NEXGEN Flight Planning
Reinventing mission-critical flight planning for commercial dispatchers
ROLE:
UX/UI Designer (End-to-End)
OVERVIEW:
NEXGEN Flight Planning is a mission-critical dispatch platform designed to modernize the tools commercial aviation teams rely on daily. Built as a next-generation replacement for JJP — Boeing's legacy dispatch software — the project addressed a growing gap between regulatory requirements, operational expectations, and the capabilities of aging infrastructure.
​
The stakes were high. Dispatchers, supervisors, pilots, and air traffic controllers depend on these tools in real time. Gaps in functionality or usability don't just create friction — they can directly impact flight safety and operational efficiency. My work on NEXGEN focused on two core feature areas: a unified Alerts Management system and an Emergency Escape Route / Depressurization Routing tool.
COLLABORATORS:
Lead Designer, Product Manager, Subject Matter (SME's) and 5 Developers
TIMELINE:
~12 months total (6-month initial phase, paused, relaunched as ForeFlight Dispatch)
PLATFORM:
Web (with future iPad consideration)
TOOLS:
Note: Due to NDA restrictions, this case study does not include product screenshots or proprietary visual assets.
MY ROLE
I was a UX/UI designer on the project, owning the end-to-end design process across both feature areas. My responsibilities spanned:
​
-
Discovery & Research — interviews, SME sessions, and competitive analysis
-
Design — sketching, wireframing, interaction design, and visual UI
-
Validation — facilitating usability testing sessions and iterating on findings
-
Collaboration — partnering with the Product Manager, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and engineering to define success metrics and validate feasibility within a regulated aviation environment
THE PROBLEM
JJP, the legacy Boeing dispatch system, had been the operational backbone for airline dispatchers for years. But time had taken its toll. Regulations had evolved, operational complexity had grown, and the software had not kept pace. Dispatchers were working around the tool as much as they were working with it — juggling fragmented alert views, managing emergency scenarios with limited decision support, and navigating a UI that hadn't been meaningfully redesigned in years.​
This project is vital because it directly impacts the safety and efficiency of commercial flight operations, ensuring dispatchers have the necessary tools to perform their jobs effectively without major disruptions.
​
NEXGEN wasn't just a redesign — it was a ground-up effort to rebuild what a modern dispatch platform should look like, informed by the people who use it every day.
RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY
Understanding the Existing Workflows
Before any design work began, I invested heavily in understanding how dispatchers actually worked. I conducted in-depth interviews with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who had hands-on experience with the JJP legacy product. These sessions focused on mapping workflows step-by-step — understanding not just what dispatchers did, but why, in what order, and where the current tool created friction or forced workarounds.
​
This foundation was critical. Aviation dispatch is a highly regulated, highly specialized domain. Designing without deep workflow knowledge would have produced something polished but fundamentally wrong.
​​
Competitive Analysis
I conducted a structured competitive review of both direct competitors in the aviation dispatch space and adjacent products with strong alert management or emergency routing patterns. The goals were:
-
Identify feature gaps relative to industry expectations
-
Surface design conventions that experienced dispatchers might already rely on
-
Find inspiration for solving problems our legacy product hadn't addressed well
​​Usability Testing
With wireframes developed for key features, I facilitated usability testing sessions with 5 aviation dispatcher subject matter experts. Sessions used task-based scenarios designed to mirror real-world flight planning situations — not abstract UI walkthroughs.
​
Methodology:
-
Task-based scenarios simulating live dispatch conditions
-
Think-aloud protocol to surface reasoning and hesitation points
-
Post-task reflection on confidence and ease of use
Key Findings:
-
Overall navigation was perceived as a significant improvement over the legacy system
-
Several users struggled with specific interaction patterns within the Alerts feature, particularly around multi-criteria sorting
-
The emergency routing workflow needed clearer state indication to reduce cognitive load during high-stress scenarios
-
Terminology alignment between the UI and industry-standard language was critical for trust and adoption
These findings drove two rounds of iteration. Here's how the numbers moved:
FEATURE DEEP DIVE: Alerts Management
The Problem
In the legacy system, alerts were scattered — dispatchers couldn't see all active alerts in one place, let alone quickly triage them by what mattered most. During high-volume operations, this created a dangerous cognitive burden. Critical alerts could be buried.
​
The Design Solution
I designed a unified Alerts Dashboard that consolidated all system alerts into a single, scannable view. The interface gave dispatchers full control over how they prioritized and filtered information, with sorting and filtering across four key dimensions:
​
-
Severity — surface the most critical alerts immediately
-
Category — filter by alert type (weather, NOTAMs, fuel, ATC, etc.)
-
Flight — isolate alerts by specific flight or fleet subset
-
Location — geographic filtering for regional situational awareness
-
​
The visual hierarchy was designed around dispatcher mental models — severity-coded color cues, clear timestamps, and progressive disclosure to surface detail without overwhelming the primary view.
