Overview

In Sri Lankan universities, managing lecture schedules can often become a logistical nightmare. Lecturers frequently face unexpected challenges that prevent them from attending classes at their scheduled times, leading to disruptions in the academic calendar. Students, on the other hand, struggle to keep up with these last-minute changes, resulting in missed lectures and confusion.
TimeFlex is a mobile app designed to address this common problem of lecture rescheduling. With the goal of creating a seamless experience for both students and lecturers, TimeFlex provides a centralized platform for easily managing and updating lecture schedules in real-time. The app allows lecturers to view available time slots, reschedule classes when necessary, and instantly notify students of any changes to the timetable.
By offering a simple, intuitive interface that caters to the needs of university staff and students, TimeFlex aims to reduce the confusion caused by manual scheduling processes, ensuring that academic operations continue smoothly. Whether you're a student looking for updated lecture times or a lecturer seeking available slots for rescheduling, TimeFlex ensures that everyone stays on the same page and no class is ever missed.

Problem Statement

In Sri Lankan universities, the absence of a standardized system for managing lecture schedules leads to frequent disruptions. Due to unforeseen circumstances such as lecturer unavailability, public holidays, or other unavoidable events, lectures often need to be rescheduled. However, the traditional methods of announcing such changes—whether via notice boards, emails, or messaging groups like WhatsApp—are inefficient and prone to confusion.
Students often miss important rescheduled classes simply because they aren’t informed in a timely manner. Lecturers face challenges in finding available slots for rescheduling, and coordinating these changes becomes a cumbersome, manual process. This lack of centralized communication not only disrupts the academic flow but also creates unnecessary stress for both students and faculty members.
The existing methods fail to provide a transparent, real-time solution for scheduling and rescheduling lectures. This gap highlights the need for an easy-to-use, automated system that ensures students and lecturers are always in sync with the latest schedule updates

User Research

To explore the issue of ineffective lecture rescheduling communication, we conducted user research using digital forms. Our participants included both university students and lecturers. The goal was to understand how last-minute timetable changes impact their routines and identify opportunities for a better communication method.

Key Findings:

• Missed Lectures: A significant number of students reported missing lectures due to last-minute changes announced through unreliable channels like WhatsApp or notice boards.

• Preferred Notification Method: Both students and lecturers preferred instant, app-based notifications for real-time updates.

• Frustration with Current Systems: Participants expressed frustration over inconsistent communication and a lack of centralized scheduling updates.

• Demand for a Dedicated App: The majority agreed that a mobile app with schedule alerts and real-time rescheduling would greatly improve their academic experience.

Persona

We categorized the personas into two main segments—students and lecturers—to better understand the challenges and expectations of each group. These personas reveal the varying needs, daily routines, and communication gaps experienced by users like Nimesha Fernando. By exploring their frustrations and goals, we gain valuable insights that guide us in designing a notification system that is timely, reliable, and user-friendly. This approach ensures the solution is aligned with their real academic routines, helping them stay informed and avoid missing important lectures or quizzes.

User Journey Map

These user journey maps illustrate the experiences of our two primary users, Nimesha Fernando, a university student, and Dr. Sameera Jayawardena, a lecturer, highlighting how the app helps streamline lecture rescheduling and improves communication to avoid missed sessions.

Brainstormed Solutions

Centralized Timetable Access:
 Provide a single platform where students and lecturers can view updated lecture schedules at any time.

Real-Time Notifications:
 Instantly alert students about any reschedules, cancellations, or extra classes through push notifications.

Lecturer-Friendly Rescheduling:
 Allow lecturers to easily view free time slots and reschedule lectures without conflicts.

Student Personalization: Enable students to see updates specific to their batch, department, and semester without unnecessary clutter.

Rescheduling Transparency:
 Make all timetable changes visible to both students and lecturers in real-time, minimizing miscommunication.

User Flow Diagram

Wireframes

Here are some wireframes we created to sketch out the solution. These early designs helped us visualize the user interface and key features, allowing us to test ideas quickly and refine the user experience based on feedback

Designing the Solution

In our case study, we proposed targeted solutions to tackle the common issues students face with lost belongings. These ideas focus on enhancing user experience through timely notifications, streamlined reporting, and preventive features. By addressing these challenges, our solutions aim to help students recover lost items more efficiently and reduce the stress associated with such incidents.

Solution Testing

After identifying the key pain points from our user research, we designed a prototype solution: a mobile application aimed at streamlining lecture rescheduling and communication between lecturers and students. To validate our concept, we conducted solution testing with a selected group of target users — both students and lecturers.

Participants were introduced to the core features of the proposed app, including:

• Real-time notifications for rescheduled lectures.

• A shared calendar displaying available time slots.

• Conflict-free scheduling assistance.

• Easy options for lecturers to reschedule lectures and communicate updates.

Methodology

We shared a walkthrough of the app’s wireframes and key workflows through a demo session. Participants were then asked to interact with the prototype and provide feedback via a structured survey, focusing on usability, perceived value, and likelihood of adoption.

Key Findings

• Students showed strong enthusiasm for receiving real-time notifications, with 85% indicating they would rely heavily on the app to stay updated on schedule changes.

• Lecturers appreciated the shared calendar feature, noting it would significantly reduce the time and effort needed to find suitable rescheduling slots.

• Both groups highlighted the simplicity of the app interface as a major advantage over current fragmented communication methods.

Insights

• Real-time communication was consistently rated as the most critical feature.

• Users preferred a minimalist, easy-to-navigate design without unnecessary complexity.

• A strong need for integration with existing university systems (like LMS platforms) was mentioned by several participants.

Conclusion

Our research and solution testing clearly highlighted a strong demand for a streamlined and reliable method of managing lecture rescheduling. Both students and lecturers expressed frustration with the current systems and showed strong support for a mobile application that addresses these challenges.

The feedback gathered during solution testing validates our approach:

• Students seek timely and direct communication.

• Lecturers need tools that simplify rescheduling while minimizing conflicts.

Learnings

• User-Centric Design: Focused heavily on student and lecturer feedback to shape the core features of the rescheduling app.

• Data-Driven Decisions: Used user research surveys and solution testing to validate assumptions and guide feature prioritization.

• Effective Prototyping: Created and iteratively improved prototypes based on real user interactions and preferences.

• Project Management: Managed the full cycle from problem discovery to solution testing, ensuring user needs stayed at the center throughout.

• Design Thinking Approach: Applied design thinking principles to ideate, test, and refine a solution that simplifies communication and scheduling challenges.

By prioritizing real user needs and continuously testing improvements, we developed an app concept that can meaningfully streamline lecture rescheduling.
This project strengthened both my UX research and project execution skills.

Thank you for reading! 🚀

© 2025 Lahiru Sampath Dayananda. All rights reserved.
This UX case study and associated designs are original work and may not be reused or reproduced without permission.