PAX for Viasat InsightsUser research and interviews, workflow analysis, UI/UX design, data visualization, dashboard design B2B, Enterprise, SaaS, AviationReaktor North America / 2023



Real-time Wi-Fi performance and passenger insights platform


I designed a unified analytics dashboard that consolidates scattered passenger Wi-Fi data into one platform and transforms 15-hour manual reporting processes into 2-hour workflows, giving airlines like Delta and American real-time visibility into Wi-Fi performance and passenger satisfaction.

IMPACT

  • 15+ hours saved on manual report creation
  • 5-to-1 platform consolidation
  • 2-3 weeks earlier issue detection enabled
  • Competitive advantage in the Wi-Fi service market

ROLE

As the Lead designer and researcher, driving the end-to-end design process, and conducted stakeholder interviews, workflow analysis, and platform audits while designing the UI/UX, IA, and data visualizations while working closely with the PAX team, APMs, and TAMs.

Current state problems

Airlines had no self-service access to Wi-Fi performance data. Viasat's support team spent 15+ hours monthly manually collecting data and compiling reports from fragmented systems, pulling them away from resolving passenger issues. Airlines only learned about problems days or weeks later.

We saw an opportunity to create a solution that could prevent service disruptions, save thousands in reactive troubleshooting, and help Viasat build trust with 
airline partners.



Early iterations toward clarity and context

Early iterations added temporal comparisons, derived metrics like "Average Cases per Flight," and improved hierarchy through thematic grouping. However, redundant donut charts, equal visual weight between critical metrics (response time spikes) and minor data points (email volume), and missing context still made it difficult for users to identify what mattered. 

Designing for decision-making

Later versions prioritized precision and storytelling: trend graphs with hover tooltips provided both scale and context, color-coded up/down arrows enabled quick performance scanning, and strategic data reduction focused on problem-solving over completeness. 



    


Elevating passenger data from reporting to intelligence

The final designs incorporated smart interaction patterns like timeline scrubbing, persistent sidebars, color-coded diagnostics to transform a functional dashboard into a useful tool that could help both internal teams and airline customers connect passenger complaints to wider technical issues. 






Transforming metrics into meaningful narratives

The Flight list view provides live diagnostic view of specific aircraft connectivity, passenger care issues, and service health metrics along the real-time flight path. The timeline scrubber lets users examine multiple data points at any given moment to quickly spot aberrations for support escalation. This gives immediate context and history with cross-system visibility without leaving the page.



Insights and outcomes


Partnering with engineers early aligned technical feasibility with user needs, letting us strategically reframe existing data instead of building from scratch. Most importantly, empowering the PAX team revealed that passenger complaints were powerful, predictive signals that airlines valued. We showed that designing tools that respected frontline expertise could not only just reduce manual burden, but also create new business value by turning support data into strategic intelligence.