📘 DESIGN THINKING PROJECT FILE
Topic: Finding Empty Classrooms Using a Mobile App
Subject: Design Thinking
Name: ______RONIT_______
Roll No.: _______230933_________
Course: __________PME___________
Date: __________17/11/2025______
📑 INDEX
Sr.
Content
No.
Introduction to Design
1
Thinking
Empathize – Problem
2
Identification
3 Define – Problem Statement
4 Ideate – Solution Generation
Prototype – Low & High
5
Fidelity
6 Test – User Feedback
7 Conclusion
References &
8
Acknowledgement
1. Introduction to Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a human-centered, iterative approach used to understand user needs,
redefine problems, and create innovative solutions. It encourages creativity, deep observation,
and experimentation.
The Five Stages of Design Thinking:
1. Empathize – Understand users and their problems
2. Define – Convert observations into a clear problem statement
3. Ideate – Generate creative and practical solutions
4. Prototype – Build basic models or representations
5. Test – Try solutions with users and gather feedback
Design Thinking is widely used in product development, education, business innovation, and
service design. It ensures that solutions are not just technically feasible but actually useful for
real users.
2. Empathize – Problem Identification
Problem Chosen:
Students face difficulty in finding empty classrooms on campus. This leads to confusion, time
loss, and overcrowding.
Observation and User Research
To understand the severity of the problem, I conducted:
Interviews with 10 students
Observation of classroom usage during free periods
Feedback collection through short questions
Major Findings:
8 out of 10 students said they waste 5–10 minutes daily searching
for empty rooms.
Students often walk across multiple floors unnecessarily.
Timetables are not displayed or are inconsistent.
Confusion increases during:
o Free hours between lectures
o Club meetings
o Group discussions
o Exam preparation time
Target Users:
College students
Group study members
Students needing quiet rooms
Clubs needing temporary spaces
Pain Points Identified:
No real-time information about room availability
Frustration due to searching multiple blocks
Wasted time and energy
Overcrowding in some rooms while others remain empty
Empathy reveals what students feel: confused, stressed, tired, and frustrated.
3. Define – Problem Statement
After analyzing user insights, I created a clear and focused problem statement:
Problem Statement (HMW):
“How might we help students easily locate empty classrooms on campus to save time and
reduce confusion?”
User Needs Identified:
Quick access to classroom availability
Real-time updates
Simple and clear information
A portable solution
Insights:
Students depend heavily on smartphones.
They need a platform that is faster and more reliable than asking
guards or checking manually.
4. Ideate – Solution Generation
During the ideation stage, multiple creative solutions were considered.
Brainstormed Ideas:
Idea 1: Mobile App
Shows real-time classroom availability
Floor-wise map
Color coding (Red = occupied, Green = empty)
Notifications when rooms become free
Idea 2: Digital Notice Boards
Displays classroom usage outside each building
Updated every 5 minutes
Idea 3: Smart Door Indicator System
Red/Green LED on each classroom door
Sensor-based occupancy detection
Selected Idea:
Mobile App
Reasons for Selection:
Students always carry phones
Real-time updates can be provided easily
Can include multiple features
Low budget and high impact
Can be scaled across campus
Requires no physical installation in classrooms
5. Prototype
Prototyping helps convert ideas into visible models.
5.1 Low-Fidelity Prototype (Paper Sketch)
Features shown:
Login page
Home screen with building list
Floor map
Green/Red indicators for availability
“Find nearest empty room” button
(You can draw boxes, arrows, and rough designs on paper and paste here.)
5.2 High-Fidelity Prototype (Digital Mockup)
Tools used: Figma
Key Screens Designed:
Clean login interface
Interactive campus map
Clickable rooms showing status
Search bar for buildings
Notification popup when a room becomes free
Prototype characteristics:
More realistic look
Improved color scheme
Smooth navigation
Modern UI for easy usage
(If needed, I can generate realistic Figma-style UI images for you.)
6. Test – User Feedback
The prototype was shown to 5 students for testing.
Feedback Collected:
Positive Responses:
Interface is simple
Map is easy to understand
Color coding is helpful
Saves time during free periods
Suggestions for Improvement:
Add a search filter for specific floors
Mark labs separately from classrooms
Add accessibility options for color-blind students
Include a timetable integration option
Modifications Made:
Added search option
Improved color contrast
Included labels for each room
Added a help/tutorial section
Testing helped refine the design and better align it with real user needs.
7. Conclusion
Through this Design Thinking project, I understood how user-centered innovation works. The
project taught me:
Importance of empathy in problem-solving
How to convert observations into insights
How creative brainstorming leads to multiple solutions
How prototypes help visualize ideas
How feedback improves the design
The proposed Mobile App for Classroom Availability can:
Save students significant time
Reduce confusion
Improve campus experience
Increase efficiency in resource usage
With further development, this app can connect with campus Wi-Fi sensors or timetable
databases for fully automated updates.
8. References and Acknowledgement
References:
College resources
Figma documentation guidelines
Interviews conducted with college students
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank my classmates and friends for participating in the survey and testing my
prototype. Their insights and feedback were extremely valuable in completing this project.