the problem
College students often struggle to locate and reserve suitable study spots on campus, leading to wasted time, last-minute frustration, and difficulty planning productive study sessions.
// Secondary research
research synthesis
With three days and no user access, I turned to the next best thing - students talking honestly about their campus experience online. I went through 8–10 university subreddits looking specifically for posts about studying, library frustration, and space-finding.
I organised findings into an affinity map across four themes: crowd, resources & overall vibe.
- r/UCLA
// problem framing
how might we
Help a student choose the right spot in terms of the right space and time?
user flow
The end-to-end user flow which includes a student exploring spots and selecting the one that matches their needs based on crowd levels and amenities, etc.
// reddit insights
wrong assumptions
Initially, I explored a reservation-based system to let users book study spots in advance. I posted my designs on a few college subreddits.
However, several subreddit users complained this introduced unnecessary rigidity. Study sessions are often spontaneous and unpredictable, making reservations prone to conflicts, no-shows, and friction.
I pivoted the experience toward explorability instead of commitment, focusing on real-time insights like crowd levels, ambience, and available amenities.
The app is built around a single core flow - browse, filter, evaluate, go.
exploration
A list view (and map view toggle) surfaces nearby spots with the information that matters at a glance: current occupancy, open/closed status, distance, and key amenities.
filter for space
Each spot detail page leads with a real photo of the space so students can assess the vibe before they leave. Reviews are filterable so students can quickly find relevant comments (a "Wi-Fi 3" filter showing only reviews that mention Wi-Fi).
filter for time
This is where the design does its most important work. Three tabs give students three different signals:
A plain-language summary of current conditions generated from recent check-ins ("Current reports indicate low occupancy and loud noise due to band rehearsal in next room"). Sliders show crowd level, noise level, and cleanliness updated in the last 30 minutes.
A day-by-day, hour-by-hour crowd chart so students can identify the quietest window for a spot they already like.
what the pivot taught me
The reservation concept felt complete when I designed it. It had all the right surfaces — a calendar, a confirmation screen, a reminder state. It looked like a finished product.
The Reddit feedback broke that confidence in about an hour. Study behaviour is too fluid for commitment-based systems. Students don't plan study sessions the way they plan meetings. Designing for how students should behave rather than how they actually behave would have shipped a product nobody used.
The pivot from reservation to exploration wasn't a setback — it was the most important design decision in the project. It meant rebuilding almost everything, but it produced a flow that matched real behaviour instead of fighting it.
Two things I'd carry forward: designing for flexibility first in any context where user intent is unpredictable, and testing direction early rather than execution late. Posting a rough prototype to Reddit on day one would have saved half a day of work on a concept that was never going to land.