The Boeing Company’s Commercial Market Outlook
Designing an application to view commercial airplane forecast data
The previous experience
Every year, Sales Directors and Regional Marketers from Boeing attend the largest annual Air Show in Paris or Farnborough. The Air Show is one of the most important events for Boeing and other companies solely to allow their key players to network with others in the aviation industry, learn about new commercial opportunities, showcase their expertise and innovations, and form partnerships.
In preparation for an event like this, it is important for key players to easily access the commercial forecast data. Boeing issues the forecast data in a booklet every year, however this can be cumbersome when looking for specific data.
How did I help?
I was the Lead UX Designer responsible for designing and delivering the Commercial Market Outlook app in 3 platforms. I executed the entire iterative Lean UX design process, managed project artifacts, and assisted in production releases.
The Boeing Commercial Market Outlook informs the aviation industry and its suppliers about the 20 year market forecast of global and regional delivery, fleet, traffic flow, and more. It is available to the public on iOS, Android, and Windows.
I followed Pivotal’s double diamond design process and facilitated a 3-day design thinking workshop.
During the workshop, I held multiple workshops with key stakeholders, Product, Developers, and other Designers for persona generation, project success workshop, and risk and mitigation analysis to determine the definition of done and what to prioritize in the project increment.
Image of Pivotal’s Double Diamond process
I held an interview and discussion to identify the users.
Image of four personas
I held a project success workshop to determine how the team and I were measuring success.
One major success identified was releasing the app before the 2019 Paris Airshow so that Sales Directors and Regional Marketers would be able to use it during the event.
Image of project success workshop
I held the same workshop to identify risks and who could help mitigate.
Major risks would be not releasing in time for the Paris Airshow due to App Design Release approval taking longer than expected and displaying inaccurate misleading data.
How might we communicate complicated data that would be easily digestible and accessible to our target audience?
I conducted contextual interviews and plotted the findings on a value analysis diagram to prioritize project features.
Image of Value Analysis results
Navigation flow was the one of the top priority from the analysis so I mapped a new information architecture/sitemap.
Image of sitemap
I began low-fidelity designs to capture ideas quickly
I interviewed 6 participants to learn what their current frustrations were.
4 of 6 (67%)
expected to see a message upon opening the app to help them understand where the data is coming from
100%
voiced frustration in previous information architecture
4 of 6 (67%)
expected to see data around delivery and fleet
2 of 6 (33%)
wanted related information within the same page
5 of 6 (83%)
noted importance of intuitive navigation and interactions
2 of 6 (33%)
wanted interactive graphs and more visuals
Usability Test Insights
I conducted 12+ series of user test sessions on the mockups using a combination of internal critiques for initial feedback and real users for testing a full walkthrough of the app. Through these, I discovered… all participants (100%) focused on the importance in easily accessing and comparing data for:
Total Deliveries
Current Year/Future 20 Year Total Fleet for all regions
Viewing Region Specific Data such as Traffic, Fleet Growth, Market Value, etc
Changes based on findings
Highlight the Total Deliveries, Current Year Fleet, Future 20 Year Total Fleet on the home page
Provide breakdown of Total Deliveries, Current Fleet, and Future Fleet per region
Provide a high level region specific data capture within the regional pages
High fidelity designs
After rounds of design, test, and iteration, I delivered high fidelity mockups to the developer so that he could develop the application. In addition, I supported the release to the App Store by preparing release snapshots and documentation.
Outcomes
+77%
increase in impressions
+31%
increase in conversion rates
50,000
downloads globally
App store release
My main goals in creating a logo for the CMO application were
Capture Market Data
Have Boeing Branding (Boeing Blue, Airplanes, etc)
Show/Symbolize Upward Progression or Moving Forward
APP LOGO ITERATIONS
This is the final app logo used in the Boeing Commercial Market Outlook (CMO) application.
FINAL APP LOGO
I worked on creating the final feature graphic that would be displayed on the Android / Google App Store.
FEATURE GRAPHIC
Reflection
Defined and captured more metrics
Provide a better design to development handoff
Create a design system
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Tight timeline, less than 6months to design and develop
Gathering end-users for interviews and testing
Design technology limitations (not having InVision & DSM)
Tedious design to developer handoff (using Word document/PowerPoint)
CHALLENGES FACED
Work on backlog items for following years release
Create a UX design system or library to use on this application
Explore other graph/data visualizations that is simple and intuitive on a mobile device
Add the ability to compare data (if needed)
NEXT STEPS
