Dunnellon Flight Club
Case study on the website for the flight school and club
Olga Gabai, UX/UI Designer
Company �and project overview
Dunnellon Flight Club
is the privately owned company offering broad range of services for private and small commercial aviation based on Marion County Airport that is located in Florida, USA. �The company also has its own flight school providing initial and advanced flight training for U.S. residents. �Over the years, the solid community of aviators has been formed at the airport, what leaded to establishing a medium scale flight club.
About the client
Services
The product:
Website with a responsive design with �the most recent information about company business and club events. �It also contains important information �and tools for the clients and students.
Project overview
Project duration:
My work on this project started in the beginning of March 2022 and it took �me two months to complete, so I have finished it in May 2022
The problem:
The current website provides very brief information, so �the reception desk experiences a lot of calls with the same repetitive questions that could be in fact answered online. �Another major problem is the airplane booking system that only exists in the form of a standard paper sheets at this moment and urgently requires an electronic version.
The goal:
Our new website should fill numerous of informational gaps, what includes providing FAQ section, electronic flight planning templates, up- to-date weather data and events feed.�But most importantly, we plan to implement an online booking system for our renters and students.
Project overview
My role:
For this project I was assigned as �a UX Researcher, Web & UI Designer
Responsibilities:
My main tasks in this project included UX research, wireframing, visual design, iterating on the design, prototyping and usability testing and study.
Project overview
Understanding
the user
User research: summary
I conducted a user research by interviewing six local people online. For this research we selected �the current customers of the Dunnellon Flight Club, four men and two women from 22 to 59 years �old living in Marion County, Florida. Among those are students, renters and one private aircraft owner.
The research showed, that current clients have difficulties communicating with the flight club personnel, especially flight dispatchers on duty. As a result, almost all of them expressed the desire �to make their reservations independently via online booking system or app. Also they would want �to get more accurate weather information without the necessity of visiting third-party resources.
User research: pain points
Phone calls
The most common pain point is inconvenience �of reserving the aircraft via the phone. The club flight dispatchers are often way too busy and not always friendly with the customers.
Last minute cancellations
The absence of the online schedule that could be accessible at any moment makes it difficult to deal with cancellations made on the short notice. So the canceled aircraft can’t be quickly re-booked and sometimes remains idle.
Weather updates
Many users are upset with the fact that despite the airport has its own portable weather station its data isn’t broadcasted in timely manner and therefore becomes useless.
Schedule management
The flight school has only
one multi-engine aircraft �in its possession and it’s nearly impossible to find an free slot to book it. �The online booking system might help users to find availabilities and manage their reservations more efficiently.
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User research: pain points
Phone calls
The most common pain point is inconvenience �of reserving the aircraft via the phone. The club flight dispatchers are often way too busy and not always friendly with the customers.
Last minute cancellations
The absence of the online schedule that could be accessible at any moment makes it difficult to deal with cancellations made on the short notice. So the canceled aircraft can’t be quickly re-booked and sometimes remains idle.
Weather updates
Many users are upset with the fact that despite the airport has its own portable weather station its data isn’t broadcasted in timely manner and therefore becomes useless.
Schedule management
The flight school has only
one multi-engine aircraft �in its possession and it’s nearly impossible to find an free slot to book it. �The online booking system might help users to find availabilities and manage their reservations more efficiently.
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Ashley
Location: Ocala, Florida, USA
Age: 24 years old
Family: Single
Occupation: IT specialist
Education: College diploma
“Because she already became my baby”
Goals
Frustrations
Ashley is a college graduate who works as a Software Engineer. But her lifelong dream was to become an airline pilot, yet her parents never could afford to pay for her flight lessons. So Ashley only got this chance after receiving well paid job in IT. Now she is working hard and spends the rest of her time studying for her commercial license. She is very determined, but struggles to find available booking slots for the particular multiengine airplane that is only one in the school fleet.
Bill
Location: Citrus Springs, Florida, USA
Age: 62 years old
Family: Married
Occupation: Retired, now entrepreneur
Education: University degree
“The less I depend on others, the better”
Goals
Frustrations
Bill is a former lawyer and currently an entrepreneur who has a passion for flying. Normally he prefers to go up each time when weather permits. Bill is not aiming for any achievements except obtaining his instrument rating with a help of the local flight instructor. He doesn’t have his own aircraft believing it’s too much headache to be an airplane owner. So he is an active renter and experienced pilot, and the flight club really loves clients like him.
