Study Room Reservation System
Study rooms are available at ERAU for students to reserve 24/7
METHODS:
Interview / Observation
Cognitive walk-through
Task Analysis
SHERPA Error Analysis
Keystroke Level Model (KLM)
Cost-Benefit Analysis
NASA - TLX
The Problem
At the time of this study, I was working in the ERAU Student Union as the Overnight Lead, directly responsible for the building and a 10-person team in a new $75 million building. During this time, it was clear that the existing study room reservation system was not performing efficiently. Over 40% of requests were being denied, and there was an endless barrage of complaints from students and staff about confusion and frustration in the process.
Step 1 - Observation
My first goal was to identify where the issues in the reservation process were:
HTA: completed a simple task analysis to outline key steps where problems can be documented
Observation / Interview: Monitored a student (unfamiliar with the system) during a reservation, without offering help. A detailed transcript was made, and places where the student felt lost or frustrated were noted
Step 2 - Error Analysis
Next, I aimed to identify potential for error at each step
Cognitive Walk-through: A cog walk was completing, outlining higher-than-desired workload conditions for nearly all tasks that take place within the reservation application
SHERPA: completed a SHERPA error analysis, showing error probability and criticality for each step in the process.
Step 3 - Redesign Recommendation
My recommendation was implementation of touch screen kiosks, with standalone software that would eliminate the need for the current program. Luckily, these units were already installed for commercial spaces, so the remainder of support research was conducted using these.
Step 4 - Justification
With cost being a major concern, I decided to complete a cost-benefit analysis, with the expected savings vs. the cost of implementation. This started with a KLM
KLM: Keystroke Level model was used to quantify the cost of:
wages spent on staff assisting students having issues (based on staff report, and weighed against hourly rate)
checking reservation lists
time spent on approvals and denials
time spent by students when making a reservation
Cost-Benefit Analysis: Results of the KLM were weighed against the cost of 2 version of implementation, a single staff-controlled unit (with wages), or individual units for each room. These costs were supported with ROI estimates based on the wages saved
NASA - TLX - Lastly, TLX scores were collected from several students, asked to make a reservation on the current system and the touch screen systems. These scores show a massive reduction in workload, and frustration particularly, painting a clear picture of the impact on students.