designing aviator

Abstract

As a member of the Aviator team, I was responsible for designing new features as well as maintaining and improving existing ones. I led the creation and consolidation of the Aviator Design System and the redesign of the Aviator Configuration Tool (ACT), focusing on clarity, consistency, and long-term scalability.

The Team

Two Senior UX Designers

My Contribution

User Interviews, Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, and Design Systems

Medium

  • Desktop

  • Mobile

Techniques

  • Sketching

  • SME Interviews

  • User Interviews

  • Medium-Fidelity Wireframes

  • High-Fidelity Prototypes

Tools

  • Miro

  • Sketch

Aviator

Although Aviator is a mature and well-established application, it lacked a clear, documented design system. Using a combination of existing patterns and Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, I created a comprehensive design system to support consistency and collaboration across teams.

The design system serves three primary purposes:

  • Maintain brand and interaction consistency

  • Provide guidance and quick resources for future designers

  • Improve collaboration between design and development

 
 

Outside of the design system work, I led the design of multiple features, collaborating closely with developers, designers, product owners, and subject matter experts.

Aviator Configuration tool (ACT)

Aviator is a highly customizable application that allows airlines to tailor configurations to their specific operational needs. The Aviator Configuration Tool (ACT) is a web-based platform that supports the Aviator iOS app by managing over 850 configuration points across a wide range of workflows.

ACT is intended to enable customers to self-serve and manage configuration changes with confidence. However, at the time of this work, only an estimated 30% of users were successfully self-serving these changes.

Redesign focus areas

The redesign centered on three key principles:

Contextual
Create a dashboard and editing experience that provides the right level of detail at the right time.

Organized
Structure the editor to mirror Aviator’s core application, reducing friction and increasing user confidence.

Intentional
Design a dynamic platform informed by the user journey, intuitive enough for both airline customers and internal Boeing users.

Research & constraints

I conducted an analysis of the existing tool and identified over 20 usability issues, ranging in severity. For the MVP, we focused on correcting as many of these issues as possible while prioritizing the redesign of the most critical flows.

Because direct customer access was limited, I conducted multiple interviews with internal SMEs who regularly support customers unable to self-serve configuration changes. These interviews helped surface recurring pain points and informed key design decisions.

Design system & status

In parallel with the redesign, I created a design system for ACT to document the new patterns and components. This system became a shared resource for both designers and developers, supporting consistency as the product evolved.

The MVP redesign effort is ongoing. If you’d like to learn more about my work on Aviator or ACT, feel free to reach out.

Thanks for visiting!

Please feel free to contact me to learn more about my work.

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