Problem statement
Ashley is a commercial pilot license student�who needs an opportunity to reserve the specific �school aircraft via online booking system,
because she needs to see its availability and therefore �the entire schedule many weeks in advance
Bill is a private pilot and a member of the flight club �who needs to rent the club airplanes via online booking system, because he used to make last moment decisions when the club is already �closed or not opened yet
User journey map
Based on the conducted interviews, I created two user journey maps, here �is a screenshot of one of them.
Empathy map
Creating empathy map
plays an important role
in understanding users
pain points. Here is one of them.
BILL
Starting
the design
Sitemap
The current website structure contains of only few sections, so I had to develop the website information architecture from the scratch.
Paper wireframes
That was relatively easy part of the project except the necessity taking into account numerous of small details that couldn’t be depicted at this stage. So I had to simplify everything as much as possible.
After creating five different layouts �of the home page I developed the sixth one that includs all best elements and features of the first five versions.
Paper
wireframe
screen size
variation(s)
Based on the final version of the homepage wireframe, I created its variations for the tablet and mobile phone. Later I did the same with some of the inner pages.
Digital wireframes
After converting my hand drawn wireframes to the digital ones I could finally consider all small details and elements that are essential to see in the right place and actual screen resolution.
In particular it’s a second-level menu in the left column and content of the first screens (those users see before starting scrolling).
Digital wireframe screen size variations
Before moving to the next step, I had to be sure that my layouts will be fully responsive without a necessity in any complex solutions from the developers side.
Low-fidelity prototype
At the next step, low fidelity prototype has been created. �Here is an animated preview �of the designed interactions.
User flow
Full map of the connected screens.
Usability study: parameters
Study type:
Unmoderated usability study
Location:
Dunnellon, FL, USA. Remote
Participants:
5 participants
Length:
20-30 minutes
Usability study: findings
I conducted two rounds of usability studies: after creating first low-fidelity prototypes and after building high-fidelity ones. That’s some of the key findings that have been made during this process:
Round 1 findings
All participants found that layouts and fonts size are too large and it takes lots of scrolling
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3 out of 5 participants were confused with �a reservation editing/deleting procedure
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2 out of 5 participants got frustrated that the weather API doesn’t provide accurate data
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Round 2 findings
All participants experienced various mild confusions when navigating through the flow
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3 out of 5 participants wanted to see fully interactive version of the booking schedule
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2 out of 5 participants found that call-to-action buttons have too many size and color variants
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Usability study: findings
Affinity diagrams
Summarizing the usability study I made an affinity diagrams that helped �me to organize the data �in themes and get all �the necessary insights.
Refining
the design
Mockups
Before usability study
After usability study
Some our users have been
confused with an absence of the confirmation button when selecting an action �in the dropdown menus. Therefore I added this button at the bottom �of the related column.
Mockups
During second UX study many users complained that the �local weather station does not �provide an accurate data. �We can´t change it, but we can publish a noticeable warning message. So we expect our users to verify meteorological conditions with some other weather sources as well.
Before usability study
After usability study
Mockups:
Original
screen size
Mockups: Screen size variations
High-fidelity prototype
When creating high-fidelity prototype I considered almost all the insights. But due to the large scale of the project it was possible to develop only about 65% of the website volume at this moment. �Nonetheless, here is a link to �the interactive prototype version.
Sticker sheet
Accessibility considerations
When developing the design I considered high contrast colors for all essential elements, so the readability remains clear on the monochrome screens and for the color blinded users.
I carefully organized information using heading hierarchy so it meets WCAG 2 standards.
Also second level menus are duplicated in the left column of the pages, so the user can navigate between sections without scrolling up to the main navigation panel.
Typography is considered in two main aspects - using sans-serif fonts for large bodies of text and variable line spacing for different screen resolutions. �Not only it improves text tracking process, but also makes easier navigating on the mobile devices.
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Going forward
Takeaways
Impact:
Once I shared my high-fidelity prototypes with the stakeholders, I noted a lot of excitement and appreciation, as initially they expected �to get a smaller scale product.
What I learned:
“Wait… Have we ever planned to upload our weight and balance sheets as well? Ughh… You’ve got us an extra job, but I love the idea. Thanks!”
Next steps
First and most we need to create the fully functional version of the online reservation system and then conduct another round of UX testing and study on it alone. �Aircraft booking process �is the primary user pain point now and therefore �requires a special attention from our side.
Currently the pilot shop �is functioning on the free e-commerce platform that has limited capabilities and long URL non-related to the company domain name. It’s inconvenient and confusing, so we plan �to find a solution of how to host the company merchandise locally.
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With a help of software developers we plan to create a flight planning tool that will reduce �a pre-flight math routine for all our pilots.
Although not all of UX research participants find this idea exciting, the stakeholders believe that this tool will help this website to stand out.
Let’s connect!
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