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Sudarvel
Product Designer
Case file 03 · NDA
V1.0 · 2025
Confidential · 2025 · Edtech · Web
Project under NDA
The product, client and real screens are confidential, so everything you see here is an illustrative mock with dummy data. If you’re hiring, I’m happy to walk you through the full case study on a call.
00 / THE STORY
The notice-board ritual.
▶ CLICK THE BOOK TO TURN THE PAGE
SUMMARY
The timetable lives in Excel. Halls are allotted by capacity, invigilators get duty charts, and seating lists are printed and pinned around campus. Each step works on its own — the trouble is between them.
A hall change doesn’t reach the seating list. A new invigilator doesn’t reach the board. Clashes, overfull halls and missing invigilators are found by eye, often by students, often on the day.
exam_process_old.txt
printed 09:02
01
Build the timetable in Excel
✕ clashes checked by eye
02
Allot halls by capacity
✕ overflow found on the day
03
Give invigilators duty
✕ duty and exam times drift apart
04
Make seating lists per hall
05
Print and pin on notice boards
✕ copies go out of date
06
Change, reprint, re-pin
✕ nobody knows which is current
WHY IT’S HARD — EVIDENCE
E1 · Clashes are real
Same 2:30 PM
A university scheduled two years’ papers in the same slot.
So: Catch a clash when the time is picked.
E2 · Changes ripple
9:30 → 2 PM
A last-minute move landed one exam on top of another.
So: Every change re-checks the people it affects.
E3 · Hard by nature
NP-complete
Exam timetabling is a graph-colouring problem.
So: Let the system search; let people judge.
E4 · Not all rules are equal
Hard / Soft
Research splits rules into ‘must’ and ‘should’.
So: Show each rule and let coordinators switch the bendable ones.
HIGHLIGHTS
I designed scheduling as one table that follows each exam from Not scheduled to Published, with halls, students and invigilators nested inside it — plus an auto-scheduler that runs on rules the coordinator can see and switch.
One table follows every exam from Not scheduled to Published
Clashes flagged the moment a time or hall is picked — with a suggested fix
Auto-scheduler with visible Soft and Decision rules that ends in a draft, not a decision
Publish only when invigilators and the paper are ready — one mail to everyone
100+
screens, sliders and pop-ups
2 + 3
steps — manual and auto paths
4
rule groups: program, hall, invigilator, student
3
views on one dataset: table, grid, calendar
KEY DECISIONS
01
Status is the backbone
One table with status tabs replaces separate sheets for halls, seating and duty.
02
Rules you can see and switch
Every rule is labelled Soft or Decision, with a worked example.
03
Catch the clash when it’s picked
Valid slots and a clash-free time are offered on the spot.
04
Publish only when it’s ready
No paper or no invigilator means no publish.
05
A draft, not a decision
Auto-schedule reports what it couldn’t place and saves versions.
4 choices that shaped the scheduler
I wrote down every choice, sorted them into big-picture and small-detail, and picked four. Each is a short story: the problem, before, what I chose, and what changed. Screens are mock-ups with made-up data.
Tap a row to see the choices in it. Things I chose not to build count too.
Six separate sheets became one record
Press Next (or the → key) to read it step by step.
RETROSPECTIVE
Six hand-offs became one record per exam. Clashes, overfull halls and missing invigilators now surface while the coordinator is still making the choice, and the auto-scheduler shows its working — including the courses it couldn’t place. Publishing finally means something: one complete notice, sent once.
“
The notice board was never the problem. It just couldn’t tell anyone when it was wrong.
— Reflection
WHAT I’D DO NEXT
Sit with a coordinator through a real exam season and time it against their spreadsheet.
Count clashes caught before publishing — and how many were overridden.
Test the rules screen with first-time users; it’s the densest screen and earns the most trust.
Give students their own view of hall, seat and time, so the corkboard can finally come down.
THE BOARD CAN COME DOWN.
Sudarvel · UX/Product Designer · Chennai
Designed by Sudarvel · Last updated October 2026
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