Book your reservation.
Share lab supplies, campus resources and more with EquipMe.
EquipMe
This web application was built for faculty, students, and staff of Thomas Jefferson University & Hospital to easily access and reserve research equipment. Using this tool, you are able to reserve equipment, manage reservation requests, and view a calendar of upcoming appointments.
What. Where. When.
EquipMe.
There are a variety of different equipment used and sought out for across campus. A range of healthcare employees as well as students require these resources to conduct experiments. They can be anything from microscopes and centrifuges to 3D printers and specialized softwares.
A lot of these pieces of equipment require training so that had to be included in the reservation capabilities. Some instances even require specialists to operate the equipment for you so their schedules are taken into consideration as well.
Not only does this improve record-keeping but it also promotes accountability for high-value assets.
Problem.
The current process for reserving or sharing research equipment are ad hoc requests between faculty that are handled via email or phone calls, with little to no documentation or invoicing to the appropriate departments. There is no standardized process in general and specially for how the equipment is paid for per reservation.
Goals.
Creating an application that allows us to customize reservation features, easily add or edit equipment, and take ownership of our billing process without hiring external resources. This will also allow us to analyze which resources are being used at the highest frequency. To improve upon their existing reservation system. Saving time and scheduling issues while also keeping a database/log of all reservations and equipment/services.
My Role.
UI/UX Design | Prototyping | Research | Information Architecture | Testing | Email Design
For this project, I worked closely with our research team, participating in many interviews and working sessions. Doing so helped create a very strong redesign of the app and we were able to improve not just the design but functionality, incorporating multiple new features.
Two types of users.
Researchers.
Use EquipMe to request to reserve pieces of equipment on a specific day and time. A request must be approved by the facility manager before your reservation is considered to be confirmed. You can view and manage all of your past, present, and future reservations through a calendar on the app. If you need to cancel or reschedule you can contact the facility managers.
Facility Managers.
Use EquipMe to administer when your equipment can be used by researchers who are outside of your department. Within the app, you can approve or reject each incoming reservation request. EquipMe also lets you check on past events and monitor trends, as it maintains a history of reservations that have been completed, those that you rejected, and those where the researcher was a "no show." The app streamlines the billing process by tracking the hours that your equipment was used by outside departments, along with those departments' charge codes.
Viewing your reservations.
The client requested two different views, a calendar as well as a list view. The calendar shows all available days for managing but the list provides a compact overview of just reservations.
Viewing them anywhere.
It was important to design the reservation management so that students and researchers can view while on the go.
Time Cards.
Each color represents a different status of your reservation. On the list view this is also show via icons. The cards also needed to be adaptable to a variety of reservation time slots.
Email Design.
Keeping you up to date.
A series of different status updates and confirmation emails were made for both the reserver and the facility managers. If you’re approved, denied, or there has been an update then you are notified. It contains the reservation details as well as the billing information.
