CASE STUDY

User research and prototype creation for satellite mission control

Spaceit is a space tech company providing a cloud-based platform for mission control and ground station services.

I worked for the company in it’s early phase as the only UX designer, in close collaboration with the CEO and CTO. The goal of the work was to provide user research and design input for the Spaceit team - to deliver a common vision of a user journey for the team and an initial prototype for the mission control system.

My role

I was the sole designer working in close collaboration with the CEO and CTO who were making preparations to create a detailed roadmap for their development process. I proposed the project methodology and conducted all the activities.

Project outline

Brief & planning

Recruiting

Interviews & observations (contextual inquiry)

Personas

Journey mapping

Prototyping

Testing

Presentation of the results

Methods

The methodology was a classic user centred design approach, starting with user research, followed by prototyping and evaluation in several rounds to iteratively improve the design.

Tools: Zoom, OBS, Dovetail, Miro, Axure, Optimal Workshop.

  • I conducted 12 interviews with satellite operators and mission managers. Most interviews were conducted over video calls. The participants shared their screen to demonstrate their current tools.  I recorded the video calls and used Dovetail to transcribe and code interviews with keywords to mark meaningful topics & quotes to work with during analysis & synthesized the findings by creating affinity diagrams in Miro.

  • Based on the interview data, I created 4 personas and short scenarios to be used as input for journey mapping.

  • In order to get the team on one page and introduce the results of the target group interviews, we conducted journey mapping sessions with the CEO and CTO of the startup.

    I was able to use the knowledge gained from the target group interviews and observations to consolidate a vision for a TO BE user journey that included both end user input, technological constraints and business needs

  • Based on the user journeys and personas, I started to create the information architecture and wireframes of the mission control system. The wireframes were regularly discussed and specified with the core team. Validation of the navigation structure was done by card sorting and short online navigation tests in Optimal Workshop.

    After the wireframes were validated, I created a functional prototype in Axure.

  • The prototype was tested over video calls. The test-sessions were screen recorder with OBS software.

    The sessions were analysed and usability problems categorised  with the help of a usability problem severity decision tree.

    The identified issues were explained and visualised in the form of a slide presentation.

    The results were presented to the core team and prototype was improved based on the results

Tools

I used Zoom and OBS software to record the contextual interviews and later testing sessions. Dovetail to code the transcripts. Miro to affinity diagram the insights and come up with personas and scenarios.

User journey mapping was done in person using a whiteboard, but later digitalised in Miro.

Wireframes, information architecture and protoyping was done in Axure.

Information architecture was tested with the help of Optimal workshop.

Discussion notes of the user journey on a whiteboard

Discussion notes of the user journey on a whiteboard

Prototype view of the telemetry section of the mission control software that was used for testing

Prototype view of the telemetry section of the mission control software that was used for testing

Example of testing results marked on screenshots for a presentation

Example of testing results marked on screenshots for a presentation

Prototype view of the telemetry section as a deliverable

Prototype view of the telemetry section as a deliverable

Impact

The work in close collaboration with the CTO and CEO helped the startup in its early phase to come up with a focused roadmap for the development and communicate a holistic vision of the platform to the team.

After my work as a part-time consultant, I helped the team in recruiting a full time UX designer who continues the work based on the deliverables that I handed over.

I've continued to support the team in an advisory capacity to provide the new designer an opportunity to discuss their ideas for further design and research activities.

Deliverables

Coded & anonymised transcripts of interviews

Personas and user journey maps

Wireframes and information architecture

Validated and tested prototype

Testing results

Proposal for next steps