Team: Engineers, Project Manager
2024, 4 months
At NYU, the Media Commons is the heart of student creativity—a place where projects come to life through recording and production. But the experience of reserving a room was far from smooth. Students often found themselves staring at fragmented calendars, unsure whether their bookings were confirmed, and unaware of errors until it was too late. Administrators and production assistants were equally frustrated by cluttered dashboards and unclear workflows.
When I joined this project as the lead UX designer, my goal was to transform this chaotic system into something intuitive, transparent, and efficient for everyone involved.
I began by walking in the users’ shoes. I spoke with students, admins, and PAs, observing their frustrations firsthand. Students struggled to compare room availability across multiple calendars. A simple booking could become confusing: was it approved? Pending? Declined? The absence of notifications meant mistakes went unnoticed until the student arrived at the Media Commons.
For admins and PAs, the dashboard was overwhelming. Vital details like student IDs, room schedules, and departmental info were all lumped together. Approving or managing bookings became a time-consuming task, slowing down the very service meant to support creativity.
It quickly became clear: the system wasn’t just inconvenient—it was actively hindering the Media Commons’ mission.
Goal
Redesign the Media Commons booking system to:
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Make room reservations clear and efficient
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Provide role-specific dashboards for students, admins, and PAs
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Enable real-time notifications and self-service tracking
With these insights, I framed our challenges as “How Might We” questions:
- How might we give students a clear, intuitive way to check room availability and track bookings?
- How might we equip admins and PAs with tools to manage approvals efficiently?
- How might we create notifications that keep everyone informed in real time?
These guiding questions shaped every decision. Working closely with engineers and the project manager, we mapped user flows, built sitemaps, and sketched wireframes. This collaboration ensured our designs were practical, scalable, and aligned with NYU’s existing Material Design framework.
Iterating Through Design
Our first iterations focused on wireframes and low-fidelity screens, emphasizing simplicity and clarity. Students now had a unified calendar, showing all available rooms in one place. A status bar guided them through booking steps, making it clear what actions were required. For reservations longer than four hours, students saw upfront that extra information was needed, reducing surprises and confusion.
Admins and PAs received role-specific dashboards. To avoid overwhelming them, less critical information was tucked under expandable sections, while core tasks—approving bookings, checking room availability—were prioritized.
Another major addition was the walk-in feature. Students often wanted to use empty rooms spontaneously. By integrating this option seamlessly, we improved flexibility and reduced frustration, allowing the Media Commons to feel more accessible.
Bringing It All Together
As the design matured, we focused on refining details. The student profile page allowed tracking and cancelling bookings without needing admin intervention. Calendar views became interactive and filterable. Admins could check-in students in real time, and confirmation emails were redesigned for clarity and readability.
Each iteration was informed by usability testing. Feedback loops with students, admins, and PAs ensured the system not only functioned well but felt intuitive.
Impact
The results spoke for themselves:
- Improved Usability: Students could navigate and manage bookings with ease.
- Reduced Admin Workload: Self-service features minimized unnecessary communication.
- Clearer Visibility: Structured dashboards and emails made information easier to absorb.
- Higher Satisfaction: Feedback confirmed that users found the system far easier to use.
By combining thoughtful design, iterative testing, and role-specific optimizations, we created a system that balanced efficiency with clarity and met the needs of all Media Commons users.
Impact
The results spoke for themselves:
- Improved Usability: Students could navigate and manage bookings with ease.
- Reduced Admin Workload: Self-service features minimized unnecessary communication.
- Clearer Visibility: Structured dashboards and emails made information easier to absorb.
- Higher Satisfaction: Feedback confirmed that users found the system far easier to use.
By combining thoughtful design, iterative testing, and role-specific optimizations, we created a system that balanced efficiency with clarity and met the needs of all Media Commons users.
Booking experience sitemap
Booking experience sitemap
- Students wanted a clear way to check availability, track their reservations, and receive updates.
- Admins & PAs needed better tools to approve, decline, and manage bookings efficiently.
Armed with these insights, we designed a solution that streamlined the entire process.
Based on the insights gathered from the focus groups, interviews, and usability testing, we identified key areas for improvement.
To guide our design process, I framed our challenges as How Might We statements:
- How might we provide students with a clear and easy way to check room availability and track their reservations?
- How might we give admins and PAs better tools to manage bookings and approvals efficiently?
- How might we create an intuitive notification system that keeps all users informed of updates and changes in real-time?
