I was a product designer for
Berkeleytime.coma website used by Berkeley students for choosing classes.
My role
Product design
Interactive prorotyping
User research and testing
Timeline
January - May 2021
Team
2 designers, 1 product manager, 1 developer
What's Berkeleytime?
Berkeleytime is a comprehensive academic resource built by student volunteers with the most up to date course catalog, information on students' past grade distributions, and real-time enrollment updates.
Some numbers for context
26k+
student users
170k+
visitors per year
12k+
Classes detailed on the website
Context
Berkeleytime was largely used on web and not mobile compatible, making it inaccessible to students who didn't have access to a desktop.
I worked to scale Berkeleytime's design and interaction patterns across mobile platforms.
Problem
Students faced many frustrations whenever course enrollment season rolled around.
Common painpoints
Looong waitlists
A common issue at public universities was ending up 200th on the waitlist for a 20-person seminar, leading to long wait times and uncertainty.
Lack of grading transparency
There was no information on how different professors graded their classes.
Difficulty fulfilling requirements
Students had to meet various requirements—major/minor, prerequisites, units, grades for degree declaration, and general education. Failing any of these delayed graduation.
Research
We interviewed 24 current Berkeley students from various majors and departments, and learned more about their current experiences choosing and enrolling for classes.
"I spent hours finding the right class to take but found out there were no more open seats the moment I tried to enroll. Now I have to find an alternative and do my research all over again."
"Last year I had to create a backup to the backup of my ideal schedule because I knew enrollment would be unpredictable once it started."
"I got waitlisted in all of my classes. I literally had to drop all of them and enroll in random classes just to still be considered a student here.""
Final screens
From surveys and from researching the school's graduation requirements, we prioritized course catalog info: requirements a course fulfills, its number of units, average grade, class building and instructors, etc.
Course catalog
Filter and sort through all 12,000+ classes offered at Berkeley by requirements, grades, enrollment, and more.
Grade Distributions
View and compare grade distributions for every course.
Grades are retrieved and accurately updated from UC Berkeley's API.
Enrollment
View real time enrollment updates.
Enrollment information is updated live to help students monitor class opening and waitlist statuses.
I had fun creating a low poly model of our campus in Adobe Illustrator, capturing its key features while simplifying them for visibility from a distance.
