United Airlines | 2021 - 2022
Redesign United’s flight planning system—an essential enterprise operational tool—by unifying multiple disconnected tools into a single, cohesive system to improve productivity for flight dispatchers.
Managed relationships with core stakeholders to identify functionality for the new application and receive feedback on designs.
Evolved the United design system to include a dark mode.
Led user research by executing initial user interviews and validating designs through user testing.
Designed the app information architecture and feature level detailed design.
Collaborated with engineering and product on build execution.
Redesign United’s flight planning system by leveraging automation and increasing usability.
Increase productivity among flight dispatchers.
Build and maintain a new, in-house application and make agile iterations and enhancements over time.
Reduce flight delays caused by overly complex flight plans.
Combine functionality of three standalone applications into a single unified system.
At United Airlines, flight dispatchers are a crucial part of the Network Operations Center (NOC)—the hub where multiple teams collaborate to ensure seamless flight operations. Each division within the NOC plays a vital role in getting flights from point A to point B efficiently and safely.
Aircraft Routing
This team determines which aircraft will operate specific flights. If an assigned aircraft is restricted from flying to certain airports due to authorization issues or mechanical limitations affecting airspace clearance, dispatchers work with routing to swap it out for a suitable alternative.
Meteorology
Meteorologists analyze global weather conditions and send real-time alerts to dispatchers about potential hazards affecting flights, such as storms, turbulence, or extreme temperatures at key airports and airspaces.
ATC Coordination
Air Traffic Control (ATC) coordinators communicate with airspace authorities to relay critical information to dispatchers. They notify teams of runway restrictions, approach limitations, or air traffic congestion that may impact flight operations.
Technical Operations (Tech Ops)
Tech Ops monitors the health of the aircraft, reporting mechanical issues that could impact airspace restrictions (e.g., certain systems must be operational for oceanic flights), fuel capacity, and onboard weight limitations.
Fueling
Fueling teams execute the fuel plan created by dispatchers, ensuring that each aircraft receives the precise amount needed for its route, taking into account weather conditions, alternate landing sites, and payload weight.
Cargo Planning
This team is responsible for allocating baggage, mail, and freight across flights while ensuring compliance with aircraft capacity and regulatory requirements.
Load Planning
Load planners strategically distribute cargo within the aircraft, balancing weight and ensuring adherence to flight safety regulations. They also determine if certain cargo must be removed to meet weight limits established by dispatchers.
Station Operations (Station Ops)
Station Ops oversees on-the-ground operations at individual airports and serves as the primary point of contact when dispatchers need last-minute adjustments, such as additional fueling, aircraft swaps, and urgent mechanical fixes.
Flight dispatchers serve as the nerve center of flight operations, ensuring that each flight is executed safely and efficiently. Working alongside pilots, they plan, monitor, and adjust flights in response to real-time conditions, making critical decisions that directly impact flight safety.
Dispatchers create and file flight plans that determine:
The fuel requirements for the journey.
The route and alternate airports in case of diversions.
The runways pilots will use.
The maximum allowable weight based on aircraft capabilities.
Once a plan is approved, pilots execute it, but dispatchers continuously monitor flights and make adjustments as needed.
Track weather patterns, icy runways, and construction-related closures that could affect landings.
Anticipate potential issues and modify flight plans accordingly.
Communicate with pilots to provide alternate routes, fuel adjustments, and operational updates in case of disruptions.
Consider a flight scheduled to land at O’Hare International Airport (ORD), where severe weather is forecasted at the estimated arrival time. The dispatcher must make strategic decisions to ensure flight safety and minimize disruptions:
Milwaukee and Detroit were selected as diversion options because they were outside the storm’s projected path.
Indianapolis was not chosen since the storm was expected to shift southward.
Extra fuel was added in case the flight needed to hold in the air or divert to an alternate airport.
Pilots were briefed on the alternate airport plans and fuel adjustments.
Continuous monitoring of weather updates allowed real-time decision-making.
By proactively planning for potential disruptions, dispatchers ensure that flights arrive safely and efficiently, even under unpredictable conditions.
Flight dispatchers work in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment, constantly shifting between monitoring, planning, and communicating. Their workspace is designed to give them access to critical data in real time, but historically, their tools have been disjointed across multiple applications—requiring constant toggling between systems.
Currently, dispatchers move between several applications that do not seamlessly integrate:
Flight Plan Manager – Where they create and file flight plans.
Dispatch View – Provides vital airport conditions, including runway closures, weight restrictions, and flight history logs.
Fusion – A map-based visualization tool displaying weather conditions, terrain, and wind patterns along a flight route.
