New online room draw app attracts more than 1,900 students

Over 1,900 students have used the “Student Room Guide,” an upgraded version of a TigerApp released by the Undergraduate Student Government in early April to ease confusions in the room draw process, according to USG Housing Project member Pooja Patel '18.

Patel is a former staff writer for the Daily Princetonian.

The upgraded app serves as a tool to help students when choosing rooms for the 2017-2018 academic year. The room guide offers a map and list of all of the available rooms in a more user-friendly interface.

According to USG IT committee co-chair Benjamin Parks '17, the new app improved upon some of the issues of the old app, including the interface design and aesthetics. Additionally, the design was changed in order to make it easier to find certain features, such as the floor plan display, of the app. The information contained in the app about the rooms was updated for the first time in almost eight years, which was necessary to account for layout changes that have happened in some of the dorms since then, Park noted, adding the entire app is, in fact, an entirely rewritten program.

Aleksandra Czulak '17, USG president,said the inspiration for the app came from Parks and Maxim Zaslavsky '17, the other co-chair of the IT committee. The two saw room for improvement in the room draw process.

“The old app had very out-of-date information for its rooms list, which was our first priority to fix,” Parks explained. “In the new app, one of the top priorities was making an easier way to find and navigate floor plans.”

According to Parks, the app was intended to work on all devices, but was particularly designed for use on laptops, since the smaller screens on phones limit the number of rooms an individual can see.

Patel explained that the USG Senate had decided that improving the room draw experience should be one of its major projects for the year.

The team included other members including Shobhit Kumar '18, Jeremy Burton '18, and Andrew Ma '19.

"The new app has made a trove of information that was previously stored on dozens of different webpages available in a single, beautiful, user-friendly interface. You don't have to go back and forth between webpages anymore," Kumar said.

Jack Whelan '19 said he used the app to select his room in Mathey College this past week and noted that the app was overall very easy to navigate, user-friendly and saved him time.

The app was helpful in choosing a room because the app contains the college buildings and floor plans all in the same place, where the user can view the categories at the top of his or her computer screen, Whelan said.The app also allows users to toggle back and forth between the main map of Princeton, the floor plans of a specific dormitory and the list of all available rooms, he added.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Caleb South '19 said that although it was sometimes difficult to get back to the main menu from the floor plans tab, the app was overall much easier to use than the Princeton One Stop Housing website.

“Everything was just a click or two away,” South said.

South said it did not take him longer than a few seconds to figure out how to use the app for his particular residential college and, because of the simplicity of the new app, there was no need for him to use Princeton One Stop Housing, except to actually select his room.

Katherine Trout ’19, however, said that she was dissatisfied that the new app deleted student reviews contained in the old app.

These reviews, submitted by former inhabitants of dormitory rooms, provided information the floor plans alone could not offer, she added. Information included whether or not the room has carpet or hardwood floors, what the view from the room looked like, and other information about the amenities and living conditions of the room, she said.

“Pictures and reviews would have been really helpful,” South said. “Even after looking at the floor plan, we weren't totally sure about some important details of the suite we were considering, like whether the room count included bathrooms and whether it actually has a kitchen. The suite I'm in now doesn't have a kitchen, but the floor plan says it does.”

Going forward, Patel said that she wants to make the drawing process simpler and easier to understand.

“I hope that we can look towards improvements in the app, such as including reviews as mentioned, and making it more sustainable so this is something future members of the IT committee and senate can add to and expand,” she said.