CoLab
Designing a Better Way to Book Study Spaces
Help University of Toronto students to effectively and easily book campus study spaces.
Context
In collaboration with five UXD students from UofT's Master of Information program, we addressed a real challenge UofT students face: navigating the study room booking system and finding study spaces on campus.
My Role
I led the research plan, defined the problem space, refined high-fidelity wireframes, and spearheaded all three playback presentations.
Scope of Work
User Research
UX Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
Prototyping
Stakeholder presentation
Team and Timeline
6 Product Design students
3 Months
Vertical
Education Technology (EdTech)
UofT students at the St. George campus face constant challenges finding study spaces due to overcrowding and an ineffective booking system.
A streamlined way to find and book the perfect study room that meets all the needs.
Over three months, I worked alongside five design students using the Double Diamond framework. I played an active role throughout the process, with each phase starting with team alignment on key ideas, followed by individual exploration and collaborative refinement.
Phase 1: Discovery and Observations
Context
A common headache that many University of Toronto (UofT) students know very well is the lack of study spaces on campus. Despite UofT's numerous libraries and study areas, the St. George campus serves nearly 90,000 students. Popular libraries are often overcrowded, and booking study rooms is frustrating—rooms are either fully booked or unavailable at the times you need.
Evaluating the current solution
Currently, the only solution is the UofT Libraries booking system, where we have noticed several limitations that hinder UofT's students' ability to effectively find study spaces on campus.
Limited filtering options (for instance, you wouldn't be able to filter for a room with a whiteboard)
Each library has a separate booking system, making it difficult to see all the available options at once
The Robarts Library booking interface is confusing and intimidating to use.
User Research Process
To understand first-hand experience from UofT students, we recruited 12 participants through online UofT communities or in-person. Our screening focused on undergraduate and graduate students from the St. George campus, ensuring diverse perspectives on study spaces.
I conducted interviews with 2 participants to find answers to these two primary questions:
Main research insights
We combined and synthesized our individual research data, and as a team noted major themes or insights that emerged across the data.
Students are frustrated about how busy libraries are and how quickly study rooms get booked up
8/12 students expressed they get frustrated if they see a study environment is full or busy and would like to know prior to going.
“It’s often crowded, so most of the time when I go there, I usually can’t find a seat."
- Participant WCF
Booking system(s) are confusing to use
9/12 students expressed confusion about booking time limits, late or cancellation policies, as well as difficulty viewing all available options in the current decentralized booking system.
"They should have a centralized platform for all the rooms. Each building has different ways to book, different rooms, different libraries, and their own processes."
- Participant OHU
Students want details about the study space
6/12 students want to know the room details and amenities prior to booking. Tools like whiteboards are valuable in group work, so knowing that they will have access to certain tools help them make a more informed decision.
“I really like the whiteboard in the study room, because with friends we will just teach each other using the whiteboard. It’s a really effective way to memorize for our exams."
- Participant GEG
Phase 2: Defining the Problem Space
Following our discovery phase, we pivoted our focus from solo students to those seeking study rooms for group work, recognising a greater opportunity to address for this need.
Problem Statement
Help UofT students to easily find available and suitable study rooms for work whenever they need, to lessen their anxiety and help them be more productive.
Main Motivation and Goals
Reserve Study Rooms with the ideal amenities for Group Work
The ability to reserve study spots with full information about the environment and amenities, so that they can secure a private space to engage in group work or study effectively.
Find and book a private spot last minute
Locate and book available study spots quickly and easily last minute for needs like last minute meetings, interview, etc.
Phase 3: Develop and Test
With our problem space and statement defined, we started ideating for possible solutions.
Ideation
Prioritization
With so many excitng ideas generated, we had to find a way to prioritize features for our MVP (minimum viable product) that best aligned and address our problem space. We prioritized our ideations using an impact/feasibility matrix, followed by a dot-vote (where we voted on the features that we considered most important) to manage the scope for our first design.
User Flow
With our ideations prioritized, we separately took to work on the user flow after agreeing on the "happy path," which is the ideal path that the user will take to reach their ultimate goal.
This is my "happy path" user flow.
UI Sketches
For each key screen of my happy path, I sketched a few ideas for how it could look.
Consolidating and preparing for the first round of usability tests
After creating low-fidelity screens individually, we reconvened to consolidate a happy path and agree on how the key screens would look as a team to prepare for the first round of usability testing.
I took the lead in aligning the screens, ensuring consistent language and style, and presented our progress to the experts.
This is the low-fidelity story-board we presented to our peers and experts, focusing on the happy path of booking a room.
Usability Testing Summary
We tested our Figma prototype with four peers on both phones and laptops to simulate the booking experience and assess task clarity. Additionally, I presented the prototype to two experts during our playback session to gather their feedback.
👍 What Went Well:
The prototype and happy path user flow were easy to follow.
The design was clean, with UI elements and components functioning as expected.
Our presentation was clear, using great storytelling to contextualize the problem.
🎯 Areas for Iteration:
Some elements, like ‘Chips’, appear clickable but aren't, which is confusing.
The "Start Booking" prompt needs clarity; an empty state should be added to indicate no upcoming bookings.
Reconsider the date and time selection on the "Room Information" page; it is overwhelming.
Overall readability and consistency improvements can be made.
The feedback we received was generally positive, which is great as it allowed us to refine our design even more as we start iterating.
Phase 4: Design and Refine
With the feedback we received from the first round of usability testing, we began the final phase of our project with a strong base to iterate and improve upon our initial design.
The focus of this stage is to improve on our initial design based on the feedback, develop a creative strategy, and finalize our high-fidelity mock-ups.
Creative Strategy
Moodboard
Our vision, defined by the keywords accessible, collaborative, intuitive, reliable, and organized, shaped the creation of our mood board, which subsequently inspired our Style Tile.
Style Tile
Deviating slightly from our initial moodboard, we decided that a simpler color palette would be more effective. The blue is a nod to UofT's recognizable blue branding but we adapted it to introduce more freshness and vibrancy to the product.
From low-fidelity to high-fidelity
Using the style tile, we began creating high-fidelity mockups, incorporating feedback from the first round of testing.
Finally, we're proud and excited to introduce
Book easily, Collaborate together
So, how did we address the user pain points?
The key user pain points identified during the discovery phase were central to our design recommendations. We made sure to address these issues throughout the process to create a more effective solution.
Now that the project is complete, I’d like to reflect on key learnings and explore additional ideas for CoLab if we had more time to continue development.
Future plans for CoLab - One aspect that we didn't have time to address was how to design for the second motivation, which is for users to find a last-minute room for situations like meetings or interviews. Along with this goal, we also would have to solve the problem of no-shows or last-minute cancellations. These are exciting challenges I’m eager to tackle in the future.
Power of the MVP - As noted in the case study, we realized after the discovery phase that our initial problem space was too broad. We learned the importance of narrowing our focus to develop an effective solution. While it’s tempting to address multiple problems, we discovered the value of starting small and iterating consistently.
Collaboration - Our group had the unique situation of being merged from two groups to one after phase 1, which required us to combine research data, ideas, and adapt to work as a team of six. The merge proved valuable as it allowed us to work with more data and ideas.
Hold space for individual exploration - Our group had individuals from various backgrounds, which generated a wealth of ideas. It can be easy to be influenced by the team when brainstorming, so I learned the importance of allowing space for individual exploration before reconvening as a team.
