CASE STUDY

Doing Rocket Science: prototype creation for satellite mission control

Spaceit is a space tech company offering a cloud-based platform for mission control and ground station services. As the sole UX designer in the company's early phase, I collaborated closely with the CEO and CTO to conduct user research and design an initial prototype for the mission control system. Our goal was to establish a unified vision of the user journey and develop a prototype that would guide future development.

image of a mission control dashboard, showing left side navigation menu. Dashboard has contact planning tab open and shows a table of next contacts.

About

Industry: Space Technology / Aerospace / SaaS for Satellite Operations

Company Size (at the time): Early-stage startup (e.g., < 10 employees)

Product Type: Cloud-based mission control and ground station services

Target Users: Mission managers, satellite operators, ground station engineers

Key goals and challenges:

Deliver a research-backed prototype: Establish a validated, user-centered foundation to guide platform development.
Build UX from the ground up: No prior UX research existed, requiring a deep dive into user needs and workflows.
Simplify complex operations with mission-specific flexibility: Mission control systems involve intricate, high-stakes processes with unique mission requirements, demanding a highly modular and customizable system.
Balance usability and feasibility: Align technical constraints with user needs to create a viable, user-friendly solution.

My role

Collaboration: Sole UX designer, partnering closely with the CEO and CTO to define project goals and shape the product vision.

Research & Strategy: Designed and executed the research plan, ensuring insights directly informed product decisions.

Design Execution: Led the end-to-end design process—from user research to prototyping—while facilitating alignment across stakeholders.

Communication: Synthesized findings into actionable recommendations, presenting insights to guide development.

Project outline

Brief & planning

Recruiting

Interviews & observations (contextual inquiry)

Personas

Journey mapping

Prototyping

Testing

Presentation of the results

Impact

Improved User Understanding: Developed detailed personas from the interviews, enhancing the team's comprehension of end users and their specific needs.

Co-created User Journeys: Facilitated journey mapping sessions that resulted in a holistic view of the service, incorporating insights from both users and stakeholders.

Prototype as Development Input: Created a validated prototype that provided essential input for development planning, ensuring alignment with user needs.

Handover and Mentorship: Assisted the team in recruiting and mentoring a full-time UX designer, ensuring a smooth transition and continuity of design efforts.

This structured approach not only clarified user needs but also established a strong foundation for user-centered development in the startup’s critical early phase.

Deliverables

Coded & anonymised interview transcripts

Personas and user journey maps

Wireframes and information architecture

Validated prototype

Testing results

Proposal for next steps

Methods

I followed an iterative process of user research, prototyping, and evaluation to ensure the final design met the real needs of satellite operators and mission managers.

Finding the Right Participants

Since no participant database existed, I collaborated with the CEO and CTO to recruit users from their professional network. This approach helped us overcome the challenge of reaching a niche audience within a short timeframe.

💡 Key Insight: Direct outreach to industry professionals ensured we spoke with highly relevant participants, leading to more actionable insights.

Criteria for Participants:

Mission managers & satellite operators
Experience with mission control systems
Represented a variety of operational environments

Understanding the Users: Interviews & Observations

To deeply understand the challenges of satellite operations, I conducted 12 in-depth interviews with satellite operators and mission managers. Instead of relying on generic questions, I asked participants to demonstrate their current tools and workflows live on video calls, uncovering nuances that wouldn't have surfaced in a standard Q&A.

💡 Key Insight: Observing real workflows helped us identify pain points users had normalised—such as inefficient manual logging between several windows—highlighting opportunities for automation and streamlining.

Approach:

Allowed question refinement on the fly as unexpected insights emerged
Collected customer stories and direct quotes to build team empathy
Ensured diversity in operational contexts, making findings more representative

Making Sense of the Data: Analysis & Synthesis

After recording sessions with Zoom and OBS, I transcribed and coded interviews in Dovetail, applying thematic analysis to surface meaningful patterns.

💡 Key Insight: By using affinity diagrams in Miro, we synthesized findings into clear opportunity areas, shaping the direction of design decisions.

Tagged recurring pain points & needs with keywords
Created visual artifacts to make insights actionable for the team

Personas: Bringing Users to Life

From the research, I developed four personas to capture the core user types and their workflows. Each persona was enriched with real user stories and scenarios, helping the team connect features to real-world challenges.

💡 Key Insight: These personas became a decision-making tool, ensuring every feature was grounded in user reality.

Fostered empathy within the development team
Prioritized features based on user needs
Provided a foundation for journey mapping

Journey Mapping: Visualizing the Experience

To align the team and translate research into action, I facilitated journey mapping sessions with the CEO and CTO.

💡 Key Insight: By contrasting current vs. ideal user journeys, we uncovered critical inefficiencies and mapped out an improved workflow.

"TO BE" journey informed by direct user insights
Balanced user needs, technical constraints, and business goals
Ensured team alignment on the experience vision

From Insights to Design: Prototyping & Validation

With the user journeys defined, I moved into structuring the information architecture and wireframing the mission control system. These were continuously refined with the core team.

💡 Key Insight: Early navigation tests (card sorting & online tests in Optimal Workshop) revealed usability gaps before high-fidelity prototyping.

Wireframes iterated based on feedback
Created a functional Axure prototype with increasing levels of fidelity

Testing & Iteration: Refining the Solution

The prototype underwent remote usability testing via video calls, with sessions recorded using OBS software. Usability issues were identified and categorized based on severity using a structured decision tree.

💡 Key Insight: Presenting test findings through visual storytelling (slides + examples) helped drive quick decision-making in the team.

Issues categorized by impact on workflow
Findings presented in a clear, actionable format
Prototype continuously improved based on test results

Conclusion

This structured approach ensured that every design decision was backed by user research. By observing real workflows, iterating through testing, and aligning the team on user needs, we created the first full prototype of a mission control system that truly supported satellite operators in their complex tasks.