Booking experience sitemap
Booking experience sitemap
Admin and PA sitmap
Admin and PA sitmap
During the wireframing and ideation phase, my focus was on simplifying the booking calendar while introducing role-specific dashboards. Given that the existing system was built on Google Calendar and followed material design principles, it was essential to maintain this design framework.
The challenge was to ensure consistency across all screens, as we had multiple pages involved in the process. This meant that while I worked on the new interface, I needed to preserve the established material design structure to keep everything cohesive and in line with the current website.
We had specific use cases to consider: booking for 4 hours or less and booking for more. For reservations longer than 4 hours, students were required to fill out a form explaining their request, which added extra steps to the process. This restriction was important, but also a bit inconvenient for the users. The initial iteration reflected these conditions and helped us clarify the process, but there were still areas for improvement.
For example, when booking a reservation for more than 4 hours, we made sure users were aware upfront that additional details were required, helping manage expectations and reduce confusion.
Another significant addition was the introduction of the walk-in feature. Based on user feedback and repeated complaints, we observed that many students were often frustrated with not being able to make spontaneous walk-in bookings. This was especially common when rooms were empty, and students were eager to use them without a formal reservation. To address this, we added the walk-in feature, allowing students to book available rooms on the spot, which greatly improved flexibility and reduced frustration.
This iterative process helped shape a more intuitive, transparent system that balanced the needs of students, administrators, and PAs while remaining true to the material design principles. Each iteration brought us closer to a seamless experience that minimized cognitive load and made the booking process smoother for everyone involved.
During the wireframing phase, I focused on simplifying the booking system by creating role-specific dashboards for Admins, PAs, and Students. Since the system was based on Material Design, my goal was to retain the existing design style while organizing the information in a way that felt intuitive.
The biggest challenge was dealing with the volume of information that needed to be displayed. Admins and PAs needed access to details like student IDs, departments, and room reservations, but including all this on a single screen would overwhelm the users. To address this, I created a layout where less critical data could be hidden under a collapsible “More Info” section, making the dashboard cleaner and easier to navigate.
Three Use Cases
As we tested the wireframes and gathered feedback from real users, we realized the need for further iteration. For instance, after observing how Admins and PAs interacted with the dashboard, I reorganized the layout to prioritize the most critical tasks, like room management and reservation approvals, while grouping less urgent information in expandable sections. Each round of feedback helped us refine the user flow, ensuring that the system was both functional and easy to use.
We also introduced features like a walk-in booking option, based on user requests, which we integrated seamlessly into the interface. This iterative process allowed us to gradually reduce cognitive load while improving the overall experience for each user role.
Building on the wireframing and ideation phase, I moved into the detailed design and structure planning. Since we were working within the Material Design framework, I ensured that every interface aligned with the university’s existing system while enhancing usability.
One of the first steps in this phase was creating a sitemap—a complete structural overview of the booking system. This helped the team visualize the entire platform, understand what we had, and accurately estimate the workload and time required for each screen. By mapping out the structure early, I ensured developers had clarity on future design implications and could work efficiently toward each deliverable.
In the booking calendar, I maintained a structured, intuitive layout to enhance clarity:
- Top Section: Displayed the room name and department for quick reference.
- Navigation Panel: Included "Back to Start" and "Next" buttons for smooth step progression.
- Status Bar: Showed the total number of steps left in the process.
- Pre-Booking Message: Reminded users they needed to complete a form before finalizing their reservation.
- Calendar View: Shows all reservations in real time, making it easy to identify available rooms. Users could remove pre-selected options and apply filters to quickly find the space they needed.
For the Admin and PA dashboard, the biggest challenge was sorting and presenting information effectively. A key improvement was the integration of a check-in feature within the dashboard view, allowing staff to confirm attendance in real time.
Additionally, we restructured booking confirmation emails—previously cluttered and difficult to read—by implementing a clear hierarchy. This redesign made it significantly easier for users to scan key details without missing important information.
Through multiple design iterations and continuous feedback cycles, we delivered a system that was clear, intuitive, and efficient for all users.
Key outcomes included:
✔ Improved Usability: Users could now navigate and manage bookings with ease.
✔ Reduced Admin Workload: Self-service features minimized unnecessary student-admin interactions.
✔ Better Visibility: The structured email and dashboard updates improved information clarity.
✔ Higher User Satisfaction: Post-launch feedback showed that students, admins, and PAs found the system far easier to use than before.
By combining structured navigation, clear UI hierarchy, and role-specific optimizations, we transformed the Media Commons booking system into a streamlined, user-friendly experience that met the needs of students and administrators alike.