Room Reservation System Usability Testing

Research Questions

Is a user able to:

1. understand the elements and labels in the user interface?

2. successfully book a room?

3. successfully edit a booking?

4. feel confident that a booking or modification is confirmed?

What we found

Our test found that users were able to complete all of the above required activities with a high average success rate per task in the Desktop interface (~80% and ~75% respectively per session) and a slightly higher success rate per task in the Mobile interface (~100% and ~92% respectively per the Live site and the Prototype). It should be noted that these summary statistics are biased by the subjectivity of the success metric.

Recommendations and Changes

Based on testing, we recommended that the original prototypes be improved in the following ways. These changes were made to the prototype by the Web Team and submitted to IT for development.

1. Reinforce users’ understanding

   a. of where they are "in time" on the grid display

   b. that they have successfully made a reservation

   c. of which building and room they are reserving

2. Be consistent with native systems that students use

   a. make date/time navigation more consistent with Google Calendar

   b. add ability to identify study group members using campus email within the room reservation system [this change will be considered at a later date]

3. Represent room information in ways that students recognize and value

   a. use labeling preferences expressed by test participants

4. Meaningful aesthetic and minimalist design based on user feedback, reflected in

   a. the color scheme of the grid lines and buttons

   b. consistency of color across the calendar, the time grid, and the My Reservations button for all reservations made

   c. an improved indicator line that reflects where the user is in time