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I am working on a doctor availability schedule page. In this page I need to setup the available times for each day in a week for a doctor.
This is a one-time activity. Something is repeated for every week. I am not sure how to create an UX for this. The screenshot below is referenced from http://checkappointments.com/
But I dont want a location so I X'd it out.
Also, the UI should let the user easily choose the Start & End Time.
Is there a better UX for this?
Why don't you try a more graphical approach ?
Use a calendar and put your times directly into context.
To repeat from a week to another, just add a "periodic" option close to the validation
I have created an account on checkappointments.com to check how it works. One important information is that there is no limit to how many dates user can schedule working hours for. In the same time, most doctors work on weekly basis, so week to week the schedule does not change much. I would suggest then setting up a standard weekly calendar first, and then add a possibility to manually override the settings.
It may be good to consider also a situation where the schedule does not change from day to day. This information can be also propagated automatically to other days, once user fills in the first one.
It's also worth considering to simplify time entering to using just numbers, so that user does not need to enter ":". The "minutes" field could be filled in automatically with "00", as this is what I think will be most popular choice.
So, here comes the wireframe:
Update: This is an updated wireframe, with a possibility to add multiple time slots per day (based on a comment below my answer). Previous version here:
Btw, for "daily" only one row should be displayed in the "Set up default schedule" tab, without day name. And accordingly: 14 rows for bi-weekly. Regarding the "Set up specific dates" tab, there is also an option to go for calendar-like view, something like you have e.g. on Google Calendar. In my solution, past dates are hidden, as they would clutter the interface pretty much, and are not important regarding scheduling future availability. Still, user can go back to see the history.
First user (secretary?) needs to pick the doctor and the office, then probably the week, maybe somebody wants to schedule more than 1 week ahead of time? Depending on these selections the system might want to offer 'smart defaults' in case the doctor works the same schedule more often.
Then for the input itself you might want to start with one line only and once that line is complete another line (day) can be added. In that way you avoid having to fill out all 5 days even though the doctor only works 3 days.
As mentioned above, not sure what the start/end date mean, you can probably get rid of them.
What are the increments for the time slots? 1 hour? 1/2 hour? Only offer available increments, not minutes. How about a simple time slider with two handles? I find them really nice especially once they align for all days, it's almost like a mini-agenda.
Can the doctor work on the same day in different locations? Then you should allow users to pick the same day multiple times. Add basic validation to detect input errors like overlaps.
Hope that helps
