Interação Humano-Computador em Sistemas de Reserva de Salas de Estudo

HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION IN STUDY ROOM RESERVATION SYSTEMS
An Undergraduate Research Scholars Thesis

by
CLARA STADLER
Submitted to the LAUNCH: Undergraduate Research office at

Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation as an
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLAR
Approved by
Faculty Research Advisors: Tracy Hammond
Paul Taele
May 2021
Major: Computer Science Engineering
Copyright © 2021. Clara Stadler

RESEARCH COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATION
Research activities involving the use of human subjects, vertebrate animals, and/or biohaz-
ards must be reviewed and approved by the appropriate Texas A&M University regulatory research
committee (i.e., IRB, IACUC, IBC) before the activity can commence. This requirement applies
to activities conducted at Texas A&M and to activities conducted at non-Texas A&M facilities
or institutions. In both cases, students are responsible for working with the relevant Texas A&M
research compliance program to ensure and document that all Texas A&M compliance obligations
are met before the study begins.
I, Clara Stadler, certify that all research compliance requirements related to this Undergrad-
uate Research Scholars thesis have been addressed with my Research Faculty Advisors prior to the
collection of any data used in this final thesis submission.
This project required approval from the Texas A&M University Research Compliance &
Biosafety office.
TAMU IRB #: 2018-0039D Approval Date: 03/07/2018 Expiration Date: 3/21/2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
NOMENCLATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Research Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Case Scenarios: Current Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.1 Case Scenario 1: Soonest Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.2 Case Scenario 2: Specific Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3.3 Case Scenario 3: Few Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 Case Scenarios: Proposed Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4.1 Case Scenario 1: Soonest Available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4.2 Case Scenario 2: Specific Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.3 Case Scenario 3: Few Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5.1 Study Rooms and Current Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5.2 Online Reservation Systems: The H Sovereign Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5.3 Human-Computer Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5.4 The Personal Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2. Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1 Prototype Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.1.1 Interface Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.2 Interface Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3. RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1 User Study Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.1.1 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1.2 Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.1.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4. DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1 Results Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4.2 Methods Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.3 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5. CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
APPENDIX A: USER STUDY QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
APPENDIX B: USER STUDY INSTRUCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
APPENDIX C: USER STUDY RESULTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

ABSTRACT
Intelligent Room Reservation Systems
Clara Stadler
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Research Faculty Advisor: Tracy Hammond

Research Faculty Advisor: Paul Taele

Study rooms provide a key resource for college students. However, many study spaces re-
quire reservations ahead of time to manage high demand. A reservation system serves to control
the flow and population of a building to limit interaction during a global pandemic. Existing solu-
tions display a lack of user-friendliness that inhibits students’ ability to schedule time in a room,
effectively restricting them from this resource. This either occurs as a result of using cost-effective
but inefficient tools, or as a result of poor design in a proprietary tool.
To address these problems, a prototype of a new interface was developed to bring the idea
of the personal scheduling assistant to study room reservation. Historical reservation data from
the Zachry Event Management System was gathered to analyze trends, and conducted surveys to
identify the most important factors in scheduling for a student user. After developing the applica-
tion and prototypes of existing solutions, a user story was conducted to evaluate and compare this
prototype solution to existing solutions.
The proposed solution succeeded at its goal: to be a better browsing solution than current
1
systems. While it was not the favorite in all cases, participants found the gradient availability easy
to interpret and its weekly view useful for scheduling. The existing solution that showed avail-
ability by room and time was simulated in this user study and held strong favor with participants
due to clarity and familiarity. This study shows that there is definite potential in integrating more
browsing features to scheduling systems. Combined with the accepted, detailed implementation,
the proposed and tested solution improves the reservation experience.
2
DEDICATION
To my family, instructors, and peers who supported me throughout the research process.
3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Contributors
I would like to thank my faculty advisors, Dr. Tracy Hammond and Dr. Paul Taele, for their
guidance and support throughout the course of this research.
Thanks also go to my friends and colleagues and the Computer Science & Engineering
department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University a great experience.
Special thanks to my peers who participated in this research.
Finally, thanks to my parents for their encouragement and support throughout my time at
Texas A&M.
The historical data analyzed for “Human-Computer Interaction in Study Room Reservation
Systems” was provided by Zachry IT.
All other work conducted for the thesis was completed by the student independently.
Funding Sources
This work received no funding.
4
NOMENCLATURE
Zachry Event Management System The proprietary web application that the Texas
A&M University College of Engineering uses to
manage room reservation in the Zachry building
Human-Computer Interaction The study of computer interface design and use,

focusing on how human users interact with the
technology
Personal Digital Assistant(PDA) A handheld computer with access to Internet and