​
Design Decisions:
-
Persistent filter state so dispatchers returning to the screen don't lose their context
-
Inline acknowledgment to reduce click depth during time-sensitive operations
-
Mobile-forward layout considerations to support a potential future iPad version
FEATURE DEEP DIVE: Emergency Escape Route/Depressurization Routing
The Problem
When a depressurization event occurs at altitude, dispatchers and pilots need to quickly identify safe descent and diversion routes. The legacy system offered limited support for this scenario, requiring dispatchers to work across multiple tools or rely on manual reference materials under pressure.
​
The Design Solution
I designed an Emergency Routing module that surfaced escape route options and guided dispatchers through depressurization routing decisions within a single, coherent workflow. Key design goals included:
​
-
Reduce cognitive load during high-stress emergency scenarios
-
Provide clear, unambiguous decision points rather than raw data
-
Surface relevant constraints (terrain, airspace, alternates) in context
-
Align with established dispatcher and pilot mental models for emergency procedures
Post-testing iterations focused on improving state clarity — making it immediately obvious what step of the emergency routing workflow the user was in, what decisions had been made, and what action was required next.
CHALLENGES AND PIVOTS
Domain Complexity — Aviation dispatch operates within strict regulatory frameworks (FAA, ICAO). Every design decision needed to account for compliance constraints, often in collaboration with SMEs and the PM to confirm what was operationally and legally feasible.
​
Project Pause & Relaunch — After the initial 6-month phase, the project was paused before being relaunched as ForeFlight Dispatch — a signal of the platform's strategic importance within the Boeing / ForeFlight portfolio. Designs required re-evaluation against updated scope and stakeholder priorities upon relaunch.
​
Testing with a Hard-to-Reach User Group — Experienced aviation dispatchers are a small, specialized population with demanding schedules. Recruiting 5 qualified SMEs for testing required close coordination with stakeholders, and sessions had to be structured to extract maximum insight efficiently.
IMPACT AND OUTCOMES
The NEXGEN Flight Planning project delivered meaningful improvements across both operational and business dimensions.
​
On the operational side, the consolidated Alerts Dashboard reduced the number of screens and context switches required for dispatchers to monitor active flight status — directly improving triage speed during high-volume operations. The depressurization routing module replaced a fragmented, multi-tool emergency process with a single guided workflow, reducing time-to-decision in scenarios where every second matters. Usability testing confirmed that navigation was substantially improved over the legacy system, with iterative design cycles resolving the specific friction points surfaced during testing.
​
​The results were measurable:
​​From a business perspective, these gains aligned directly with Boeing and ForeFlight's broader strategic goals — operational excellence, customer trust, and a safety-first product culture. By addressing the most critical dispatcher pain points, NEXGEN positioned ForeFlight as a credible, modern player in the enterprise aviation dispatch market.
WHAT'S NEXT
NEXGEN was validated when Boeing relaunched the platform as ForeFlight Dispatch — bringing the design work into active production within one of aviation's most recognized product families. The consolidated alerts system and emergency routing module designed during this engagement became core features of the relaunched product, confirming that the research-driven decisions made during the project held up at scale.
REFLECTION
NEXGEN Flight Planning was one of the most challenging and rewarding projects of my career. The intersection of safety-critical stakes, a highly specialized user base, and the complexity of modernizing deeply entrenched workflows demanded rigorous research, careful iteration, and meaningful cross-functional collaboration.
​
What made this project particularly meaningful was the weight of what the software does. These aren't productivity apps — they are tools that dispatchers and pilots rely on during emergencies, under pressure, with real consequences. That reality sharpened every design decision and reinforced the value of getting it right through research and testing rather than assumption.
​
The constraints of a regulated environment also deepened my appreciation for strategic tradeoffs in design. Not every good idea belongs in the first release. Knowing when to advocate for a design direction and when to defer to operational realities is a skill that this project helped me develop — and one I carry into every engagement since.
TRADEOFFS
Not every good idea made it into the first release — and that was intentional.
​
The most significant tradeoff was in the emergency routing workflow. Early explorations included an auto-recommended route that would surface the optimal escape path without dispatcher input. We chose not to ship it. In a safety-critical environment, dispatcher authority over every routing decision is non-negotiable — both operationally and regulatorily. A system that auto-selects a route, even a good one, removes a layer of human verification that aviation relies on. We kept the dispatcher in control and focused the design on making their decision faster and clearer instead.
​
A second tradeoff came in alert filtering. We explored predictive filtering — surfacing alerts we anticipated the dispatcher would care about based on their active flights. It tested well in isolation but created confusion when predictions were wrong. Dispatchers lost trust quickly when the system filtered out something they needed. We reverted to explicit, user-controlled filtering and invested in making that interaction as fast and low-friction as possible.
​
Both decisions reflect the same principle: in high-stakes environments, clarity and control outweigh convenience.