Boston Latin School

Founded in 1635, Boston Latin School is America’s oldest school. Although steeped in tradition, Boston Latin looks firmly to the future. They came to Grafton Studio to build a scalable attendance, booking, and analytics tool for their library, guidance and nurse centers.

Our Approach

Identifying the functionality requirement for each user (students, faculty of one department, faculty of another department, and so on), and translating it into a logical user flow, was a natural priority.

We broke the student view into a dashboard where they could view their upcoming/past bookings, each relevant department’s (library, guidance counselor, etc) available slots, and also make reservations in advance.

Our first rollout was the library section, but the design needed to be able to easily scale across additional departments/functions in the future. 

If a student has reserved a spot in the library, they can simply scan their ID card at the library entrance to check themselves in and out, without the librarian having to manually enter a student’s name or ID number. For walk-ins, we built in functionality for these students to be added on the spot. There is also an ability to log temporary absences for bathroom breaks, locker runs, etc. And, because every ID scan, booking, or manual entry is in real-time, this data is automatically reflected in faculty attendance logs and student schedules. 

The faculty dashboard has a student locator, where a teacher (e.g. in search of a student who hasn't shown up for class) can pull up accurate data on their most recent check-in status (be it in the library or having stepped out for 6 minutes to use the restroom).

As the nurse’s office does not accept bookings (because you can’t schedule feeling sick!), that dashboard simply provides digital check-in and check-out, and allows other faculty members to check if their student is visiting the nurse in real-time.

The admin dashboard houses the user manager list, and is where administrators can add/edit/delete students and faculty as necessary. They also have a reports section from which they can pull some commonly requested metrics, e.g. how many 9th graders used the library this year? Which recitation is most popular at the library?