Bluetooth, providing portable access to calen-
dars, databases, and other utilities
5
1. Introduction
1.1 Motivation
Students are not making the most of their opportunities to take advantage of study rooms as
learning resources because the current scheduling platform obstructs their ability to easily reserve
them. The specific problem that I want to solve with my research and prototype is that current
solutions consider the system from the system’s perspective instead of from the user’s perspective.
This is evident in the way that their data is presented to the user. By taking a personal approach to
designing my application, I aim to make reserving rooms more effective for students.
There is a wide range of existing reservation systems, from simply talking to a receptionist
to more advanced digital solutions. Proprietary digital systems like the Zachry Event Management
System have the potential to be more effective and tailored to the building they serve. But these
solutions are costly to implement and update. Therefore, developers must be careful in design-
ing these with the correct parameters in mind. Budget-friendlier solutions such as utilizing digital
surveys and calendars, on the other hand, may require a lot of hands-on management to function
properly. An ideal solution to this problem is both efficient and cheap, and puts the user experi-
ence above all else. Spending money on a proprietary system is justified if it fulfills its purpose.
Through preliminary surveys, I have found that many users are dissatisfied with the Zachry Event
Management System for reasons that are avoidable with a new design.
The visual representation of availability data is the main issue with current systems. The
data should be presented in a way that clearly shows the user where possible reservations will fit
in their weekly schedule, as opposed to a system that shows the availability by rooms over a span
of one day.
1.2 Research Proposal
In the current global climate, it is important to have accessible, digital ways to accomplish
scheduling tasks efficiently. In a preliminary survey, I found that student users disfavor aspects of
6
even the high-tech solutions, including the need to enter lots of specific data. My objective is to
develop a prototype application that improves upon the user interaction with existing study room
reservation systems by providing suggestions based on limited input.
When designing my algorithm, I analyzed trends in the Zachry Event Management System
data I collected and parsed last semester using Python and XML to determine the most important
factors for reservation. I designed and implemented my prototype using the waterfall method of
development, with design, implementation, and testing stages. I used Figma to create my design
sketches. I used Postgresql for the backend application and Ruby on Rails for the Graphical User
Interface portion. I utilized resources as recommended by my research advisors for learning about
Machine Learning implementations. I was able to complete this project using my personal device
and online resources.
1.3 Case Scenarios: Current Solutions
1.3.1 Case Scenario 1: Soonest Available
The user has multiple classes in Zachry on the same day and would like to schedule time in
between those classes to work on homework. They just had this idea while leaving the first class.
They navigate to the Zachry Event Management System, log in with their university credentials,
and are greeted with the default dashboard. They see the “Home” screen, which displays instruc-
tions and information. They click “Create a Reservation” and see three template options, as in
Figure 1.1 below.
Figure 1.1: Zachry Event Management System
7
The user is an individual and does not need a large event space, so they select “book now”
next to “Reserve a single occupant room in ZACH”. They see a blank results panel and a panel
on the left to submit a date and start and end times. There are also options to specify capacity
and a room number. The user notices that the current date and a start time close to the current
time is already selected, so they press “Submit”. As shown in Figure 1.2 below, the results panel
now shows a table, with rows representing rooms and columns representing time. There are grey
blocks that show where rooms are currently reserved; these blocks vary in duration and do not all
match up neatly with hour or half hour marks. There are also two vertical lines indicating the start
and end times. The user scans down this column. The majority of the rooms are at least partially
occupied during the selected time slot, but luckily the user spots an open room and clicks the green
+ button next to the room number.
Figure 1.2: Zachry Event Management System
The room is added to Selected rooms and a “Next Step” button appears. The user enters
a title for the session, contact information, and a social distancing acknowledgement. The user
selects “Create Reservation” and is greeted by a confirmation popup and screen. The user receives
a confirmation email and sees options to add the session to their calendar.
8
1.3.2 Case Scenario 2: Specific Parameters
The user wants to schedule time next week to work on homework. They have a class
schedule in graphical, weekly format. They navigate to the Zachry Event Management System,
log in with their university credentials, and are greeted with the default dashboard. They navigate
to the same template as in the last case scenario. They pick a time on their schedule and enter
that time and date into the panel and clicks “Submit”. Unfortunately, they find that no rooms are
available for that specific window of time. They locate another time that might work for them
on their schedule and enter that time and date, and repeat the process until they discover a room
available during a time window that also works for their schedule. They complete the reservation
process and receive a confirmation email.
1.3.3 Case Scenario 3: Few Parameters
The user has an exam coming up and wants to schedule a study room over the weekend.
Today is Thursday. They do not have any plans around which to schedule their study sessions.
They navigate to the Zachry Event Management System, log in with their university credentials,
and are greeted with the default dashboard. They select the same template as in the last case
scenario. They enter a random time on Friday and click “Submit”. They see the chart of reserved
rooms and look for black spaces, ignoring the vertical lines since the user just wants to browse.
The user notices a few times that might work but wants to explore all their options. They enter
the date for Saturday, click Submit, and browse again. They repeat this process for Sunday. After
struggling to weigh their options, the user decides to pick an afternoon time on Saturday. They
enter the time and date, click Submit once again, and complete the reservation process with an
available room.
1.4 Case Scenarios: Proposed Solution
1.4.1 Case Scenario 1: Soonest Available
The user has multiple classes in Zachry on the same day and would like to schedule time
in between those classes to work on homework. They just had this idea leaving the first class.
9
They enter the application, log in with their university credentials, and are greeted with the default
dashboard. Figure 2.1 below shows what this dashboard should look like.
Figure 1.3: Proposed Solution
The user sees today and the next four days represented in weekly calendar format; gradient
colors show availability for times, darkest being least available. On the suggestions panel, they
see suggested reservation rooms and times; the first suggestion will be an ASAP suggestion; the
closest reservation available by time. They click the suggestion card to create the reservation, edit
settings such as duration.
1.4.2 Case Scenario 2: Specific Parameters
The user wants to schedule time next week to work on homework. They have a class
schedule in graphical, weekly format to reserve around. They enter the application, log in with
their university credentials, and are greeted with the default dashboard. They see today and the
next three days represented in weekly calendar format; gradient colors show availability for times,
10
darkest being most available. They press the right-facing arrow in the calendar panel until appro-
priate dates for next week are shown. The suggestion panel now shows suggestions for next week.
They compare their class schedule first to the suggestions, and then to the availability shown in the
calendar. Then, they create a reservation by clicking a suggestion or a point on the calendar.
1.4.3 Case Scenario 3: Few Parameters
The user has an exam coming up and wants to schedule a study room over the weekend.
Today is Thursday. They do not have any plans around which to schedule their study sessions.
They enter the application, log in with their university credentials, and are greeted with the default
dashboard. They see today and the next three days represented in weekly calendar format; gradient
colors show availability for times, darkest being most available. On the suggestions panel, they see
suggestions which may or may not be appropriate for their situation. If a suggestion appears over
the weekend for a time that the user likes, they will click that selection, opt to edit settings like
duration, and create the reservation. If a suggestion does not appear, they look at the calendar view;
since today is Thursday, they will see Saturday and Sunday’s availability. Using the information
presented to them, they will click on a time to create a reservation, edit settings, and reserve the
room. An email confirmation will be sent at the time of scheduling, and a reminder will be sent a
day prior to the reservation.
11
1.5 Related Work
1.5.1 Study Rooms and Current Solutions
Study rooms on campus serve as a crucial resource for students’ academic success [1, 2,
3]. A 2015 study showed that utilization of library resources has a significant positive impact
on a student’s GPA [1]. Additional research has shown that student retention and utilization of
library resources were also positively correlated [2]. These studies support the benefits of study
rooms to students, such as providing a place to escape distractions of other students, rehearsing
presentations, hosting team meetings for group projects, and so on. Furthermore, such rooms
provide equitable resources for those who may not have an effective study space in their home
or who struggle to focus when working in a public space. For many, success in higher education
would be impossible without access to study rooms on campus.
Despite their importance, without an effective way to schedule these spaces, especially at
large universities, they become useless to those students. For example, at Fordham University,
researchers observed that without a scheduling management system, students would take over
rooms for long periods of time that prevented other students from using them [4]. At Fordham
University’s library, the researchers conducted a study implementing a reservation system using
Google Calendars and discovered that although the application was free and easy to set up, it
required a lot of hands-on upkeep that may make it impractical for an institution with a small staff
or large student population [4].
Meanwhile, the Zachry Engineering Education Complex at Texas A&M University [5] has
its own reservation module, the Zachry Event Management System, which allows students to view
available times and schedule automatically [6]. With over 20,000 engineering students enrolled in
the University’s College of Engineering as of the University’s 2021–2022 academic year [7], the
number of study room spaces in the College’s flagship building may not always be enough given
the large engineering student body. Despite its many features, users still complained about the
usability of this feature. The question of how to design an effective, proprietary solution has been
12
addressed in numerous studies, especially with regard to how the user experiences the solution [8],
[9], [10], [11]. There are clearly many ways to implement a reservation system, and factors like
cost, upkeep, and user experience all matter. To make an effective system, the user’s needs must
be considered above all else [12].
1.5.2 Online Reservation Systems: The H Sovereign Analysis
Nearly every business these days has an online presence. The Internet allows businesses to
advertise and interact with a global customer base. This expansion in scope translates to greater
profits for businesses and greater convenience for customers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an
online system for transactions has proved essential for businesses to stay afloat [13]. Some busi-
nesses simply post information on their websites, such as contact information, menus, or product
descriptions. Others offer the ability to purchase products and schedule services. A hotel is a great
example of a business that relies on reserving space, similar to how we reserve study rooms at a
library.
While an online reservation system for a hotel has become a prerequisite at this point,
businesses still must consider the benefits and drawbacks of implementing an online reservation
system. The H Sovereign Hotel in Bali conducted a SWOT analysis of its online reservation system
to discover how its business was impacted by the online tool [14]. SWOT analysis is a common
business tactic wherein you analyze your business to determine its strengths, weaknesses, oppor-
tunities, and threats [15], [16]. SWOT analysis is also used in software development, which made
it especially applicable to this scenario [17], [18]. Strengths and weaknesses result from internal
factors, such as the management personnel and strategies employed at the organization. Opportu-
nities and threats come from external factors, such as the market and competitors in your industry.
By defining them, you discover how best to exploit the strengths, improve the weaknesses, capi-
talize on the opportunities, and react to the threats of your organization [19]. Consistent analysis
can help identify failures early so that strategies can be adjusted [20]. The SWOT analysis helped
H Sovereign learn important details about the effectiveness of their own operation.
Like most businesses, they observed that the customers found the method convenient and
13
quick, and overall the method was more effective to the business. They also reaped the benefits
of widespread advertisement and profits from last minute reservations [14] They noticed that last-
minute cancellations posed a threat to their business, as not only would they lose profits but they
may lose their hotel rating due to lack of retention [14]. Lastly, managers noticed that a disadvan-
tage for their employees was that the system’s complexity proved more difficult to learn quickly
and they perceived less flexibility than before [14]. This raises an important note, that the man-
agers of the website also serve as end users, so developers should consider their interaction when
designing the interfaces as well as the customer interactions. Obviously it may not seem like a
positive to discover major flaws in a business strategy. However, knowing the problem is the first
step to solving it, this analysis effectively points out specific ways that the business will address in
the future.
1.5.3 Human-Computer Interaction
Human-computer interaction is an important aspect in the design of computing applica-

