Project 1

Space Monitoring Application Redesign

Reduce complexity through design guided by operator-defined goals

UX Research / Experience Design

User research and experience design for defense contractor to incorporate the capabilities of a 20+ year suite of space domain awareness systems into a common mission interface. We aimed to optimize the integration of legacy system applications to reduce training and operational complexity.

Project Duration: 1 year (2021)
My Role: UX Lead

My Role

Managed team of 5 external UX subcontractors
Led internal group of 4 UX and systems engineers to develop data visualization prototypes for analysis and reporting
Developed strategy for qualitative data capture and field studies
Presented findings to government stakeholders at monthly technical meetings and program milestone reviews
Provided inputs to systems egineering team to help prioritize implementation and finalized reports

The Challenges

Many disparate and inconsistent applications were outdated and required difficult / costly training for operators to perform efficiently. The systems had been developed by separate teams driven by technical capabilities, so there was a steep learning curve for operators to gain expertise at multiple sites.

The UX process was not familiar to the legacy system stakeholders, so there was a need to demonstrate value early in this multi-year redesign and integration process to ensure thorough research and evidence-based design decisions.

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The Approach

Foundation-setting UX effort to demonstrate value early and position UX influence across future upgrade phases

Field observations and operator interviews: Evidence-based understanding of operational challenges
Bi-weekly operator working groups for sustained end-user engagement and trust-building
Data visualization studies: Technical feasibility validation for engineering stakeholders

The creation of task workflows following site visits and operator interviews helped the team analyze operator actions across separate systems within the work environment and to expose inefficiencies. Multiple roles were overlayed to understand dynamic team interactions.

Orbital Data Visualization Studies

Many of the legacy views for data analysis and visualization were engineering focused with excessive controls and visible data. The target user for this section of the application is an advanced engineer with various analysis goals. The complexity of the workflows that emerged from user research were complex and non-linear.

Process:
Developed scenario problem-sets associated with data
Focused on providing useful filters and intuitive groupings of controls for users to find answers in the manner that made sense to them from the dataset
Organize data according to goals (Military analyst vs. Engineer)
Utilized data simulations in studies to ensure accuracy

Scenario-based Usability Evaluations
End users tested concepts through scenario-based usability evaluations using preliminary interactive design prototypes.
Iterative evaluations enabled updates to be incorporated based on initial session findings

Outcomes

Increased Operator Engagement

Introduced the business area’s first early-program development cycle UX research effort and demonstrated UX process value to stakeholder community.

More than 30 operators engaged through interviews and usability tests.

Operational Locations for field observation studies

Usability Improvements

Redesigned workflow reduced tasking setup from 2+ hours to 30 minutes (75% reduction) and revealed system consolidation opportunities
Reduced workflows from 5-6 separate applications or modalities to 1-2
Visualization prototypes showed technical teams feasible integration paths for data analysis tools
Applied consistent visual style across system sites