Dima’s app helps reduce dinner time queues

A Sixth Form Salopian has ingeniously created an app to support the smooth flow of mealtimes at Shrewsbury School.

Dima S (Ch, LVI) has created a Virtual Queuing App which speeds up the already efficient queues at lunch and supper for pupils at Kingsland Hall.

The initial idea for creating the app came to me while queueing at the catering hall because I wanted to help speed up queuing times. I was also thinking that the idea could be used for my EPQ project having decided that I was going to be making an app - it was a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

Dima began working on the project before the first Lockdown last year, so he was able to conduct necessary observational studies in time.

After observing the amount of time different year groups were queuing for, and from which house, Dima started brainstorming ideas on how he could make his app as effective as possible.

“Once I was happy with the initial idea, I started designing the app, keeping in mind that the app needs to be very simple and intuitive to use to ensure that the amount of getting used to it will be minimal. I designed three tabs:

• The login tab - a form that lets the user choose whether they are a student or supervisor and the information necessary to continue onto the next tab.
• The student tab - displays the order of the next meal, the time at which they need to arrive and the option to view the entire queue.
• The supervisor tab - displays the order and time of each house within the year group and displays a tick if clicked on a house.

“After fixing a bug in the system, and 22 hours of work, the app was complete.”

Dima has produced a video explaining the benefits of the app, which was shared with staff at the school and can be viewed here. 

He was awarded a Floreat - an award which celebrates the effort, endeavour and enterprise of Salopians – for his work and the school agreed to pay for hosting and the domain for the app.

“The app was then implemented on the last week of term before Christmas and the tests went astonishingly well. Not only did our queuing time reduce to approximately five minutes, but we have also at most only encountered three other houses queueing,” added Dima.

“Overall, I can say that the entire endeavour was a staggering success.”

Dima is now building an online platform that aims to help solve some of the world’s most pressing global problems by inspiring action on a local scale, providing reliable information, organisations and activities to help solve them.