tions [21], [22]. That is, code for the application may be flawless and the functionality may be
efficient, but if the user finds it difficult to use then the project will never live up to its poten-
tial [23]. Users today have very little patience when it comes to using websites to shop or look for
information. If we cannot find something immediately or struggle with the process, we know there
are countless alternatives at the click of a mouse. To hold the user’s attention, an application must
be intuitive, meaning the user can tell almost instantly how to navigate and use the application
without a lot of documentation [24]. This can be accomplished by following standard formats of
applications users are familiar with already [25]. For instance, websites typically have their menus
across the top or left-hand side of the screen, because that is the direction we typically start with
when reading in Western culture. If you placed your menu on the bottom, it may cause unnecessary
barriers to the usability of your site. Luckily, barriers like these can be easily discovered through
user studies, where participants are interviewed while using an application for the first time. User
studies are traditionally used to evaluate software interfaces and are crucial to the development of
usable applications [26], [27].
14
Clear representation of data is critical to an effective user interface. This is especially im-
portant to scheduling applications, since we typically use visual aids to help us organize time [28].
A helpful graphical user interface could inform the user of availability trends using ”availability
bars.” While useful for scheduling meetings that work for many different people, these gradient
visualizations could show the best times to reserve a certain room based on past data [29]. Other
representations include grids or continuous streams of time; developers have gotten creative in
an effort to implement the most intuitive design possible [30], [31]. While systems like Google
Forms [32] or the Zachry Event Management system rely on specific queries, a graphical feature
like availability bars would allow for a more browsing experience that may be more appropriate
for how some students use a study room. An application that provides for both browsing and spe-
cific queries provides accessibility to a larger group of users. This will result in more reservations
occurring through the application.
1.5.4 The Personal Assistant
The idea of the personal assistant has become pervasive in our household devices, from
Amazon Alexa [33] transcribing your grocery list to Siri [34] suggesting that you check the
Youtube app [35] at a certain time of day. These technologies are created to make users’ lives
easier by eliminating the busywork that comes with routine action. Many of these technologies
rely on scheduled routines that you set for them. For example, you can create a list of actions for a
Google Home to execute when you say “Good Morning.” You can also adjust a setting on Google
Calendar [36] to have it notify you thirty minutes before an event. Intelligent calendar applications
have increased in popularity, as they add a personal assistant touch to a necessary service [37],
[38], [39], [40].
These features allow you to customize your experience and minimize the effort you have to
exert. This type of personal assistant technology is simple to implement, and has been around for
years.
Today, if you heard the term “personal digital assistant,” you might think first of Siri or
Cortana [41]. However, before these invisible voices, the personal digital assistant was actually
15
a handheld computer created to put utilities such as calendars, notes, calculators, and more in a
portable form for busy workers [42]. PDAs could connect to the Internet and to local databases
through Bluetooth; they were especially helpful in data-heavy positions such as nursing in hospi-
tals [42]. These devices predated smartphones with their digital display in handheld form, though
they were not used as phones; they were created in the 1980s and popularized in the two decades
following [43]. Since their inception, developers have sought to improve the usability of the appli-
cations they provided, informing modern handheld software [44]. With these devices available to
the public, everyday workers could see how having a custom technology managing their schedule
and information could make a great impact on productivity.
Today, personal assistant technologies are expanding to include machine learning Machine
learning algorithms analyze historical data, map trends, and make predictions based on those
trends. These algorithms become better and better at making their predictions as they receive
feedback and more data from the user. Machine learning allows applications to provide insightful
suggestions. For example, Gmail uses machine learning to provide auto-fill suggestions as you
draft your emails [45]. Furthermore, the iPhone can learn from your activity history to adjust your
charging pattern to optimize battery health while you sleep [46]. Just as a good secretary might
ask you a question in anticipation of your request, these applications are attempting to automate
your tasks. The personal assistant in these technologies is not meant to make decisions for you,
but rather to give you the information you need to make complex decisions. As scheduling is one
of those complex decisions, a room reservation system can improve user experience by offering
suggestions or showing future availability trends.
16
2. Methods
2.1 Prototype Development
2.1.1 Interface Design
The first step in implementing my proposed solution was to establish a list of features and
create a user interface sketch using Figma, a free web-based prototyping tool. In my solution, I
wanted to highlight the ability to browse and make the scheduling more intuitive. I achieve the
browsing capability in my solution by creating a default view that is available without needing to
query first. As seen in Figure 2.1, the view panel shows four days, beginning with the current day.
The days are presented as columns similar to those found in calendar applications such as Google
Calendars. This choice was made so that this scheduling system aligns with how the users will
likely have their own schedules laid out; this similarity will make comparing available rooms with
their schedule more intuitive.
Figure 2.1: Figma Sketch of the main page of my proposed scheduling prototype.
17
The blue gradients seen on the columns indicate room availability at that time; the darkest
end of the spectrum has the most rooms available. These gradients give the user the information
they need to make scheduling decisions. The user can click anywhere in the columns to see further
details at that time, such as which rooms are available for the selected duration. When clicked, the
arrow on the right of the application moves the view to the next four days.
The suggestions panel on the left is how this solution brings in the idea of the personal
assistant. Using historical reservation data, the algorithm will create suggestions for rooms and
times that are available but tend to be the most popular. The first suggestion will always be the
soonest available option. This is designed specifically for the case scenario where a user needs a
space for impromptu sessions as soon as possible.
This solution provides the ability to query as well as the ability to browse. The options
for querying are Date Range, Start Time, and Duration. Date range will have options for This
Week and the ability to select a date. The view will have the selected date as the first column.
Start Time will be a time of day, with the default as the current time. Duration will be selected in
increments of quarter hours, with the default as one hour. When the Submit button is clicked, the
appropriate view will be rendered for Date Range, and the suggestions panel will be rendered to
show suggestions that fit the Start Time and Duration parameters given. The query panel does not
give the option to search by room, because the room location is not a very important factor for the
users. When a reservation is created, the user will be presented with a dropdown list of available
rooms for that reservation time and date.
Whether the user clicks on the calendar view or a suggestion card, they will then be taken
to a Create Reservation view. Here, they will add information like a title and description for their
session, select a room, and accept any acknowledgements necessary regarding the terms of use
of the space or any social distancing rules. When they finalize the information and submit the
reservation, they will receive a confirmation message in the app and in an email.
18
2.1.2 Interface Implementation
The prototype design was implemented using Ruby on Rails to be evaluated along with two
other existing designs during the user study. The implementation of the prototype can be seen be-
low in Figure 2.2. The design shows five days of availability for the reservation system. The rows
of these columns represent availability at a certain time. The availability in this implementation
is defined as the number of rooms available for reservation at that time. Conditional formatting
was applied to the table to show this availability as a gradient. Slots with the darkest gray repre-
sent times with no rooms available, whereas slots with the brightest green represent times with all
rooms available.
Figure 2.2: Screenshot from the Ruby on Rails implementation of the prototype for use in the
User Study.
When the user first enters this page, the filter is automatically filled with the current date.
The next five days, beginning with the current date, also appear automatically. This was imple-
mented to eliminate that obstacle to the user. It also removes this implementation further from
the concept of querying and more towards the concept of browsing. To query a different date, the
19
user selects a day from the dropdown menu and clicks ‘Search’. This generates the same view, but
beginning with the selected day.
The Suggestions Panel present in the design in Figure 2.1 was not included in this im-
plementation. As this project went on, more and more focus shifted onto the human-computer
interaction aspects and off of the machine learning aspects. Additionally, this would simplify the
user study for the participants, since all the solutions would have the same basic features to com-
pare. The implementation also lacks duration and time specifications. This is because, due to time
constraints, the current time bar was not added to this interface. The duration was not included
because for the purposes of the user study, reservations were limited to one hour to simplify the
evaluation across all three methods.
To reserve a room, a user clicks on one of the colored boxes. This action redirects the user
to the Create Reservation page, seen in Figure 2.3. The form is automatically filled with the start
date, start time, end date, and an end time. Ideally, the room selection would have been limited to
the number of rooms available; however, this was not implemented due to time constraints. The
user also fills in the Subject, Name, and Email form fields to create their reservation. In a real
solution, that information would be used to display the current user of the room outside the room
itself. The contact information would be used to send confirmation emails or calendar invitations
once the reservation is submitted. The user submits the reservation information for creation by
clicking “Create Reservation.” Then, a confirmation message appears and the user can navigate
back to the start.
20
Figure 2.3: Screenshot from the Ruby on Rails implementation of the prototype for use in the
User Study.
As the focus of this project is to assess characteristics of the application’s interface, a user
study was conducted on the implementation of multiple solutions. In a user study, volunteers inter-
act with an application or graphical user interface model while answering questions and comment-
ing on their experience. User studies are crucial for discovering issues with an interface design.
Often, developers overlook these issues unintentionally; since they designed and/or implemented
the application, they are uniquely experienced with the interface in a way that their users are not.
Having an inexperienced user interact with an application will quickly reveal how intuitive the
design is to navigate and use. Applications with difficult interfaces will go unused, and the service
will not be provided to users. Therefore, evaluating an application’s interface is an integral part of
the development process. For the purposes of this project, a user study that compares multiple so-
lutions will reveal characteristics that make a difference in how the user experiences a reservation
system.
21
The user study took place as a series of interviews and surveys. Participants were college
students and everything took place virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each user interacted
with three solutions: a Google Calendar and Google Forms solution, a system similar to the Zachry
Event Management system, and my proposed solution. For each solution, the user was given a per-
sonal schedule to work around, with items such as classes or meetings. The schedule was displayed
graphically as it would appear on Howdy or Google Calendar, with multiple days displayed verti-
cally. The participants were then given a series of tasks, drawing from the case scenarios described
in Section 1.4. They will be asked to schedule the soonest available option. Then, they will be
asked to schedule a session during a week with many reservations already made. Finally, they will
schedule a session with few restrictions, on a day with few commitments.
Before, during, and after these interviews, the participants were asked questions about their
experience with study rooms and reserving them. Before the interview, they were asked how fre-
quently they utilize the study spaces on campus and ask for their reasoning. This establishes how
familiar the user is with these web-based applications, and any reasons why they do or do not uti-
lize these on-campus resources. During the interview, the users were encouraged to describe their
thought process and ask any questions they have. After the interview, they will answer questions
to compare the solutions that they experienced. They will choose which view they preferred for
