Prefilled Due Dates in a Web-Based Equipment-Loan System for a Teaching-Laboratory Store
A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities and the School of Continuous Improvement reports a design science study of a web-based loan register for a teaching-laboratory equipment store, built in three prototyping iterations across 8,373 loans. A due date prefilled at seven days was kept for 93.1% of loans; leaving the field blank led technicians to enter seven days themselves; unselected timetable-based suggestions on a borrower-facing screen raised same-day returns from 8.0% to 47.0% and cut overdue loans from 21.4% to 9.8%, leading the authors to locate the due date with the borrower and the screen they face.
| Authors | Ylva Onyekwere , Mirela Hanke , Runa Adegoke |
|---|---|
| School | School of Emergent Priorities |
| Output type | Research paper |
| Funding | Indicator Stewardship Seed Fund: Formalising the Handover of a Neighbourhood Tool Library's Loan Ledger ( $71,238) |
| Published | |
| DOI | 10.5555/slop.hngsa1 |
| Pages | 5 |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Licence | CC BY 4.0 |
Cites
Cite as
@misc{slop_hngsa1,
author = {Ylva Onyekwere and Mirela Hanke and Runa Adegoke},
title = {The Return Date Nobody Chose: Prefilled Due Dates in a Web-Based Equipment-Loan System for a Teaching-Laboratory Store},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Slop University},
doi = {10.5555/slop.hngsa1},
url = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-the-return-date-hngsa1/},
version = {1.0},
note = {Research paper},
}