DukeDesk: An Office Hour Queueing System
ID/CIS Capstone Competition, February 2023 - May 2023
James Madison University's College of Business offers a distinctive Capstone experience, partnering with the School of Media Arts & Design. Our team, consisting of eight back-end developers and two front-end developers, participated in this collaborative effort. We developed an Office Hours Management system for JMU faculty and students to address inefficiencies in queuing lines, offering analytics and tracking metrics. With guidance from a KPMG mentor and faculty, our goal was to enhance office hours visibility and improve time efficiency for all stakeholders among the 12 competing teams and approximately 150 students.
Awards: 2023 ID/CIS Capstone Project Competition Top 2 Finalists
Overview
Office hours at JMU face challenges like interruptions from students looking to quickly hold discussions or entering abruptly, causing inconvenience for those already waiting outside office. Courses with group meetings add traffic issues on the office floor, disrupting other faculty interactions. To address these concerns, a system that allows both instructors and students to track the office hours queue, including wait times and availability, would enhance time management and provide structure to the process. This solution aims to improve the overall experience, reduce hallway congestion, and foster more private conversations between faculty and students.
Problem Statement
User Research
We began our user research by conducting individual interviews, along with a survey consisting of 32 responses from James Madison University students of all grades. As a team, we also prioritized consistently meeting with our clients to get a better understanding of their needs, frustrations, and goals.
User Survey Questions
How easily can you schedule office hours? 1 being easy and 5 being very difficult.
How often do you attend office hours?
How long is the wait to see your instructor?
User Personas
Student
Instructor
User Stories
Instructor Persona
As an Instructor, I would like to be able to see how many students are waiting in the queue.
As an Instructor, I would like to be able to edit the order of the queue so that I can allow students with small reasons for office hour appointments to go before the ones that might take longer.
As an Instructor, I would like to be able to keep track of which students attend office hours, how frequently they attend, and whether I see it helping their performance in class.
Student Persona
As a student, I want an interface that will allow me to know how many students are in the queue during office hours.
As a student, I want an interface that will allow me to know the estimated wait time so that I can manage my schedule.
As a student, I want an interface that will allow me to leave the queue if there are too many students.
As a student, I want an interface that will notify me when it’s my turn while waiting.
System Wireframe
Mobile Prototype
Style Guide
We decided to go for a minimalistic and sleek design in order to simplify the process of attending office hours in a time efficient manner. We designed the page for selecting instructor or student mode so that users can have a sneak peek at what DukeDesk is all about. It offers a short description of the system goals, along with a preview inside of the system itself. While designing, our goals were to create a website that is inclusive and easy to navigate for all, which is why we chose contrasting colors to accommodate those who are colorblind.
Final System Design
Homepage
Instructor View
Student View
Our final system was presented in front of a group of judges from KPMG, alumni, and faculty of James Madison University. The capstone project has taught me the importance of flexibility, client relationships, and learning as I persevered through the journey. I was able to improve my knowledge on prototyping, user research, and the design process in the lens of a UX/UI designer. Working together with CIS has been a blast and having our system make it to the finals in the competition made the process worth-while.
