DukeDesk: An Office Hour Queueing System
Overview
James Madison University's College of Business offers a unique Capstone experience, partnering with the School of Media Arts & Design for collaborative projects. Twelve teams, totaling around 150 students, participated in creating responsive web applications.
Our team of eight back-end and two front-end developers created an Office Hours Management system that solves the inefficiencies and disorganization of queuing lines while providing analytics and tracking metrics. Guided by a KPMG mentor and faculty, our project ensures increased visibility of office hours, promoting efficiency for all stakeholders.
Role
UI Designer and Front-end Developer
User Interaction, Visual Design, Prototyping, Testing, HTML & CSS
February 2023 - May 2023
Awards
2023 ID/CIS Capstone Project Competition Top 2 Finalists
Problem Statement
Office hours can be disrupted when students interrupt ongoing discussions or crowd the hallways. It can become challenging for both faculty and students to have private conversations in such a setting. To address these concerns, a system that allows instructors and students to track the office hours queue, including wait times and availability, would enhance time management and structure the process. This solution aims to improve the overall experience, reduce hallway congestion, and foster more private conversations between faculty and students.
User Research
User Survey QuestionsWe began our user research by conducting individual interviews and a survey of 32 responses from James Madison University students of all grades. As a team, we also prioritized consistently meeting with our clients to better understand their needs, frustrations, and goals.
How often do you attend office hours?
How long is the wait to see your instructor?
How easily can you schedule office hours? (1 being easy and 5 being very difficult.)
Personas
Instructor
Student
User Stories
Instructor Persona
As an Instructor, I would like to be able to see how many students are waiting in the queue.
As an Instructor, I would like to be able to edit the order of the queue so that I can allow students with small reasons for office hour appointments to go before the ones that might take longer.
As an Instructor, I would like to be able to keep track of which students attend office hours, how frequently they attend, and whether I see it helping their performance in class.
Student Persona
As a student, I want an interface that will allow me to know how many students are in the queue during office hours.
As a student, I want an interface that will allow me to know the estimated wait time so that I can manage my schedule.
As a student, I want an interface that will allow me to leave the queue if there are too many students.
As a student, I want an interface that will notify me when it’s my turn while waiting.
System Wireframe
Mobile Prototypes
Style Guide
Final System Design
We decided to go for a minimalistic and sleek design to simplify the process of attending office hours in a time-efficient manner. We designed the page to select instructor or student mode so that users can sneak a peek at what DukeDesk is all about. It offers a short description of the system's goals and a preview of the system itself. While designing, we aimed to create an inclusive website that is easy to navigate for all, so we chose contrasting colors to accommodate colorblind people.
Homepage
Instructor viewStudent viewOur System Video Walk-through
Our final system was presented in front of a group of judges from KPMG, alumni, and faculty of James Madison University. The capstone project has taught me the importance of flexibility, client relationships, and learning as I persevered through the journey. I was able to improve my knowledge on prototyping, user research, and the design process in the lens of a UX/UI designer. Working together with CIS has been a blast and having our system make it to the finals in the competition made the process worth-while.
