United Airlines
Electronic Flight Folder
EFF is the POC for a single app solution centralizing many operational pilot activities inside and outside the flight deck. The initiative aimed to:
- Streamline pilot workflow
- Increase standardization
- Reduce workload for pilots and administrators
Role & Scope
UX Strategy & Design Lead: Championed creative ideation with IT, flight operations leadership, and the pilot union to shape MVP requirements and deliver a validated design vision in just 4 weeks.
Challenge
Pilots relied on a company-issued iPad (Electronic Flight Book) loaded with multiple standalone apps (Adobe/iBooks, JeppFD-Pro, WSI, Content Locker, etc.), plus hundreds of pages of printed documentation. This fragmented experience led to:
- Inefficient workflows across pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight activities
- High cognitive and administrative workload for pilots and support teams
- Increased reliance on paper, undermining digital transformation goals
Strategy
Faced with an accelerated timeline and limited direct access to pilots, I led a lean, resourceful UX approach that balanced rigor with speed:
- Stakeholder Alignment: Partnered with IT leadership, flight operations, and the pilot union to rapidly define MVP scope and success criteria.
- Lean Research: Conducted secondary research on FAA standards and flight deck best practices to ensure compliance and optimize for illumination, readability, and safety.
- Rapid Ideation: Facilitated brainstorming sessions with IT to translate assumptions into concepts, iterate quickly, and validate with flight operations leaders.
- Design Principles: Established key criteria — dark mode for night operations, landscape optimization, widget-based admin control, and native/deep-linked information — ensuring scalability and real-world fit.
Research
Defined a color scheme to minimize glare and maintain legibility under varying cockpit conditions, while staying consistent with United’s brand palette
Solution
A single integrated app structured around phases of flight (Flight Summary → Preflight → Pushback → Taxi → Takeoff → Climb → En-route → Descent → Landing):
- Paperless Operations: Eliminated the need for extensive printed documentation
- Centralized Workflows: Replaced multiple apps with one sequential, intuitive interface
- Role-Based Flexibility: Personalized layouts adaptable to pilot preferences and operational needs
- Dark-Mode Design: Optimized for flight deck lighting conditions, reducing glare and distraction
Widget Architecture: Admin-controlled information displays to streamline updates and comp
Outcomes
- Delivered a validated proof-of-concept in 4 weeks, exceeding expectations for speed and creativity
- Commended by flight operations leaders and the pilot union for condensing complex workflows into a cohesive, sequential, and intuitive experience
- Established a design vision that demonstrated feasibility of removing paper from the cockpit, reducing administrative overhead, and increasing pilot efficiency
Leadership Takeaway
This initiative reflects my ability to lead under extreme constraints and ambiguity, collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders in a high-regulation industry, and translate fragmented workflows into a strategic, scalable digital vision. The EFF POC proved how human-centered design can directly influence safety, efficiency, and operational excellence in aviation.
