SouthWest Airlines

Southwest Airlines - Gate Management

Southwest Airlines was one of the biggest and most complicated projects I’ve ever worked on. I was onsite with the development and product teams for 2 years working on software to help Southwest takes their business nationwide after the repeal of the Wright Amendment. 

Read more about it here: Southwest Airlines’ Digital Transformation Takes Off

The project started with comprehensive contextual inquiries across multiple airports to determine how ground control personnel would use the software we would build. Wireframe after wireframe lead to a suite of software products that would allow each of the airports to operate much more smoothly and track planes on the ground in an efficient manner. I was responsible for the design of one of the pieces of software in the suite, called the Gate Schedule. Each of the “pucks” you see here on the schedule represents an aircraft’s time on the ground, at a particular gate. Sometimes, flights are late or early and can cause a conflict at a that particular gate. We designed a way for the gate personnel to easily move pucks around and easily see what gates are available and where. Prior to this software, a lot of the Gate management was done by hand on dry-erase boards and clipboards.

My responsibilities included the Information Architecture, Visual Design, Interaction Design and handoff of everything on the Gate Schedule. I worked closely with the development team, Business Analysts, and Product Owners throughout the life cycle of the project. I helped write User Stories and Acceptance Criteria to ensure accurate translation from Design to Development.