BadgerReserve
Designing a better way for UW–Madison students to reserve study spaces.
Project Overview
BadgerReserve was a team UX design project focused on understanding how UW–Madison students find, choose, and use campus study spaces. Through design ethnography, observations, interviews, research synthesis, personas, and scenario development, our team investigated how students’ needs, behaviors, and environmental preferences shaped their study-space experiences.
Using these findings, we identified opportunities to better support students in discovering and accessing suitable study spaces, ultimately developing and evaluating a proposed digital experience designed to make that process more intuitive and efficient.
Research/Design Ethnography
Understanding How Students Choose Study Spaces
To understand how students use and choose campus study spaces, our team conducted a design ethnography focused on students’ everyday study behaviors and interactions with their environment. We used fly-on-the-wall observations and interviews to examine how students selected spaces, set up their work environments, used shared resources, and adapted when their preferred spaces were unavailable.
During observations, we documented the setting through detailed field notes, sketches, and spatial mapping while minimizing our influence on students’ natural behavior. We then interviewed students to better understand the goals, needs, preferences, and frustrations behind the behaviors we observed.
What We Observed
Our observations and interviews showed that choosing a study space involved more than simply finding an open seat. Students considered privacy, noise, proximity, desk space, lighting, power access, available resources, and crowding when deciding where to work.
We also observed how students adapted when their preferred conditions were unavailable. Students relocated between spaces, accepted less desirable seating, worked without preferred equipment, or adjusted their setups to accommodate the environment. These workarounds showed how the physical and social characteristics of a study space could either support or interrupt a productive study session.
The physical setup also influenced how spaces were used. Larger desks supported multi-device academic work, while private or secluded areas enabled focused individual study. These patterns helped us identify recurring needs around availability, privacy, workspace flexibility, and access to shared resources.
Mapping the Study Environment
To capture how the physical environment shaped study behavior, we supplemented our written field notes with sketches and spatial models of the study spaces we observed. We documented seating arrangements, private and shared work areas, study rooms, desks, power outlets, shared resources, and patterns of occupancy.
We then synthesized observations and interview findings into an affinity diagram, grouping recurring behaviors, preferences, obstacles, and workarounds. This helped us move from individual observations toward broader patterns in how students selected and adapted their study environments.
Physical Work Model
Affinity Diagram
Key Insights
Students may struggle to find seating that provides the right balance of availability, privacy, and personal space, particularly during crowded periods.
Workspace characteristics such as desks, lighting, crowding, and spatial separation can influence both the type of work students perform and their ability to focus.
A seat being technically available does not necessarily make it suitable. Reliable power access and an appropriate workspace are important for students relying on laptops for extended study sessions.
Personas & Scenarios
After synthesizing our ethnographic research, we each developed a user persona representing different study behaviors and needs. We then created activity and design scenarios to explore how potential solutions could address the challenges these users encounter when finding and using campus study spaces.
User Personas
Bill — Setup-Dependent Studier
Values long, uninterrupted study sessions and relies on sufficient desk space, external monitors, power access, and quiet environments. His productivity suffers when shared resources or appropriate workspaces are unavailable.
Matthew — Proximity-Focused Studier
Prioritizes study spaces close to his classes, with enough room for multiple devices and minimal distractions. Limited room availability and not knowing whether a space is open before walking there create unnecessary friction.
Claire — Convenience-Based Studier
Uses campus study spaces for shorter periods between classes and prioritizes quickly finding comfortable seating, personal space, privacy, and reliable access to power.
Exploring Scenarios
Bill — Workspace & Resource Limitations
Problem
Shared monitors were not always available, while smaller desks made it difficult to comfortably accommodate the devices and materials needed for studying.
Design Opportunity
Provide visibility into shared-resource availability and waitlists while helping students find workspaces suited to their equipment and space needs.
Matthew — Finding an Available Study Space
Problem
Uncertain availability led to time spent searching for nearby study spaces and could disrupt study sessions when suitable spaces were difficult to find.
Design Opportunity
Provide live availability, proximity-based discovery, reservations, and session management to make finding and securing a study space more predictable.
Claire — Seat Availability & Power Access
Problem
Finding available seating could be time-consuming, while unreliable access to working power outlets made it harder to choose an appropriate place to study.
Design Opportunity
Surface seat availability and power-access information so students can quickly identify workspaces that meet their study needs.
Evaluating & Refining Scenarios
Narrowing Our Design Direction
After developing activity and design scenarios for our personas, our team narrowed our concepts to three scenario pairs representing different challenges students encountered when using campus study spaces. Each pair contrasted the existing experience with a proposed design intervention, allowing us to evaluate how technology could better support students’ study routines.
The three concepts focused on shared-resource availability, finding available seating, and discovering study spaces suited to longer sessions.
Resource Status – Bill
Existing Experience
Bill searches Morgridge Hall for an available external monitor, but all nearby monitors are occupied. After spending several minutes searching, he gives up and studies without one, even missing a monitor that later becomes available.
Proposed Experience
A resource-status system lets Bill check monitor availability, join a waitlist, and receive a notification when one becomes available. Timed reservations and extension options help manage access to shared equipment.
Spot Finder – Mathew
Existing Experience
During exam week, Matthew struggles to find a stable study space at a crowded library. After being displaced and repeatedly searching for another location, he loses nearly two hours that could have been spent studying.
Proposed Experience
Matthew checks availability before leaving class, filters locations for a longer study session, and reserves an available space. The experience also supports reservation extensions and break reminders during longer sessions
Seat Availability – Claire
Existing Experience
Claire spends several minutes walking around Morgridge Hall looking for an open seat. Preferred enclosed areas are occupied and shared tables feel crowded, forcing her to settle for a less comfortable workspace.
Proposed Experience
A digital availability display shows Claire which seating areas are currently open, allowing her to go directly to an available study pod that meets her preferences.
Proposed Solution: BadgerReserve
Turning Research Into a Study-Space System
Based on our research and scenario evaluations, our team developed BadgerReserve, a concept designed to make finding and managing campus study spaces more efficient. The system integrates real-time room information into existing room displays, helping students evaluate and reserve spaces while also supporting staff responsible for managing them.
Capacity Check
Capacity Check gives students an at-a-glance view of a study space’s current occupancy, total capacity, and availability. By surfacing this information directly outside the room, students can determine whether a space meets their needs without having to enter and check it themselves.
Quick Reserve
Quick Reserve allows students to interact with the room display when they find an available study space. The interface communicates the room’s current and upcoming availability while providing a direct path to reservation functionality through the display and QR code.
Room Search
When a preferred study space is occupied, Room Search helps students discover other nearby options. Students can compare rooms based on current occupancy and total capacity, making it easier to identify spaces that are available and appropriately sized for their needs.
Maintenance Manager
Bringing the System Together
Together, these four features connect room discovery, evaluation, reservation, and management into a single experience. Rather than treating study-space availability as information students must seek out, BadgerReserve brings that information directly into the physical environment where decisions are made.
See BadgerReserve in Action
Watch our video scenario demonstrating BadgerReserve’s student-facing features and room-management experience for campus staff.
Reflection
This project reinforced the value of grounding design decisions in observed user behavior rather than assumptions. Moving from ethnographic research and synthesis through personas, scenarios, evaluation, and a final concept showed me how each stage of a user-centered design process can progressively refine a solution. If I continued developing BadgerReserve, I would use iterative prototyping and usability testing with students and campus staff to evaluate its core workflows, identify friction points, and refine the system based on real-world feedback.