Designing a flexible scheduling system for complex K–12 academic calendars
My Role
Lead Product Designer User Testing UX Research
Collaborators
Product Management Software
Problem Space
Previously, our software relied on Google Calendar imports or recurring notifications for annual bell schedules. However, these cumbersome workarounds created massive administrative overhead whenever schools faced real-world exceptions, such as testing days, assemblies, half days, or alternating calendars.
Solution
I designed a dedicated bell scheduling platform for our software that enables administrators to build reusable schedule templates and apply them across their academic calendars. By introducing flexible repetition controls, bulk editing, and multi-zone schedule support, the system seamlessly accommodates complex schedules while reducing annual setup time from hours to just 22 minutes.
Defining the Architecture
My initial concept focused on building a repeating week schedule, but rapid prototyping with Figma Make revealed it broke down when handling schedules with alternating weeks, exceptions, and irregular academic calendars.
I shifted the architecture toward reusable day schedule templates that could be applied across a yearly calendar using flexible repeat rules.
The Key Decision
Early on, I recognized a critical trade-off between optimizing for setup speed and accommodating complex scheduling needs. By analyzing 44 integrator surveys, 9,600 customer notifications, support trends, competitor benchmarks, and primary interviews I conducted, a clear theme emerged: flexibility consistently mattered more than speed. Guided by this insight, I prioritized robust schedule customization, ensuring the platform could handle unpredictable school environments without forcing administrators into awkward workarounds.
Working with Dev
When our calendar component proved too limited for our required features, I worked with engineering to design a more scalable framework. Rather than forcing complex controls onto the calendar, I chose to prioritize side-menu interactions with repeat rules and batch assignment to do the heavy lifting. Offloading complex workflows to a side menu kept the calendar component lightweight and reusable across the design system while still fulfilling user needs with a fraction of the build effort.
Making Bells Flexible
I designed the workflow so users could attach existing notification templates to bell events instead of recreating them every time. This reduced repetitive setup work while preserving the flexibility to assign different bells to different device groups when schools require more customized schedules.
Validation
To validate the design, I tested realistic scheduling scenarios with three integrators. All participants completed the full schedule on their first attempt. They noted that the interface successfully addressed their typical edge cases and implementation headaches, allowing them to configure intricate schedules surprisingly fast once they acclimated to the workflows.
Reflection
This project reinforced the importance of validating workflow architecture before investing heavily in detailed design. Using Figma Make to prototype interaction models helped me eliminate weak concepts early and focus usability testing on refinement rather than redesign.