We’ve all heard the saying, “Time is money.” Whether this is taken literally or figuratively, we can agree that this means time is a valuable resource. Imagine how much time you lose in a day when walking to a dining hall and finding out that all tables are full. The time and energy that could have been spent doing homework or catching up with friends is now wasted. This is particularly true during this on-going pandemic in which public spaces are limited in number and capacity. We need a way to see how busy the dining halls are before spending the time to walk there.

Freespace, our user-driven mobile app, serves to inform Calvin University students of the current activity status of the dining halls so that they may plan accordingly. The app runs on both iOS and Android, enabling accessibility to the majority of Calvin’s population. To have less wasted time and more productive time, Freespace utilizes a listing of the dining halls on campus, alongside an estimate of their availability to provide real-time data on public space usage. Rather than relying on the current method of checking area occupancy, word-of-mouth, users can quickly access this same information in a few simple taps. Our app collects data from users who are currently located at the specified sites. To do this, the users will report on the present state of that public space on a scale from not busy to extremely busy for other users to see. Freespace blends real-time user reports with previously collected data to provide a community-focused resource to emphasize the importance of finding a free space in the dining halls to grab a meal at just the right time.

• Design Models

  • Domain Model
  • UI Design Mock-up
  • Deployment Diagram

• SQL Scripts

  • Database Schema (with sample data)
  • Sample Queries

• Usability Test

  • Test Script
  • Test Conclusions

• Presentation Materials

  • First Presentation
  • Final Presentation

• Mobile Client
• Data Service

• Esther Cha
• Zach Chin
• SeongIl (Leo) Kim
• YoungIn Kim
• Sinai Park
• Benjamin Westerhof

View our organization here.