We built an early version of our flight delay screen around a big ‘Delayed’ label. It looked clear in a design review, but when I tried using it like a passenger, I realised I still had to hunt for the useful bits.
I wanted to know when the information was last updated, whether the gate had changed, and whether there was anything I needed to do. Those details were spread across different screens. We’re bringing them together so someone checking their phone at the airport can get an answer quickly.
We’re still figuring out the wording when there’s no new information. I’d rather say that plainly than make someone keep refreshing the page.
We found three different labels for a gate change in the same dashboard. One screen said ‘reassigned’, another said ‘moved’, and a third just said ‘updated’. I hadn’t noticed until we started reviewing the screens side by side.
I’d been working on the product for months, so I knew what each one meant. Someone opening it in the middle of a shift shouldn’t need that context. We changed the labels to ‘Gate changed’ and checked the other alerts while we were at it.
There’s still a lot of work to do in that dashboard. I’m glad we caught this before adding more features on top.
I liked our route map until I realised we were showing proposed routes exactly like routes that were already operating. In the design file, I knew which were which, but a customer opening the map wouldn’t have that context.
We added a label for proposed connections and a simpler legend. It makes the map a little busier than the first version, which bothered me at first. After looking at it again, I think it’s easier to work with.
I should have spotted that earlier. We were spending a lot of time on how the lines looked and not enough on what they actually represented.
