of the design with personas and user scenarios, however, I decided to focus on the Research and the Design phase to ensure I had enough time to develop a strong enough high fidelity prototype for delivery.

2. Working within a tight deadline. Previously, all of my design projects or case studies were over the length of a semester. I was challenged to manage my time effectively in order to produce the necessary deliverables.

3. The importance of feedback. A design must be put into the hands of users at multiple stages of the design process to ensure the solution is meeting their needs.

4. Letting go of my favorite designs. With user feedback comes the conflict between what should be done for the user and what you want as a designer. Sometimes usability must be prioritized for the sake of a successful user experience.

Moving Forward

The biggest challenge of this project was the 1 week-long time constraint. Although I loved the challenge, I was not able to extensively explore other features and functionalities for the app that would further enhance the user’s experience. In a second round of design, I would not only gather more user feedback on my designs thus far, but I would also do more research on defining the user and understanding their motivations at a deeper level. This is something I believe is crucial for ensuring that a design is meeting a user’s needs.

In the future I would love to explore the following features:

1. Implementing user reviews

2. Bookmarking favorites

3. Verifying arrival to study space

In designing these features, I would conduct more usability testing to further refine and justify my design decisions.

Lastly, I would love to present this work to Cornell University and propose their support in funding the development of this app to better facilitate students’ experiences on campus.