MyMILL: Helping University of Washington Students Make Without Mystery
Our team won the judge’s Best Potential Impact Award and Most Impactful for UW Students Award in CSE 440’s Spring 2025 final showcase:
- Aybala Turkarslan (Designer & UX Researcher)
- Chaafen Raees (Designer & UX Researcher)
- Salma Aly (Designer & UX Researcher)
- Tashfia Sharmin (Designer & UX Researcher)
- Zainab Ateeque (Designer & UX Researcher)
Problem Overview: The Mystery in The MILL
Many students at the University of Washington (UW) are eager to use The MILL, a makerspace at UW that provides free and discounted access to tools and machines like 3D printers, laser cutters, a kiln, embroidery machines, and more. However, through interviewing and surveying 30+ users and staff members, our team learned that frustrations with machine documentation and communication can keep students from using the space confidently, or even returning to the makerspace at all. We identified three key challenges faced by MILL users: long wait times for machines, confusion when learning to use and troubleshooting machines, and uncertainty with machine availability. Our goal with the MyMILL mobile app solution is to reduce barriers in the creative process that keep students from returning to the space and to foster a user-friendly and empowering environment for the makers community at UW.
Images of The MILL that our team captured during our initial probing, specifically of a sewing class, soldering irons, and 3D printers on the left (from top to bottom). To the right, an image of our user research survey for The MILL makerspace.
Our Solution
In order to address problems voiced by the MILL community, we propose the MyMILL Mobile App, a student-centered application designed to make The MILL makerspace more efficient and information-accessible, empowering users to create confidently. Our app focuses on three core features: Reserve, Learn, and Help. Through these features users can access centralized documentation including clear, up-to-date instructions for each machine as well as past solutions to common issues. Additionally, users can view real-time machine availability and status, with the ability to join a queue to use a machine that day or reserve their spot directly for a later date. Finally, users are provided with a direct line of communication with staff and The MILL community to easily troubleshoot any potential issues or ask any MILL-related questions.
A mobile phone screen for each of our key feature designs: Reserve, Learn, and Help.
Paper Prototype, Testing Process, and Results
To test our initial concept, we created a paper prototype focusing on the three key components of our design: Reserve, Learn, and Help. The prototype featured screens that allowed users to reserve machines, access tutorials, sign up for existing MILL classes, and seek assistance via a forum or the “MILL Buddy” AI chatbot. The user flow began after sign-in on the Learn page, where users could select a machine and view relevant tutorials
We conducted a heuristic evaluation with another design team in our CSE 440 course as well as usability testing with three independent students, assigning each participant a set of tasks to explore all major design features. These tasks included:
- Learning how to upload a print file to the 3D printer
- Adding yourself to the 3D printer queue or reserving the 3D printer for a future date
- Getting help with using the 3D printer
- Registering for a beginner-friendly 3D printing jewelry class
- Get personalized help through the app
During heuristic evaluation and usability testing, we identified several common issues and key areas of confusion. In the Learn — Machines section, users found certain instructions and labels unclear, especially on the machine instruction page where video and page titles caused confusion. To clarify their purpose, we updated the section title to begin with “How to…” to emphasize that these are guides and moved the video titles above the corresponding thumbnail. In the Reserve section, labels like “MILL1” in the queue led to confusion about whether these referred to different machines, users, or queues. We addressed this by renaming these to “UserX” to indicate that they represent individuals in a single queue. Users also had trouble locating the MILL Buddy chatbot, which led us to add a floating button to every page for ease of access. These changes significantly enhanced the clarity and usability of our prototype.
Our initial paper prototype on the left, with an arrow pointing to our revised paper prototype after usability testing and heuristic evaluation.
Digital Mockup
The MyMILL Mobile App begins at the SISU (sign-in sign-up) flow, and has three key features: Reserve, Learn, and Help. The user can use the Reserve page to check machine availability and reserve them. The user can use the Learn page to view machine instructions and sign up for classes at The MILL. Finally, the user can use the Help page to chat with an AI assistant called MILL Buddy or post questions on the forum chat board. We also have a Profile page for users to see their upcoming reservations, tutorial lessons they have begun, forum posts, and more. These features support the two primary tasks that our design wishes to facilitate: (1) checking machine availability and (2) trying to use a machine with an outdated/unclear instruction guide.
In transitioning from the preliminary paper prototype to the final digital mockup, our team focused on improving usability, consistency, and visual clarity. We adopted the Inter typeface and UW’s color palette for branding consistency and refined our UI elements–like replacing dense text with icons and making instructions collapsible–to reduce clutter and improve readability. Features such as the Profile and the SISU flow were introduced to make the app experience more realistic, and the Reserve feature received further confirmation screens and buttons to undo decisions for greater safety. In the Learn feature, we optimized tutorial displays and added intuitive illustrations, while the Help feature saw enhancements of integrated search filters, upvoting, and the addition of a friendly MILL Buddy mascot with file upload capabilities. Overall, we feel as though these changes collectively enhanced the overall user experience of MyMILL and brought structure and polish to the mobile app interface.
