Aviation · Case study 10 of 12

American Airlines

American Airlines engaged Yellowfirst to redesign the crew operations app used by 28,000 pilots and flight attendants — a mission-critical tool used in environments where cognitive load, accessibility, and reliability are safety factors, not just UX considerations.

American Airlines — Aviation interface design by Yellowfirst
Client
American Airlines
Year
2021
Industry
Aviation
Role
Mobile UX · Accessibility · Aviation Safety Design

The challenge

The existing app had been built for desktop and ported to mobile without redesign. Navigation required 5-7 taps to reach time-sensitive crew briefing information. Font sizes were below FAA accessibility guidelines. The app failed intermittently in low-connectivity environments at 35,000 feet — with no offline fallback. Crew members were using physical paper backups as a result, defeating the purpose of digital transformation.

The solution

We redesigned the app from mobile-first: the most time-critical information — departure details, gate changes, crew manifest updates — surfaces within one tap of launch. The navigation model is thumb-optimised for use in a confined cockpit environment. Full offline capability ensures every document and brief is cached locally with a clear sync status indicator. Typography meets FAA accessibility guidelines with four user-selectable size tiers. The interaction model is glove-compatible — no small touch targets anywhere in the crew-facing interface.

Our process

  1. 01 Contextual Research

    Flew 6 observation flights with crew permission. Documented app usage patterns in actual in-flight conditions — lighting, turbulence, time pressure.

  2. 02 Accessibility Audit

    Full audit against FAA display guidelines, WCAG 2.1 AA, and airline-specific operational requirements. Identified 34 non-compliant UI elements.

  3. 03 Navigation Redesign

    Reduced critical information access from 5-7 taps to 1-2. Designed a bottom navigation model optimised for single-handed thumb use.

  4. 04 Offline Architecture UX

    Designed the sync state system — clear indicators for cached/live data, offline mode badge, and auto-sync on connectivity restore.

  5. 05 Safety Review Process

    All designs reviewed by American Airlines safety team, FAA compliance officers, and pilot union representatives before finalisation.

Outcomes

  • 5-7→1Taps to critical crew information
  • 100%FAA accessibility compliance
  • 0Paper backup incidents 6 months post-launch
  • 28,000+Crew members on the platform

Technology

  • iOS
  • Android
  • React Native
  • ASP.NET
  • Azure

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