The need to manually switch between these tools adds cognitive load and increases the risk of missing critical information during time-sensitive decision-making.
The new flight planner application aims to streamline these tools into a single, cohesive interface, enhancing efficiency and decision-making.
Creating the new flight planner required a thoughtful approach to information architecture—ensuring that critical data, actions, and visualizations were structured in a way that supported fast, informed decision-making. Through an analysis of existing applications and conversations with internal stakeholders, we identified the key features and how they should be categorized in the new system.
We grouped the essential features into three core categories:
Actions – Inputs and selections that form the flight plan (e.g., fuel calculations, alternate airport selections).
Read-Only Content – Informational data that guides decision-making, such as airport conditions, weight restrictions, and flight history.
Map – A graphical representation of the flight plan, displaying weather conditions, terrain, wind patterns, and routing options.
Several layout structures were considered to balance data visibility, usability, and flexibility. Ultimately, the final design increased flexibility by allowing dispatchers to:
View actions alongside both the content and the map for better situational awareness.
Pop out the actions panel to a separate screen when more space was needed.
Switch between the map and content view, expanding either full-screen for a more focused experience.
By designing a customizable interface, the new flight planner allows dispatchers to tailor their workspace to fit their workflow, ensuring faster, more effective decision-making in a high-pressure environment.
The actions panel underwent several iterations based on feedback from subject matter experts and flight dispatchers, resulting in a streamlined design that prioritizes quick access to common actions while minimizing cognitive load.
To balance usability and efficiency, the final design:
Keeps frequent actions visible for quick adjustments.
Organizes less common actions into collapsible accordions, reducing on-screen clutter.
Uses alerts to highlight necessary interventions, directing dispatchers to warnings or errors.
Provides summaries of system-generated decisions for quick review.
The system automates most of the flight planning, allowing dispatchers to focus on reviewing and approving instead of manual configuration. They step in only when:
The system encounters an error requiring manual resolution.
A decision approaches a critical threshold, where dispatcher oversight is needed.
This approach reduces workload, enhances decision-making, and allows dispatchers to focus on real-time operational needs.
Every action and accordion in the flight planner underwent an iterative design process, incorporating direct feedback from subject matter experts and flight dispatchers. Each feature was refined to ensure it met the needs of dispatchers in real-world scenarios while maintaining usability and efficiency.
One of the features, Scenarios, allows both the system and dispatchers to create and compare multiple variations of a flight plan. Scenarios can differ based on:
Route variations
Flight duration
Aircraft weight and fuel consumption
Overall cost impact
Through multiple iterations, we refined the Scenarios feature into a custom dropdown with an integrated comparison table. This final design allows dispatchers to:
View key scenario details at a glance in a structured table.
Compare options directly within the dropdown rather than switching between dialogs.
Overlay routes on the map to visualize differences.
Create and modify scenarios with minimal effort.
United’s existing design system was built for standard web applications, but the new flight planning tool required a more specialized visual approach. The primary challenges included:
Lack of dark mode support – Dispatchers work in low-light environments, making a dark interface essential for reducing eye strain.
Limited support for high data density – Flight planning requires complex, data-rich layouts, which needed more compact and efficient component designs.
To address these challenges, we evolved the design system while maintaining brand consistency.
Adapted existing brand colors to ensure they met contrast requirements in dark mode.
Introduced new colors sparingly, only when necessary for readability and usability.
Refined color usage to support critical alerts, system status indicators, and high-density data visualization without overwhelming the interface.
Used existing web components as a foundation but scaled them down to accommodate more data in a limited space.
Applied new color treatments to fit the dark mode environment while ensuring clarity and accessibility.
Optimized spacing and typography to improve scannability in a high-information workspace.
The final design unifies multiple flight planning tools into a single, streamlined system, allowing dispatchers to plan, monitor, and adjust flights more efficiently. With integrated automation, real-time data, and flexible workflows, the new system reduces cognitive load and increases productivity.
The new flight planning system had a measurable impact on dispatcher efficiency and workflow. During a two-month pilot with 20 dispatchers, the new system led to a significant productivity increase—raising the number of flights released per shift from 30 to 40 on average.
Increased Efficiency – By streamlining workflows and reducing manual input, dispatchers could process flight plans faster and handle more flights per shift.
Improved Decision-Making – The integrated interface provided dispatchers with faster access to critical information, reducing time spent switching between applications.
Reduced Cognitive Load – The refined information hierarchy and updated visual design allowed dispatchers to focus on high-priority tasks rather than sifting through excessive data.
By designing a more intuitive, efficient, and adaptable system, the new flight planner has empowered dispatchers to work faster and more effectively, improving both operational performance and flight safety.
