Skyward Preflight
App feature to help drone pilots decide if it’s safe to fly
In collaboration with Adam Naglich
Skyward’s Preflight feature summarizes the status of other features and assigns an overall preflight status. Pilots can quickly gain an overall picture of the status of their operation.
Each tile links to the feature to quickly investigate further or take action.
Should I fly now?
Before taking off, a drone pilot should answer questions with the most current information possible.
What’s my airspace?
Do I have permission?
What’s the risk?
Did I complete my checklists?
Is the weather legal?
Information for these factors can change on short notice. The pilot should weigh all of these factors together for the final decision to take to the skies.
How Were Pilots Making this Decision?
Different Sources/Apps
Using different apps was shared by users as a primary reason to switch to Skyward. With multiple apps, pilots must:
Swap apps or use a separate device
Retain that information in their head
Try to synthesize the information into an overall decision
A problem of cognitive load:
Pilot must switch apps to gain any critical updates
Retaining the information and the meaning is a huge cognitive load
Previous version of Skyward Inflight
Inflight made the info available in the app, but pilots still had to:
Scan to different sections of the operation
Synthesize an overall status based on the changes
Frequently revisit to check for updates
A problem of UX hierarchy:
No logical path of expansion
If something becomes critically important, there’s no clear or consistent way to emphasize that information compared to the others
Design Takes Shape (A Grid One)
Design goals met by this grid system:
Combine all status-based features
Convey all statuses, yet allow a single one to rise in visual importance when there’s an issue
Flat hierarchy of importance for order of statuses
Easily expandable
Responsive – even down to a watch face
Building the System
Building the variant-based components out in the Figma design library proved quite a bit more complicated than expected. It uncovered some surprising complications that arise as we attempted to simplify the design for the user. For example, if LAANC is offline, can we still give an overall assessment?
Discovering these combinations in the design phase allowed us to get the answers from business and prevent any extra churn in development hours.
Documentation
The unexpected outcomes we discovered in building out the design components meant we needed to provide clear and detailed documentation for the developers to wire up all the possible outcomes.
User Onboarding / Help
The majority of users tested said they understood the color and status intuitively. All of them shared that having the additional information available helped to reduce anxiety of remembering.
This feedback led the design team to repeat the pattern in other areas in the app.
Future + Expansion
More Statuses
Preflight launched with four features as per the MVP.
The most requested next additions were:
Weather
Stakeholder Approval
With the modular design, these features could be added and reordered with minimal design and front-end work.
Motion
Adding subtle motion was identified as a way to increase noticeability, especially to notice a change of status.
Use on Web Platform
The preflight system was going to be integrated into the web platform in light mode.
Client
Skyward
Platforms
iOS, Android, Web
My roles
Research
UX Writing
Design
Design System Integration
Creative Collaborators
Adam Naglich — product design, mobile
John Fahey — product design, web
What went well
One user shared, “This is the kind of thing that just feels like this is how it was always supposed to be. I can’t go back to not having it.”
The foundation was set for expansion of features. This addressed one of our ongoing issues or hierarchy and layout.
What I learned
Not to underestimate the complexity of dependent items. Still, it is better for use to deeply consider the work, than to make the pilot in the field do it.
I wanted a text-based summary statement, but ran up against some legal challenges in getting those approved. This want of mine was not derived from users, and I wasted effort pursuing it.