browsing, which solution was best for each case scenario, which query options they thought were
most important, and more. A full list of questions for the user study can be found in Appendix A.
22
3. RESULTS
3.1 User Study Results
3.1.1 Setup
A User Study format was chosen for this research because participants were evaluating im-
plementations of an application for human-computer interaction. This is the traditional approach
to testing software interfaces, as having a non-developer attempt to use the interface will quickly
reveal problems. In a user study, participants are asked questions before they use the app to deter-
mine their previous experience level. While they use the app, they are encouraged to ask questions
and make comments, while also answering qualitative questions about their experience. Finally,
questions are asked afterwards about their overall impressions. In this case, the post-study ques-
tions also had participants compare the different methods of reservation. This was an appropriate
method of evaluation since the goal was to judge the usability of the different implementations of
study room reservation systems.
The participants for this study were college students. As this study primarily focused on
reserving study rooms in an academic setting, this was the most appropriate audience. Many of
the participants had prior experience with similar systems, and all of them had opinions about how
they liked to study. In a simple user study, around five participants are necessary to discover the
major flaws in an application interface. However, with the comparison component in this study,
the goal participation was 15 people.
While initially planning to conduct this study in virtual interviews, scheduling conflicts and
time constraints sparked a transition to asynchronous surveys. Detailed instructions were added
to the application and the Google Form which collected the responses, and the research conductor
made herself available for any questions via phone or email. This was successful, as participants
were able to complete the study with little confusion and give meaningful feedback.
23
3.1.2 Execution
The structure of the user study was as follows: users would reserve a study room according
to the three Case Scenarios described in Section 1.4, and do this for each of three methods. Method
1 simulated a system using Google Calendar and Google Forms, seen in Figure 3.1. Participants
could see times when no rooms were available on the calendar, find a time that would work, then
request that time through the Google Form. The decision to only show unavailable times on the
calendar was made in an effort to simplify the visual and remove clutter.
Figure 3.1: Method 1: Google Calendar and Google Forms implementation, similar to performing
arts music rooms.
24
Method 2 simulated a system like the Zachry Event Management System or the reservation
system used by libraries on campus, and is shown below in Figure 3.2. In this implementation,
the user submits a date and is shown availability in a table. Rows represent rooms and columns
the time of day; an entry is green if the room is available at that time, and gray if the room is not
available at that time. This implementation shows only one day at a time, and the user can change
this day through the input. The user clicks on one of the boxes to be taken to a prefilled Create
Reservation page.
Figure 3.2: Method 2: Hourly availability for rooms on one date, similar to Zachry study rooms.
Finally, Method 3 simulated the proposed solution. Upon opening it, the user sees the
availability for the current week, shown in Figure 3.3 below. This solution shows dates and times
as a personal weekly calendar would. Availability is defined by number of rooms available and
shown through a gradient: the brightest green represents when all rooms are available, and the
darkest gray shows when no rooms are available at that time. Like in Method 2, the user clicks on
one of the boxes to be taken to a prefilled Create Reservation page.
25
Figure 3.3: Method 3: Hourly availability gradient for week view, proposed solution.
The user was also given an instruction sheet with a class schedule to work around. The
full instruction sheet can be found in Appendix B. It also defines the assumptions that the program
makes in order to put all three methods on an even playing field. The Google Form through which
the users submitted their feedback contained sections for the initial consent form, the pre-study
questions, the study questions for each section, and then the post-study questions.
The Create Reservation page was the same for Methods 2 and 3, while a Google Form with
the same fields was used for Method 1. This page can be seen in Figure 2.3.
26
3.1.3 Results
Seventeen students participated in this user study, which exceeded expectations. First, par-
ticipants were asked questions that assessed their studying habits and experience with reservation
services. According to the first demographic question, “What is your major?,” 65% of participants
were engineering majors. As shown in Figure 3.4, public spaces that do not need to be reserved
were more frequently used than the reservable spaces in either the library or building spaces.
Figure 3.4: Which study spaces do you use?
According to answers to the question "Which is your preferred study space and why?",
65% of participants said their room or apartment was their preferred study space. Four out of these
eleven cited the COVID-19 pandemic as their reasoning, while the others cited convenience. The
full responses to this and other study questions can be found in Appendix C.
The next two questions relate to prior experience participants may have with reserving study
rooms. According to Figure 3.5, 59% of the participants had prior experience with the Zachry
Event Management System, and 29% of the participants had prior experience with the reservation
system for the library.
27
Figure 3.5: Have you used any of the online reservation systems on campus?
According to the answers displayed in Figure 3.6 below, the highest-ranked factors for
study room scheduling were Building Location, Time of Day, and Duration of visit.
Figure 3.6: What factors do you consider most important when scheduling time in a study space?
When evaluating Method 1, participants liked that the visualization allowed them to see
availability for a month at a time. Since the participants were familiar with the tools, they did not
have much confusion utilizing this solution. The participants did not like how the form does not
28
automatically reserve your room and has to be opened as a separate tab. They also found issue
with the calendar listing unavailable times as opposed to available times. According to Figure 3.7,
the users felt the easiest scenario to accomplish with this method was the third by far, with few
constraints.
Figure 3.7: Method 1: Which scenario did you feel was easiest while using this solution?
When evaluating Method 2, participants liked that the implementation was detailed, clear,
and simple to use. Participants mentioned that this format was familiar to them by comparing it
to the library or Zachry systems they had used before. Participants did not like that the boxes
were small and slightly hard to read. According to Figure 3.8, the users felt the easiest scenario to
accomplish with this method was the first, finding the soonest available reservation, although the
second scenario was close behind.
29
When evaluating Method 3, participants liked that the visualization covered multiple days,
and the ease of determining availability from the gradient. Participants did not like that it lacked
the specificity of room-level detail like Method 2 had. According to Figure 3.9, the users felt the
easiest scenario to accomplish with this method was the third by far, with few constraints.
Figures 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12 show which solution was evaluated as the best method for
each Scenario. Method 2 was held the strong favorite for scenarios 1 and 2, while Method 3 was
30
strongly preferred for scenario 3.
Figure 3.10: Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 1(soonest possible)?
Figure 3.11: Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 2 (many restrictions)?
31
Figure 3.12: Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 3(few restrictions)?
Finally, participants selected their favorite method and gave their reasoning. As shown in
Figure 3.13, 59% selected Method 2 as their favorite, while the rest selected Method 3. Participants
who selected Method 2 cited the clarity and ease with which they could see the information. Those
who selected Method 3 cited that it was easy to read, showed more times, and was easy to compare
to their schedule.
Figure 3.13: Which solution was your favorite and why?
32
4. DISCUSSION
4.1 Results Interpretation
The demographic questions provided insight into the user study participants’ background
with room reservation. It was not expected that the majority of participants would have selected
their room as their preferred study space. However, considering how virtual courses and the pan-
demic have affected, it makes sense. Participants also cited that their device setup kept them at
home. Participants also highlighted the most important scheduling factors to them, which matched
expectations. Room location was expected to be ranked low, and it was ranked lowest; time of day
was expected to be ranked highly, and it was ranked highest, tied with building location.
Fifty-nine percent of participants had used the Zachry Event Management System to re-
serve study rooms previously. This aligns with the fact that 65% of the participants were engi-
neering majors, and thus likely to spend more time in the Zachry building. The library study room
reservation system had been used by 29%. Combined with the Zachry system usage, the familiar-
ity participants had with an availability-by-room interface created the expectation that they would
find Method 2 easy to use, which they did.
Method 1 was the most disliked among the three methods due to the inconvenience of open-
ing another application for a form and confusion that came with the availability portrayal. In fact,
it was unanimously selected as least favorite by participants. They did, however, express that their
familiarity with the tools helped them slightly to navigate that solution.
Methods 2 and 3 were well received by the participants. As many of the participants had
used a similar tool before, Method 2’s visualization was familiar and thus intuitive. When a par-
ticipant chose Method 2 as their preferred method, they cited that they liked the detail and the
simplicity. When participants evaluated which method was best for which scenario, they chose
Method 2 for the scenarios that required a closer look at the availability at specific times, since
the scenarios carried more restrictions. Participants would look for a specific time on the method,
33
and the fact that Method 2 gave them a simple yes or no as to whether a room was available at a
specific time made it ideal for those scenarios. Participants were expected to be familiar with this
solution due to the answers from the demographic questions.
Participants that chose Method 3 as their preferred method thought that it was easier to
understand and compare with their schedule, while appearing to give more options. Method 3 was
largely preferred in Scenario 3, which offered the least restrictions. With fewer restrictions, users
likely would want to compare a few options over multiple days. Participants in that case would
want to see how the reservation would look on their schedule, and Method 3 is the easiest to com-
pare with a personal calendar. The prototype method provided a user-friendly solution for cases
where users are looking for general availability over the course of multiple days.
4.2 Methods Reflection
While live interviews may have yielded more detailed results, the quality of evaluation
that came from asynchronous surveying was more than sufficient for this study. Most participants
found the instructions clear and the purpose intuitive.
Much of the negative feedback from participants came from simple web design complaints.
Small boxes and poorly aligned text distracted from the participants’ experience and the goals of
the study. While these issues may not speak directly to the intended differences between the
methods, they did differentiate them. However, Method 2’s formatting issues did not detract from
it being preferred by 59% of participants.
4.3 Future Work
One participant suggested that a mixture of Method 2 and Method 3 be created, such that
once a user decided what day to schedule from the Method 3 weekly view, they could be directed to
the Method 2 daily view to select a specific room and time. This combined solution could provide
a solution for people who have few restrictions and for people who prefer the detail from solutions
like Method 2. The weekly view for room reservation has potential to be expanded for a more
intuitive reservation experience.
34
5. CONCLUSION
The proposed solution succeeded at its goal: to be a better browsing solution than current
systems. While it was not the favorite in all cases, participants found the gradient availability easy
to interpret and a weekly view useful for scheduling. With few restrictions, users found the proto-
type to be more intuitive to compare to their class schedules and look for general blocks of time.
The existing solution simulated with Method 2 in this user study held strong favor with par-
ticipants. Previous experience with similar applications put users at ease, and the detailed clarity
of the daily view proved more significant to users than anticipated. The existing solution simulated
with Method 1 in this study was not well received, despite the fact that it was composed of familiar
tools. To implement an effective reservation strategy using Google Calendar and Google Forms,
or other free-to-use tools, may require creative arrangement to improve user experience and more
attention by system managers than is feasible.
This study shows that there is definite potential in integrating more browsing features to
scheduling systems. Combined with the accepted, detailed implementation, the proposed and
tested solution improves the reservation experience.
35
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//www.blog.google/products/gmail/subject-write-emails-faster-
smart-compose-gmail/, 2018.
[46] Apple, “About optimized battery charging on your iphone.” https://support.apple.

