Can I Get That Eng101 in Fuschia?

Patrick Collette

Web Developer

SUNY Binghamton

@LordOfTheWeb

Hallowed Halls of Academia

What are they actually looking for?

after 3:00 PM

Tuesdays and Thursdays

at the Lima Campus

with Dr. Venkman

They’re SHOPPING!

So, How’s the User Interface?

So, How’s The User Interface?

• Multi-part form • Have to go back and reload to

compare and contrast• Confusing terminology• Cluttered results• Results can’t be sorted or filtered

Let’s Roll Our Own

By NorskPower (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

Feedback

• Talked with students to determine what they wanted

• As we developed, showed them prototypes to get feedback

• After development, continued to survey and refine the interface

• We know they’re shopping… so let’s look to e-commerce

What IS a Good Interface?

http://www.genesee.edu/courses/schedule/

Get the Data

• GCC is a Banner school• Setup cron job to pull data out of

Banner and export it to a SQL Server db

• This let’s us manipulate the data how we want

• Worked closely with Banner programmers to re-create proper logic

Build the Interface

• Technical components– Site is based on Twitter Bootstrap

framework– Used jQuery to setup interface, modal

windows, make AJAX calls, show contextual help

– Datatables.js to allow filterable table– jQuery Mobile linearizes table

Benefits

• Single-page app, no reloading• Pre-defined, custom searches• Better contextual clues• Single app allows us to present full

course info without leaving results page

• Scannable, filterable results allows easy comparison of classes

What’s Next?

• Keep up with Banner changes• Integration with SSB to allow for

direct registration• Wish List of Classes• Cleaner mobile interface

Can I Get That Eng101 in Fuschia?

Patrick Collette

Web Developer

SUNY Binghamton

@LordOfTheWeb