I'm newish to developing and really new to ux / design. In a mobile app I'm building, I'd like the user to have the option to get an appointment using the app without having to call. Now my question is, what would be the easiest way to pick the time?
So far I've thought of these solutions, but both kind of suck:
1. display day calendar-like
This way the user can see if and when there still are appointments available and is able to define the times himself.
But I think users (especially first time users) might not be able to figure out how it works (tap somewhere to define start -> tap somewhere to define end). Plus, it's generally annoying to have to tap on those small columns.
2. recommend times
Once the user picks a date, the app reads available times throughout the day and suggests them to the user. Maybe even let the user define a preferred time and if it's not available, suggest similar times (1 hour later / earlier, same time next day, ...)
This way, the user is guided and not supposed to perform anything "difficult". However, he is not allowed to define the time of his appointment himself.
I can't think of any convenient and user-friendly way to implement this but I'm sure there is one.