com/en-us/HT210512, jan 2020.
39
APPENDIX A: USER STUDY QUESTIONS
Pre-Interview Questions
1. Which study spaces do you use?
• My room
• Public on-campus library spaces
• Public on-campus building space (e.g. Zachry, Memorial Student Center, etc)
• Reserved study rooms in library
• Reserved study rooms in Zachry
• Dining halls, food courts, coffee shops, restaurants etc.
• Study rooms at your apartment
• Other
2. How frequently do you use the study spaces available on campus?
• 2+ times per week
• About once a week
• About once a month
• Only for finals or big projects
• Only for group meetings
• I have used a study space on campus once or twice ever
• I have never used a study space on campus
• Other
3. Which which is your preferred space and why?
40
4. Do you reserve these spaces in advance, and if so, how do you do so?
5. Have you ever used any of the online reservation systems for scheduling sessions on campus?
• Zachry Event Management System
• Library Study Room
• Reserved a music practice room through the front desk at the MSC, Commons, or
Hulabaloo
• Reserved a music practice room through Google Forms through the College of Liberal
Arts
• I have never reserved a study room online
• Other
6. What do you use study rooms for?
• Individual study
• Group study
• Socializing, relaxing, or eating
• Organization meetings
• Taking exams
• N/A
• Other
7. What factors do you consider most important when scheduling time in a study space?
• Capacity
• Building location
• Room location
41
• Day of the week
• Date
• Time of day
• Duration
• Other
8. What do you expect to see when you go online to reserve a study room?
Interview Questions (For Each Solution)
1. What are your initial thoughts when you view this page?
2. What information does this page give you when you enter it?
3. What features on this page do you have questions about?
4. What did you like or dislike about using this solution?
5. Which case scenario did you feel was easiest while using this solution?
6. What do you think this solution does well?
7. What do you think this solution lacks or does poorly?
8. Did anything about this solution surprise you?
42
Post-Interview Questions
1. Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 1(soonest possible)?
2. Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 2(many restrictions)?
3. Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 3(few restrictions)?
4. Which solution was your favorite and why?
5. Which solution was your least favorite and why?
6. After using these solutions, have your views on scheduling factors changed in any way? Did
this experience confirm or contradict them?
7. Was there a feature you expected these solutions to have that none of them had?
8. Do you have any suggestions for ways to improve any of these solutions?
9. Do you have any additional thoughts or questions regarding study room reservation?
10. Any comments or questions regarding this survey?
43
APPENDIX B: USER STUDY INSTRUCTIONS
Information and Schedule

