SpaceScout v.2.0

Personalized space finder mobile app for visitors of UW campuses

SpaceScout v.2.0 improved the mobile experience and introduced new features such as Favorites and space reviews.

Client
University of Washington

My Role
UX design lead
Visual design lead
Project manager

Background

SpaceScout is a study space finder app for the University of Washington. It won the Campus Technology Innovator Award in 2013.

SpaceScout was conceived from research as to what students wanted in campus study spaces. The study found that students were not aware of many spaces and resources available to them. That led to my team building a web app and an iOS app to aid students. With SpaceScout, students can search by locating spaces on a map, or by specifying search criteria: type of space, capacity, hours available, whether or not the space is reservable, location, noise level, lighting, amenities (whiteboard, display, etc.), and proximity to food/coffee. Photos of each space help students choose exactly what they are looking for.

After the version 1 release in 2012, we learned how students used the SpaceScout and what the unmet needs were:

Students found the meeting room for their team projects, but didn’t have a quick way to share the space with friends.
Students discovered new favorite spaces they wanted to come back next quarter, but no way to save the meeting room in SpaceScout.
Students wanted to see the space reviews from their peers about the room size, furniture, etc.

These stories inspired us to update the SpaceScout.

PROCESS

User Research

Before a deep dive into the next version of SpaceScout, we reached out to users and listened to their experiences; a newbie in the Seattle campus used it to discover different areas in campus, an instructor found it useful for scheduling meetings with students, etc. We ingested these stories to shape the next version.

Exploring Design Solutions

After the user research, the SpaceScout v.2.0 project team shrunk to myself, one iOS developer and one web developer. To deliver the solution fast with a small team, we approached the project from the minimum viable product perspective. We focused on the key task flows first and iterated incrementally.

Key user tasks to support:

Find the ideal space and share the space details with others.
Save favorite spaces across web app and iOS app.
Write a review and/or rate the space.

Sharing a Space with Classmates

Many UW students have team projects for classes, but finding & sharing the right study space wasn’t that easy. To streamline sharing the space experience within the app, we added a ‘Share’ feature. It generated a brief email including directions to the space. An user can edit the message and enter the recipient's email address or select from the phone’s address book.

Saving a Space to Favorites List

From the user research sessions, we observed that students have preferred meeting rooms and that they like to return to that specific space for future meetings. Saving a space to the Favorites list can make it easy for them to reserve it in the future. The personalization feature like a Favorite list required SpaceScout to support user accounts, so we decided to leverage the UW NetID for authentication.

Reviewing a Space

During the user interviews, we heard some student’s desire to view peer’s comments on a given space. Does the room have nice furniture? Are all the outlets working? Student feedback can help one another and help the space administrator to better maintain the space. Thus, we added the space review & rating functionality in SpaceScout.

Prototype, Test, & Iterate

As we shaped the V2 enhancement ideas in wireframes, we shared it with student workers around the office for quick feedback. Later, we conducted a usability study with prototypes.