My Role: Lead UI/UX Designer
Client: Boeing’s Global Aerospace Safety Initiative department, responsible for safety standards at Boeing and partner airlines.
Target Users: Instructor pilots, data admins, fleet leads, and training managers from Boeing and partner airlines, tasked with grading and assessing pilot performance in simulators and real flights.
Client’s Goals: Streamline pilot grading, reduce redundancy, eliminate paper documentation, and provide a reliable source for efficient performance assessment.
Challenges: Overcome technical hurdles for a versatile web app with offline capability and ensure clarity of terminology across cultures.
Key Takeaways: Prioritize user-centric design, including a dark mode for dim simulator settings. Focus on iPad usability, as it’s the primary device provided by Boeing for training events.
Investigating user needs and notification sources, identifying challenges, and potential solutions for the new application feature.
Collaborating with diverse team members to define the problems are users are facing and that aligns with business need to create the best product solutions possible.
Mapping out our users journey to understand their current and future processes.
Refining application designs emphasizing user experience and intuitive features for product adoption.
Testing the refined designs and writing technical specifications for ease of use for developers and to ensure we are aligned with product strategy and user feedback.
Building and testing the application for issues, ensuring it meets requirements and provides a seamless user experience and meets first time quality.
Deploying the feature, and celebrating a job well done!
Collecting user feedback, and identifying areas for further enhancements.
Inundated with the complexity of grading processes and burdened by paper documentation, Airline/Boeing training leaders grapple to assess pilot performance effectively and efficiently. This inefficiency risks inaccurate assessments and a slowdown in training progress. There’s an urgent need for an intuitive web application to streamline the pilot grading process, support diverse usage scenarios, and foster clarity across cultural boundaries.
We conducted user interviews and onsite field studies to gain a comprehensive understanding of user experiences, challenges, and the pilot grading process. This research informed our application’s design and functionality.
User Interviews: Gathered insights from diverse user groups about their pilot grading process.
Field Studies: Observed user behaviors and task responses during their workday to identify process workarounds and inform application design.
User Research Analysis: We analyzed and debriefed the user research data, gaining valuable insights into user needs and challenges.
Design Sprint: We used these insights to refine goals and validate our problem statement in a design sprint, with me as the Lead UX designer and facilitator.
Key Activities Conducted
After our design sprints, we would often try and map out a current / future state journey map of our intended users experience with our new solution in hand, to help us in our assumptions as we were about to embark in usability testing to see if we were right or if any updates were needed.
After initial user testing, we created high-fidelity prototypes to solidify solutions and designs, emphasizing intuitive user experiences. We prioritized accessibility, aligning with design standards and updating or creating components as needed during the process.
We conducted moderated usability testing on our pilot grading application using usertesting.com. This allowed us to observe user interactions, gather real-time feedback, and track performance indicators like task completion and time spent. We also used a desirability matrix to assess user perception. Findings were shared with stakeholders for a comprehensive view of product performance and areas for improvement.
Usability Feedback: We analyzed usability test findings to make product adjustments. We conducted internal unmoderated A/B testing with an updated prototype due to budget constraints.
Key Changes Implemented: Modified grading score color indication to address user confusion.
Enhanced offline mode accessibility through improved tutorials and notification alerts for first-time users.
Functional Specifications: We created functional specifications for the next project phase to guide developers.
During the “Development and Design QA” phase, my involvement was more consultative. I was available to answer developer queries, assist in the creation of user stories, and provide additional guidance as needed. Once the developers completed their work, I conducted a “Design QA” review to ensure the design quality met our established standards.
The new application has not been launched to external airline users as of yet, but we have launched it to internal users within the company.
Continuous: We implemented feedback mechanisms post-launch to continuously improve the user experience.
Proactive User Engagement: Engaging with new airline users provided valuable insights, informing ongoing product design and ensuring responsiveness to diverse user needs.