Hayley Chung

Overview

Context

Problem

Research

Ideation

Process

Solution

Reflection

mySchedule

Streamlining Victoria University of Wellington's online scheduling platforms to better support students with time management.

Timeline

Feb, 2025 - Jun, 2025

Skills

User Research
User Testing
Prototyping

Context

Redesigning Victoria University of Wellington's digital scheduling tools.

The scope of this project was to analyse Victoria University of Wellington's (VUW) existing digital scheduling tools, to identify students' experiences and behaviours to inform the redesign of the interactions through user research, usability testing, and iterative design methods.

Problem

The university's scheduling systems are not meeting the needs of students.

VUW students did not effectively use the existing platforms the university offers, leading many to seek out alternatives. Effective time management is important for students' wellbeing and academic performance, yet the current tools fail to support the habits students need to manage their time well.

Existing VUW scheduling systems

Research

Using user research methods to understand the current tools and students' experiences, behaviours, and preferences.

Through secondary research, interviews, and observations with three VUW students, I investigated how students manage their time using VUW's scheduling tools. I then analysed and synthesised these findings using affinity maps, user personas, and a journey map to identify key insights and highlight potential design opportunities.

Users' thoughts and emotions reflect uncertainty about which system suits their needs, what features exist, and how to efficiently schedule their commitments.

Key touch points include Puaha, calendar navigation controls, timetabled class information, and the task creation flow. As Users open their schedule, navigate between views, explore available features, and create a task or event as part of their user actions within the system.

Pain points arise from multiple inconsistent systems that make finding information and scheduling events inconvenient and time consuming.

Affinity mapping and journey mapping to synthesise findings

Students' thoughts and emotions reflect uncertainty about which system suits their needs, what features exist, and how to efficiently schedule their commitments.

Key touch points include Puaha, calendar navigation controls, timetabled class information, and the task creation flow. Since students must open their schedule, navigate between views, explore available features, and create a task or event as part of their user actions within the system.

Pain points arise from multiple inconsistent systems that make finding information and scheduling events inconvenient and time consuming.

Ideation

Students need one place for all their scheduling needs.

From the research and interviews, it was clear each system has a different purpose and different features, which causes confusion when trying to use them. This leads people to avoid VUW systems in favour of external alternatives.

These findings suggesting creating a platform with these goals in mind:

Combine the purposes of myTimetable, the Nuku calendar, and the Student Records timetable together to create a single system that integrates with other VUW services such as Puaha and Nuku

Implement layout options and task creation with dates, times, notifications, and colour coding to better support students with time management

Combine the purposes of myTimetable, the Nuku calendar, and the Student Records timetable together to create a single system that integrates with other VUW services such as Puaha and Nuku

Implement layout options and task creation with dates, times, notifications, and colour coding to better support students with time management

Following these goals, I proposed creating an app to make it easily accessible for university students. Ideation for the app began with creating a user flow and low-fidelity wireframes to map out the screens, actions, and heirachies.

Planning & ideating with user flows and wireframes

Process

Creating hi-fidelity prototype iterations with feedback from students.

Following the wireframes, I created a high-fidelity prototype in Figma, allowing users to explore example tasks, classes, and events, and experience setting up their own. The clean, minimal design provides space and creates clarity for a scheduling platform, while remaining in line with VUW's brand guidelines.

This prototype was tested with five VUW students, who were given the scenario of checking their current schedule before creating a task or event of their own. The key insights were:

The UI is simple and clear to use

Calendar layout options are helpful

Some interactive elements were overlooked due to unclear indicators

To-do list could implement grouping with categories or tags.

First prototype & affinity mapping findings from user testing

Based on this feedback, a second iteration was developed and tested, with final refinements focusing on colour contrast, element sizes for accessibility, layout hierarchy, and connectivity between the to-do list and calendar

AB testing different layouts & second prototype with changes noted

Solution

A consolidated scheduling app to support better time management in VUW students.

The final design addresses the core issues identified in research by consolidating VUW's scheduling systems into a single smartphone application, making time management more convenient and accessible for students. Within the app, students can navigate between their timetable, calendars, agendas, and to-do lists, and add personal events and tasks with assigned properties, bringing their entire schedule together in one place to support better time management habits.

Final prototype screens

REflection

Reflecting on the process & next steps for mySchedule

From my research and through the prototyping process, I believe VUW students would find a consolidated tool such as MySchedule beneficial and helpful for managing their time, and hope the university would be able to implement something similar and connect it with their other digital platforms. (Puaha and Nuku)

Students have many different approaches and preferences when it comes to time management, so it would be beneficial to conduct user testing with a larger group of students to gain a deeper understanding of these variations and how they could be implemented into MySchedule to support more students