FlightBook
An app to allow pilots of AFC to modernise and strengthen club relations, our team was tasked with finding a participant group to work with in order to identify their most pressing problems and design a solution toward. Our team created an app to allow the pilots of Abbotsford Flying Club in an effort to modernise their practises and bring them up to speed with their needs.
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Understanding
AFC faced challenges with outdated information-recording practices, especially as newer, younger members struggled with maintaining physical records. Additionally, the club had limited electronic engagement beyond basic emails, resulting in low community interaction. Our task was to modernize these practices while maintaining the club's strong aviation culture and creating a more engaging experience for all members.
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Research & Understanding: Our first step was to dive into the club's history and culture. Through ethnography and interviews with members, we gained insights into the club's foundation in the 1960s, its aging membership, and the growing need for modernization. We identified that younger members felt disconnected due to outdated communication and record-keeping methods.
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Ideation & Solutions: To address the identified issues, we brainstormed two key features:
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Social Media for Aviation: An interactive photo-map where members could share images of their journeys, post stories, and comment on each other’s experiences. This would address the lack of social engagement and allow members to feel more connected.
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Streamlined Bookkeeping: A digital flight log to simplify record-keeping, allowing members to document flight details directly in the app and share them with others.
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Prototype Development: The prototype combined the social media and bookkeeping functionalities. Users could post journey photos on a map, with pins linking to expanded entries including flight logs and comments. This dual-function approach enhanced both the professional and social aspects of the club, fostering deeper connections among members while keeping essential records up to date.
Research
Explorations
Our initial ideation focused on separating the two core functions: flight logging and community engagement. However, user feedback and usability testing revealed that combining them into a single platform would streamline workflows and increase overall engagement.
Key Features:
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Digital Flight Logbook: Allows pilots to enter flight details quickly and accurately using aviation-compliant fields.
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Photo Map Journal: Members can upload images of their flights, geotag locations on an interactive map, and share stories or comments.
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Community Feed: Pilots can comment on flight logs, fostering deeper interaction and shared storytelling among members.
The result was a unified platform that not only streamlined data entry but also transformed the way members connected, shared, and celebrated their aviation experiences.
Prototype
The prototype would allow users to record their journeys and post pictures of relevant areas. Other members would be able to view this and comment on them. The flightlog section had the most relevant fields in order to quickly fill these, post-flight, and share them with other members easily.This would be in the form of map-pins that could be clicked on for an expanded blurb and image set, with a comment section. This brought a greater depth of interactivity and an interesting way of pilots to recount their stories and uncover a greater aspect of community within the club through sharing of stories.
This project was instrumental in shaping my approach to user experience design. I was responsible for the creation of journey maps, storyboards, participant group research posters, interactive app flows, and the final promotional video. While I strengthened my technical skills in Figma and Protopie, the most valuable takeaway was mastering the user research process—identifying root problems within a community, synthesizing insights, and continuously iterating until a viable, user-aligned solution emerged. I also gained a deeper appreciation for balancing innovation with industry-specific constraints, and for designing products that not only function well, but also resonate with the people who use them.