Applying a User-Centered Design Process to the Creation of an Electronic Kneeboard Application Suite

Pre-flight and in-flight activities require pilots to carry voluminous materials, such as maps and charts, and utilize commercial applications that do not provide mission-specific information. This creates issues for the pilot by occupying physical space in the cockpit and forcing them to use multiple sources to complete their duties. By developing an electronic kneeboard application suite for the iPad, we will remove this reliance on hard-copy materials and third-party software and improve situational awareness in-flight by moving this information into a single location. Phase I aims to lay the foundation by first understanding the pilots role through user interviews and the creation of a Goal-Driven Task Analysis. This will be used to guide the design and development of an assigned example application to help pilots calculate brake temperature, along with an initial design concept for the application suite and a software development framework to be developed in future phases. This framework will serve as an open-source tool that third-party development teams can use to improve upon and build new products for the application suitedriving business for us as the product manager, and helping to further position our company as experts in the field of situational awareness technology.