Simplify appointment scheduling
The AccuTrackSQL appointment scheduler is very cumbersome. Currently, students need to click approximately nine different times to make one appointment. There should be a way to reduce the number of clicks a student must make or the number of screens a student must see in order to schedule an appointment. If this scheduler were similar to the AccuSL model, it would be more user friendly.
Done! We added a Quick Scheduler to AccuTrack/AccuSQL 2014. With this, you can schedule the appointment in just 4 clicks! Thanks for the feedback and we hope you will enjoy the new feature.
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AdminMon (President, Engineerica) commented
Just to let you know that we are working on a Quick Scheduler for version 13. This only requires 5 clicks to schedule an appointment: Category selection, activity selection, date selection, open slot selection, and finally "Schedule" button click.
The following limitations are introduced as the price for the above simplification:
1) Only one day view at a time
2) Only one appointment scheduled at a time.
3) No re-occurring appointment scheduling
4) No up front tutor selection (they can later when selecting the slot)
5) Fixed session length (I'm not 100% decided on that. We can still allow them to change appointment end time before confirming the appointment )
6) No group / exclusive selection (we'd use the selected default in appointment options)
7) No explanation of different slot status. Only thing they'd see are the open slots (no red, dark green, pink, gray, etc.)
8) No room selection for the appointment.
9) No option for printing appointment confirmation slip (they'd get email confirmation automatically).
Note: An optional appointment note can still be entered by the student.I hope this will give you what you want.
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AdminMon (President, Engineerica) commented
Thanks for the feedback Kevin. Here are some comments on that:
1. Step 3 is optional. They do not need to select a tutor at that time. However, if they do select the tutor, they will skip the next screen that shows all tutors schedules and asks them to select a tutor.
2. Step 4 is also optional: In the Options screen you can select to have all days cleared by default (instead of checked), which would give you one click to select a certain day. This will narrow down the schedule display on the next screen to the selected day/days.3. You are right "Last ..." and "Next Year" do not make sense for appointment scheduling. They are there because this is a generic time selection control used throughout the software (e.g. reports screen). Note that users can also use the drop-down on the From and To boxes and select date range from calendar directly.
4. For Step 6, you can simply double click on the green block to populate the start time. Clicking on a different date after double clicking on the time would select that date.
Note that the "Set Appointment" screen (visible in the "Expanded View" allows you to schedule the appointment via a single screen like you want. However, this requires some knowledge of using the screen that students might not have. This is why we use the Wizard for students and keep the Set Appointments for staff. The "Appointment Central" provides an even a more powerful too for staff.
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Kevin Williams commented
Hi, Mon! I am sorry it has taken me so long to respond. Yes! I have identified several steps that could be taken out. Ideally, if the Appointments could be modified as it is used through AccuSL, this would simplify things tremendously. Could the process follow this same pattern?
Nevertheless, on the first screen of the Appointment Wizard, REMOVE (3) Select Staff Member options. In (4) the default is for all days and so if you want a singe day, you must make two clicks to select the single day. Under Period, it would be nice to have the option for NEXT WEEK appear after the option for THIS WEEK. The options for "LAST" don't make sense. How can I make an appointment for Last anything or why would I want to make an appointment for NEXT YEAR or possibly even NEXT MONTH? On the next page once I select a staff member, I would like the option to complete my appointment from this page. Instead, I must click next. This step could be eliminated. Now I can finally begin to make my appointment now that I have isolated my request to a single tutor. But there are more clicks. It would be great if I could schedule my appointment all on one screen without having to go to four different screens to do so. Those are my suggestions...
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AdminMon (President, Engineerica) commented
Thanks for the feedback. Do you have a suggestion on how to simplify the process? If you can, please include a detailed description of how it work (steps to take out, modify, etc).
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Kevin Williams commented
Actually, there are thirteen (13) clicks a student must make to schedule an appointment.