Digital Prototype
SISU (sign in/sign up) & Profile
Reserve Feature
Learn Feature
Help Feature
Primary Task 1: Checking machine availability
The user sorts the machines on the Reserve landing page by availability. Upon clicking the T-Shirt printer, the screen shows the current out-of-order status of the printer as well as the expected fix date.
The user can then go back to the main Reserve page where the machines are sorted by availability, and click on the 3D printer. The screen then shows the queue for the 3D printer with the option of joining the queue or reserving it for a future date. The user joins the queue. If the user decides to leave the queue, the app shows a confirmation prompt allowing them to confirm or cancel. When it is the user’s turn, the app tells them which machine to use and sends an email notification.
Rather than joining the current day’s queue as was done before, the user can also click on “Reserve in Advance” for the queue and be taken to a calendar page with time and date slots to select.
Upon selecting a date and time, the user receives a confirmation for their reservation which will be accompanied by an email notification (as their MyMILL app account is linked to their school account/email). The user can also see their upcoming reservations and more in their Profile.
Primary Task 2: Trying to use a machine with an outdated/unclear instruction guide
To use a MILL machine (like the 3D printer) which would have a paper instruction guide before our design that is potentially outdated and/or unclear, the user can open MyMILL after SISU to the default Learn homepage which prompts them to choose their desired machine.
After choosing their desired machine on the Learn page, the user is brought to a list of tutorials for each step of using their machine (ex. 3D printer), as well as a bottom-right icon button to talk to the AI chatbot “MILL Buddy” to get advice and the most up-to-date MILL information. The user can then click on any of these tutorials to access the instructions in full detail with visual and written components tailored to their experience level (ex. beginner)–making the process far more clear, palatable, and suitable for different learning styles. Further, the user can also choose to take 3D printing classes at The MILL, and will see The MILL’s embedded class registration website for the specific class they choose. Additionally, if a class is currently full or not being offered yet, the user can sign up for seat notifications by clicking the bell icon next to a course to get an email notification if a spot becomes available.
Furthermore, the user can also click on the Help icon in the bottom navigation bar to direct themselves to the Help page in order to use a MILL machine, such as the 3D printer, which could have an outdated/unclear instruction guide before our design. Once on the Help page, the user can either select the Forum or My MILL Buddy tab.
When the Forum tab is selected, the user can scroll through questions about The MILL and its machines posted by other MILL users. The user can also search through the existing questions or filter questions by tag to find posts about specific machines or add their own if their question has not been posted yet.
Once a question has been selected, the user can read through replies to the questions and learn what steps can be taken to correctly operate the machine. Specific posts can also be endorsed by MILL staff if they are confirmed to be helpful or correct. Lastly, the user can reply to other users within the post to gain more insight through follow-up questions or to answer the question at hand. Thus, users can easily gain pertinent and specific information regarding The MILL via the real experience of others in the community.
Finally, when the My MILL Buddy tab is selected, the user can search any question pertaining to The MILL and receive an answer from the AI chatbot which is centered around answering questions about The MILL. Thus, users can ask questions that haven’t been answered as of yet and gain the most up-to-date, relevant information that they need to be successful at The MILL.
Summary
While many students at UW may know about The MILL makerspace, many feel uncertain about how to use the space effectively. This uncertainty prevents students from fully utilizing this wonderful space, limiting their ability to create on campus. Through our user research, we found that the most common barriers faced by users include unpredictable machine availability and a lack of confidence using machines independently due to outdated instructions, limited troubleshooting resources, and/or delayed staff support. To address these challenges, we proposed the MyMILL mobile app to make makerspace more efficient and information-accessible, empowering users to create confidently. By focusing on three core features of Reserve, Learn, and Help developed through iterative testing and evaluation, we worked to craft a design solution that allows students to reserve machines for now or ahead of time, easily access up-to-date tutorials for the machines, and get help specific to their needs. By providing students with the tools, knowledge, and resources they need to confidently navigate creating at The MILL, we hope that the MyMILL app will be developed and allow the over 40,000 UW students to create more often and with greater confidence. Ultimately, we hope that MyMILL can help users take the mystery out of making at the MILL.
Note: We credit UW logo/color branding, Pexels free stock images, free Figma templates and components, free Canva images/icons/illustrations, and further online copyright-free illustrations for influencing some edited portions of our designs. These designs were created for a university course project and are not for commercial use.