In this study, you will be reserving study spaces in a building on campus that has 10 study
rooms available to reserve through their online system. For the purposes of this study:
• The capacity of the room will be adequate for your reservation
• All rooms have the same resources and furniture
• You will be asked for your email and name to simulate true-to-life reservations, but these
will NOT be recorded—feel free to put any text you like if you are uncomfortable entering
that information
• The application will claim to send you a confirmation email after each reservation—you will
not receive these
• Reservation start and end times will be rounded to the nearest hour for simplicity
• We will only be considering the month of April
For each Method or Solution, you will reserve a room for each of the following scenarios:
1. Soonest Available: You get out of your second class on Monday and decide you want to
schedule a study room to do some homework in until your next class. Schedule the soonest
available reservation.
2. Many Constraints: You want to schedule a study room for this week to meet for a group
project for the online class you take second on Tuesdays. Schedule a reservation this week
at a time where other people would also probably be available.
3. Few Constraints: You have a test in two weeks and want to schedule a study room to prepare
for it. Schedule a reservation some time in between now and the test.
44
IMPORTANT: Please follow along with the Google Forms Study Questionnaire. Do not skip
ahead.
Here is your class schedule for the purpose of this study. The pink boxes represent classes that are
in person in the same building you are scheduling in. The dark blue boxes represent classes that
are in person in another building on campus. The light blue boxes represent classes that are fully
online.
45
APPENDIX C: USER STUDY RESULTS
What is your major?
How frequently do you use the study spaces available on campus?
Which study spaces do you use?
46
Which is your preferred space and why?
• My room since I’m free to use it whenever (and I don’t need to make any extra trips)
• Evan Library 5th floor because of the environment
• My apartment because I have more space and all of my materials and equipment.
• Public on campus building space, easiest to find a table to use
• My room since I feel a lot more comfortable in there and feel more safe as I do not have to
worry about COVID.
• My room because of COVID
• My room. Because it isn’t easy to bring my second monitor around town
• My room, due to the pandemic
• Love coffee shops because the smell keeps me cozy and the background noise keeps me
concentrated.
• My room is the preferred space because better technology, secure wifi, and free snacks from
my fridge.
47
• My room
• My room–I live in a single and it is usually clean
• I feel like I can focus the most while studying at the library
• My apartment right now during covid.
• Currently it is my room, mainly because of the setup I have here and the fact that most of
my classes are online so going to campus requires extra effort.
• Zachry Study rooms because there is a lot of lighting and space.
• Public on-campus library spaces: quiet, few distractions, not too lonely, no reservation re-
quired
48
Have you ever used any of the online reservation systems for scheduling sessions on campus?
What factors do you consider most important when scheduling time in a study space?
49
Method 1: What do you think this solution does well?
• You can reserve a large chunk of time for the room.
• It looks very nice and I like how it can pull up the google calendar for a better view.
• I think this solution is good at visually showing the full month
• its easy to glance at the calendar and see the times where rooms are not unavailable
• I think it provides a sufficient and efficient way to get a study room.
• shows you all the available times
• I like the ease of submitting multiple reservations. I like that you can do what ever times
you want. though I guess no constraints is bad too. Cause you will have some one who will
reserve for way too time.
• Allows you to visualize a large amount of data on one page
• It has a cool way of showing the times (week/month/agenda)
• This solution helps me plan reservations ahead of time and make reoccurring reservations.
• Tells you when not to go
• I can see where there are big blocks of time where things are available, if I only see a few
entries in that day. Also, the design is very simple, and I can see the whole calendar.
• I honestly do not think this solution does much well, as it feels fairly flawed.
• The ease of access when opening up the google form for method 1.
• I think the thing that this solution does well is it uses 2 things that almost everyone in college
is familiar with: Google Calendar and Forms.
• I think its good at providing information about when you can’t get a room and the times.
50
• Shows calendar view which looks similar to schedule, Google form is simple to fill out
51
Method 1: What do you think this solution lacks or does poorly?
• The form won’t check immediately whether the time you selected has the room available.
• I do not like how it tells you when rooms are unavailable but doesn’t tell you when the rooms
are available.
• This solution could be better at showing additional times when some rooms are available
• the times could be easier to read if they were not the unavailable times
• N/A
• doesn’t have enough study times, seems to fill up much quicker, the system to select the
option through forms doesn’t seem efficient
• It is not intuitive, that you only see times you can’t get rooms. And that you can’t see what
rooms are reserved ever, so you could get doubly booked pretty easy. It should at least send
you an automated room if we can’t tell that. You also can’t tell where any of these rooms
are, so I think it would be easy to be lost, especially as room count grows. Also the layout
is ugly and I don’t know what do when I see it. And the default calendar being the month is
wrong, the week view is much more helpful. I mean, still the badness of only showing times
that are wrong, but it is much better. And you shouldn’t hide the better way behind a button
push. Back on the time, it is very easy to make a mistake with it and do something you did
not mean, you might put a wrong date on accident and reserve a room for a whole year. and
that is not good.
• Bigger calendar squares would be helpful compared to clicking to see more
• There is very limited availability to begin with since the times offered only have one day
with evenings available, and one with mornings available.
• Making a reservation through google form is not the most UX friendly way to reserve a
room.
52
• What rooms are available
• There are no room numbers–I have no idea if the room I chose on the google form is avail-
able. Also, I think having a full timeline of the day is essential, especially if it is a scheduling
hub that only gives you what is not available.
• I think the method of communicating which rooms are open and when is very flawed and
thus makes scheduling accessibility difficult.
• I do not know what rooms are open for method 1 and there is not much detail if I will even
get the room.
• Like I said above, the fact that seeing the availability and scheduling the room are done
through two different tabs is inconvenient and makes it harder to coordinate since you must
also check your availability in your schedule.
• I wish it provided options to view availability versus not available rooms.
• It is confusing and requires the user to think about what times are outside the unavailable
times rather than to just see available times
Method 1: Which case scenario did you feel was easiest while using this solution?
53
• It clearly shows the availability of rooms without having to do too much extra work. Infor-
mation that is known to be selected is also already filled in in the form.
• Very easy to use
• I think it is very easy to see a full day’s schedule and it stays in the same website/tab
• was easy to see what space i have visually available on my schedule and compare to the
green spaces on the signup
• I think it provides a unique way to book these study rooms.
• Better to select times and find available times for everyone
• Very nice for simple one day sorts of reservations. Tells if there are rooms for a time or not.
The autofill on the form is nice.
• Specificity
• It fills out the information for you by simply clicking one green square, pretty cool.
• Helps me find a study room on very quickly like the day of or in the coming days.
• The times of an individual room
• It lets you see overall availability, room numbers, and duration of availability. It also lets you
see when the rooms start being open and when they close. Also, the automatic filling was
much easier than Method 1’s google form.
• I think this solution communicates exactly where and when rooms are available very well,
letting students plan ahead how long they would like to stay and where exactly they want to
stay
• Easy to see what times are open to reserve for with the design lay out.
54
• I like the view of what’s available and reserved for this solution. It is what I expect to see
when reserving rooms.
• I think it shows when you can get a room clearly.
• Displaying available times, available rooms
55
• It doesn’t show what end times are available (so you could create a reservation that extends
into another reservation).
• I think this solution lacks detail that would be useful in planning something far in advance
• some gridlines on the slots would make it way easier to see individual slots and click on
• It could provide a better way of showcasing which rooms are available and which times they
are available.
• The selection box is too small, cant see what I’m clicking super well
• There is no reason for it not to have the room reservations for today not to open automatically
when you get to the web page. It makes the instructions much more understandable.
• Not so good if you don’t have a specific day in mind. It is overload in that it has too many
times in one day, and underload in that you can only see one day at a time.
• I don’t like that the form doesn’t navigate you back to reservation site.
• Legibility
• It’s not quite there on design
• It does not show you multiple rooms that are available and it only lets me do one day at a
time.
• Lacks calendar view
• It lacks visual clarity. Also, I think it could use a clearer date input method–like a calendar
where you can click on the date instead of having to type it in. I just feel like I would write
the wrong date in my initial search.
56
