Director of Innovation and Information Architecture James Drew and Senior Director of Software Development Angel Nieves along with a team of 10 others have created a new mobile application for iPhone and Android called NSU Spaces. The application is intended to make study spaces accessible to NSU students on all campuses through categorized listings and booking options.
The application’s beta phase began in Oct. 2018 and has recently been improved based on feedback, and by the end of April, the application should include all possible study spaces on NSU’s various campuses. So far, 420 students have downloaded the application, and as it improves and word spreads, this number can only climb.
Drew and Nieves decided to go forward with the application last year after an NSU town hall meeting revealed that students felt disconnected to study space on campus. The team worked with NSU CIO Tom West and Vice President for Information Services and University Library Jim Hutchens to develop study space promotion through a mobile format, and they also reached out to regional campuses to address study space challenges there.
Drew said, “Our main effort right now is to work with owners of the campuses, be they here or in Ft. Lauderdale, on the buildings found on those campuses to really identify those rooms.” The application is intended to identify collaborative and creative spaces, not classrooms, to help students better understand and utilize their resources.
The application functions by displaying different campuses which then leads to buildings on that campus with available spaces for walk-in or reservation study. As explained by Drew and Nieves, one of the most popular screens on the application is the favorites feature, which allows students to save their most-liked study spaces to find again later. Drew contributed towards the application’s design and marketing while Nieves put together and developed the designs.
Nieves said, “We are provided these buildings with the capability of administrators of the application who set how much time the student can book and how much time they are allowed to book a day.” So, time restrictions in different buildings may vary as NSU Spaces is a platform for making already-established information more accessible.
Currently, study space in the Alvin Sherman Library is not available via the application because the booking process is more complex, but Drew and Nieves will continue to work on integrating that along with other features in the application.
Regarding future improvements, Drew said, “We are always looking for feedback to improve these experiences and any other ones that we build. We have within the application itself a help area and place where you can give feedback.”
Download the application at itunes.apple.com/us/app/nsu-spaces/id1439488909?mt=8 for iPhone and play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.nova.NsuSpaces&hl=en for Android.
