Overview
A streamlined mobile interface designed to help students quickly book appointments with professors. This case study covers the full UX process from research to high-fidelity design which mainly focused on creating a smooth, user-friendly scheduling experience.
Timeline
Nov 2021 - June 2022
Role
UX Designer
Tools
Figma
Responsibilities
My responsibilities as UX designer includes
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Conducted user interviews.
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Created wireframes on paper.
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Created low fidelity and high fidelity prototypes in Figma.
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Conducted usability testing.
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Iterated designs after each round of usability testing.
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Improved booking success rate by 35% and reduced double-booking issues.
Problem
In many academic institutions, students struggle to schedule appointments with professors due to the lack of a centralized, user-friendly system. Traditional methods such as emails, in-person requests, or disjointed platforms are inefficient and prone to miscommunication. Students often do not have clear visibility into a professor’s availability, leading to delays, missed opportunities for guidance, and in some cases, double bookings.
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On the other hand, professors face challenges in managing appointment requests manually, which interrupts their workflow and makes it difficult to track meetings. This lack of streamlined scheduling negatively affects both academic support and time management on both ends.
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There is a clear need for a digital solution that simplifies the appointment process, improves visibility and accessibility, and ensures seamless coordination between students and professors—ultimately enhancing communication and academic efficiency.
User Surveys & Interviews
To gather meaningful insights and ground the design in real user needs, I conducted user interviews using a combination of in-person discussions, online surveys, and contextual enquiry. Engaging with students from different backgrounds helped me understand their pain points, desires and behaviors around scheduling appointment with professor's. These conversations and surveys provided valuable qualitative data that shaped the overall direction of the Smart DB and ensured that the design was both relevant and user-centered.
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User Survey Takeaways
As we can observe in above user surveys we can say that most students find it difficult and time consuming to schedule appointments with their professors, and many students struggle to know when professors are available. A large majority expressed a strong interest in having a simple online system to make the scheduling process easier, and less frustrating. These insights tells us that there is a need for a more efficient and student friendly approach to booking appointments.
Affinity Mapping
Meet the Users
To design a solution that truly reflects student needs, I created detailed user personas based on insights gathered through interviews and surveys. By connecting with students from various academic backgrounds, I built genuine connections that helped uncover their daily routines, expectations and challenges around scheduling appointments. These conversations allowed me to step into their shoes and understand their goals, frustrations and motivations which forms the basic for realistic, relatable personas that guided every design decision.
Based on the insights I gathered I created two distinct user personas.
Sireesh - A tech-savvy student managing multiple academic and side projects.
Harshitha - A dedicated biomedical student needing regular academic input.
Exploration, Ideation & Wireframes
In ideation phase for Smart DB appointment system, I focused on solving the core challenges highlighted by our user personas such as difficulty finding professor availability, time consuming booking process and lack of clarity in scheduling.
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To ensure smooth and intuitive experience, I mapped out the complete journey of a student trying to book time with a professor, from search to confirmation. This helped me in identifying key opportunities to simplify the process. I explored features like professor search bar, real-time availability display, calendar-based slot selection and appointment confirmation with remainders.
I sketched four different versions of home screen, each exploring different layout and interaction approaches. After comparing and combining the strength of all four designs, I finalized a version that balanced usability with visual clarity. This final layout of home screen became the foundation for my wireframes and guided the flow of the overall experience.
Low fidelity prototypes
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Usability Testing
I developed an interactive prototype and conducted usability testing with a small group of students from various academic backgrounds. The sessions were designed to observe how easily users could navigate the app, book an appointment and understand key actions without prior guidance.
Scenario: The student wants to schedule a meeting with a professor to discuss a project and wants to find suitable available time without back-and-forth emails.
Task 1: Discover and Select Professor.
Task 2: Pick a date and View availability of selected professor.
Task 3: Choose a time and enter a topic.
The usability testing sessions provided actionable feedback that reinforced the strength's of the app design such as clarity, ease of use, and step by step flow. Participants found the interface intuitive and appreciated small details like professor suggestions and the side-by-side layout of time slots and topic input. This validation from real users gave me confidence in the overall experience and helped me fine-tune the interface to ensure it truly support students in booking appointments quickly and confidently.
Final Designs
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Smart DB taught me
Smart DB taught me the value of deeply understanding user needs before jumping into design. Through interviews, surveys, usability testing, I realized how even simple tasks such as booking a professor's appointment can involve hidden pain points. I also learned how important it is to iterate, test and refine designs based on real feedback rather than assumptions. Most importantly, it reinforced that good UX isn't just about clean visuals, but about creating experiences that reduce friction, build confidence, and genuinely solve problem for users.