• I do not think the solution does anything poorly, but I would have liked to not have been
taken to another page when trying to schedule, or the date being reset to an earlier date in
the month instead of at the time requested.
• It was nice seeing what times were available but I am not sure if this applies to to see if the
rooms are available at that same time.
• I think that the one thing that this solution lacks is the ability to select multiple successive
timeslots to reserve. You have the option to change the end time on the reservation screen
which is nice, but being able to do so from the main screen would be better.
• I think it doesn’t allow you to pick different increments of time (like 30 minutes)
• Does not include day of week or information about rooms, did not understand arrows
57
• It shows multi-day availability (although not for the entire week).
• It is very appealing and aesthetic
• It showed all the options available and was very easy to navigate and compare.
• very easy to find slots when you know you have lots of free availability
• Present a clear and visually appealing way of booking a study room and getting this impor-
tant resource.
• Shows how many rooms are left and available, range of times, many rooms available, can
select a block of hours
• A good amount of information. Just having times and seeing the whole week is really nice.
Not as much information overload like with method 2. The autofill is still nice. It automati-
cally opening up when you see the page is nice (cough method 2 cough).
• Present multiple days on one page
• It gives you a good idea of overall availability...
• This sections does well in helping me find study rooms immediately and in the near future.
It is a painless process to schedule a room and pleasingly displayed.
• It tells you when to go in a week for availability.
• You can see big blocks of availability. Also, it is very easy to find the date and time you are
looking for because it is so clear.
• I like how the green-gray gradient level communicates if one or more room is available, and
helps the student guess around how many rooms are reserved.
58
• This really makes it easy to see the the free time throughout the specific day I want to reserve
for.
• I think this solution does similar things to solution 2, but surpasses it in the fact that it already
shows users a sample of the week.
• I think it shows availability really well.
• Displaying days of week and available times
59
• It doesn’t show room availability. I have no idea if I’m reserving a room that is already
reserved. Additionally, I don’t know if a green gradient means the same room I want is
available.
• I think this solution lacks some clarity in duration of study times
• lack of clarity with the levels of attendance with the gradients
• N/A
• Cursor is too small, can still schedule during a grey area, not sure how many rooms are
available total
• Clicking the right time slot is a bit weird. Maybe spacing out the times a bit more in the
columns could help that.
• Having no room information and still expecting me to choose a room is dumb.
• I don’t think it would work well if you have people reserving for more than one hour at a
time.
• A key/legend
• ... I would just love it to be a bit more detailed
• This solution lacks the ability to make reoccurring meetings automatically.
• If you want a specific room, it’s probably tough to see its availability.
• No specific room numbers, a color-based judgement of sparsity.
• I think this solution–while far better than Solution 1–suffers from the same problem of not
specifying exactly what rooms are available at a certain time.
60
• Maybe putting the reserved room first so that I can see which room has the least amount of
reservations instead of guessing which room would be open.
• The thing that this solution really lacks is the option to see which rooms you can reserve.
Even when you click on a greyish green block, all of the rooms are available for reservation
even though obviously not all of them should be.
• I wish it showed me what room and the capacity.
• Does not include specific rooms that are available, so I do not know which room to put down,
dates do not go that far into the future
61
Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 1(soonest possible)?
Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 2(many restrictions)?
62
Which solution did you think was best for Case Scenario 3(few restrictions)?
63
Which solution was your favorite and why?
• Method 2 since it more clearly showed what room was available, when, and what date.
• Method 2. It is the easiest to understand and the easiest to see the availability of each room
• My favorite solution was method three because it was the easiest to read and quickly select
dates/times
• method 2, it gives the most clear picture of what rooms are available when so you know
exactly where you can be at what times
• Method 3 as I thought it did the best job of adjusting the way you can get a study room and
making it more advanced and simple to navigate.
• Method 2, it was a lot easier to use and you can see a range of times and availability, also
which rooms are and aren’t available
• I guess method 2. It autofilled the most information for me. And I am lazy.
64
• Method 2 was easiest for finding both a particular room and time at once
• Loved the 3rd method because it gave me a broader range of options
• Method 2 was my favorite because it fits the way I would be scheduling a reservation, on the
day of in between classes.
• I liked method 3 because its the one I would actually use. its easy to compare to my class
schedule
• Method 2–I liked that I could see how long the rooms are available for. Also, I can see what
rooms are available, so I know where to go when I get to the library.
• Method 2 because it gave information on the availability of all rooms at specific hours
• Solution 3 because it showed the available time in a graph that was easier to read.
• My favorite was solution 2. It was the only one that gave you a breakdown of which rooms
were available on the specified date and it is the most similar to other reservation systems
I’ve used in the past.
• I liked the last one, it was more clear what the different availability was.
• 3: included day of week and had vertical schedule view
65
Which solution was your least favorite and why?
• Method 1 since it was way too tedious to use in order to reserve a room. Plus there wasn’t
anything on the calendar showing when things were available.
• Method 1. It was very confusing for me to use. I could not figure out what times where
available.
• Method 1 was my least favorite because there were so many elements and the google calen-
dar only showed unavailable times.
• method 1, i really didnt like how the calendar says the rooms unavailable. if it said when
rooms are available instead it would appeal more to me
• Method 2 as the method did not seem to work on my device, so I was not able to understand
what it was trying to do.
• Method 1, there were many gaps for study times and everything was unavailable, doesn’t say
what rooms are available, weird hours
• Solution one is bad. two pages. only showing bad times. No autofill. It isn’t good.
• Method 1 required too much external info
• Google Calendar and forms because there weren’t any rooms available
• My least favorite was method 1 because I did not like the making a reservation through the
google form.
• Method 1 seemed backwards to me in that I want to know the rooms that are open, not if
they’re closed.
• Method 1–I just really don’t see the point. I want to know when rooms are available, not
when they are unavailable. That doesn’t really help me.
66
• I disliked Method 1 because it sent me to another page to fill out more information that the
calendar neglected to tell me about–particularly in regards to when and which rooms are
open for reservations.
• Solution 2 because you had to manually input the date to see the timeslots that were open
where I needed to see multiple timeslots that are open on multiple days.
• Solution 1 was my least favorite. Using google calendar along with google forms could work
in simple situations, but with 10 study rooms and needing to schedule a room for hours at a
time it was the least effective solution.
• I think the google forms one was my least favorite, due to not being certain about whether I
will be able to get a room at a certain time.
• 1: two separate pages and not showing the available times
67
After using these solutions, have your views on scheduling factors changed in any way? Did this
experience confirm or contradict them?
• It confirms that I would rather push meetings or studying to the weekend (unless I had a
date for the test, then I would push it closer to the day before I need to take the test). I
have realized that I hate ambiguity when it comes to scheduling. I don’t like when it’s not
clearly shown when a specific room is available on a specific date, time, and if the end time
encroaches on any other reservations.
• It did not change my opinions because I have little experience with reserving study rooms.
• I found dates/times to be more important than almost any other factor.
• it confirmed that i want to know exactly what location i’m signing up to go to
• Yes, because it made me realize how hard it can be to schedule something in these rooms if
you do not know what to clearly do.
• It solidified how much I really like method 2
• It definitely proved that the week view is superior. And autofill is great. I don’t want to make
choices in the form, I want the interface to do it for me so I can see it most simply visually,
and I am less likely to make a dumb mistake.
• I realized I don’t actually like the calendar visual
• I did like having three different views/methods that one could schedule a room. It would fit
all types of students and their style of reserving a room. I would use one that just gives me a
one day view but others may like seeing weeks or a month in advance.
• It affirmed my like of weekly spreads.
• I appreciate the one I use more. My university uses a scheduling hub very similar to Solution
2, so that is what I was used to and found easy.
68
• This confirmed my acceptance of the efficiency of my library’s reservation system because
it–a pretty similar replica to Model 2–is far better and more informative than other possible
methods presented in this study.
• There was not much change, I can see how I may want to plan in advance for a room that I
want to reserve early for studying more.
• They haven’t changed; this experience confirmed them.
• I think I have realized there are a lot more factors that go into scheduling a room.
• No, this experience confirmed them
69

