One-word nouns for prefered time slots in a timetable

Question

I am developing a timetabling application. We invite constraints/preferences from teachers on what hours they can teach. Constraints can be invited for time slots as

1. Exactly-identified slots- the teacher checks specific hours from a work-week ("...hour 2 on Friday")
2. Abstractly-identified slots- not specific to any particular hour ("...in the same day")

A constraint is composed of [preference]-[identified slots] such as

• [prefer not to take] [4 slots a day]
• [must take] [hour 2 on friday]

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What are good terms for exactly-identified slots and abstractly-identified slots? I prefer (one-word) nouns as they are already described by adjectives.

Answer 1

If we are talking about exact time I will recommend you booking, reservation .If we are taking about abstractly-identified slots I will use availability .

Answer 2

For school timetabling then period, lesson or class(es) are acceptable for the exactly identified slots. I may be mis-understanding your concept but I think these would also be suitable for your abstract slots too.

Answer 3

Consider times as the noun for specific intervals, and policy as that for "abstractly-identified slots".

Also have a look at synonym lists for course, class, and interval.

Comments: By the way, "abstractly-identified slots" is non-communicative in the sense that it does not have an obvious meaning. I suggest that you write some paragraphs of user documentation for several features of your design, and give them to users to see if they understand the ideas. If they don't, you could write a bunch of pages explaining in detail; or you could do the right thing and fix the design so that it can be explained clearly and briefly. As noted before, try the ux.stackexchange group for design discussions.