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HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION IN STUDY ROOM RESERVATION SYSTEMS

An Undergraduate Research Scholars Thesis

Submitted to the LAUNCH: Undergraduate Research office at

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLAR

Major: Computer Science Engineering

Copyright © 2021. Clara Stadler

TAMU IRB #: 2018-0039D Approval Date: 03/07/2018 Expiration Date: 3/21/2022

2.1 Prototype Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.1 User Study Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.1 Results Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

APPENDIX A: USER STUDY QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

APPENDIX B: USER STUDY INSTRUCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

APPENDIX C: USER STUDY RESULTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Intelligent Room Reservation Systems

Research Faculty Advisor: Tracy Hammond

Research Faculty Advisor: Paul Taele

Human-Computer Interaction The study of computer interface design and use,

Personal Digital Assistant(PDA) A handheld computer with access to Internet and

1.2 Research Proposal

1.3 Case Scenarios: Current Solutions

1.3.1 Case Scenario 1: Soonest Available

Figure 1.1: Zachry Event Management System

Figure 1.2: Zachry Event Management System

1.3.3 Case Scenario 3: Few Parameters

1.4 Case Scenarios: Proposed Solution

1.4.1 Case Scenario 1: Soonest Available

Figure 1.3: Proposed Solution

1.4.2 Case Scenario 2: Specific Parameters

1.4.3 Case Scenario 3: Few Parameters

1.5.1 Study Rooms and Current Solutions

1.5.2 Online Reservation Systems: The H Sovereign Analysis

1.5.3 Human-Computer Interaction

Human-computer interaction is an important aspect in the design of computing applica-

1.5.4 The Personal Assistant

2.1 Prototype Development

2.1.1 Interface Design

3.1 User Study Results

Figure 3.4: Which study spaces do you use?

Figure 3.13: Which solution was your favorite and why?

4.1 Results Interpretation

4.2 Methods Reflection

4.3 Future Work

[5] Texas A&M University, “Zachry engineering education complex.” https://zachry.

[6] Texas A&M University, “Reserve a Room or Event Space.” https://zachry.tamu.

[8] P. C. A. Barzaga, J. D. German, G. O. Binoya, S. D. C. Bucao, S. C. R. Ibe, and D. C. G. Yap,

[14] I. W. K. Sanjaya, A. A. S. Arianty, I. G. A. E. Suwintari, and I. G. A. M. Dewi, “A swot

[24] K. B. Bærentsen, “Intuitive user interfaces,” Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems,

[30] P. M. Hund, J. Dowell, and K. Mueller, “Representation of time in digital calendars: An

[33] Amazon, “Amazon alexa.” https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/alexa, apr

[35] Google, “Youtube.” https://www.youtube.com/, apr 2021.

[36] Google, “Google calendar.” https://calendar.google.com/, apr 2021.

[39] S. J. Payne, “Understanding calendar use,” Human–Computer Interaction, vol. 8, no. 2,

[41] Microsoft, “Microsoft | cortana.” https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cortana,

[42] C. Margaret, “Keeping Up with Existing and Emerging Technologies: An Introduction to

[43] C. Steele, “Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).” https://searchmobilecomputing.

[44] B. B. Bederson, A. Clamage, M. P. Czerwinski, and G. G. Robertson, “Datelens: A fisheye

[46] Apple, “About optimized battery charging on your iphone.” https://support.apple.

1. Which study spaces do you use?

• Public on-campus library spaces