AMSIS stands for Aviation Medical Surveillance Information System. It is a comprehensive system that collects and processes medical data related to aviation personnel, such as pilots, air traffic controllers and flight attendants. AMSIS enables the monitoring and evaluation of the health and fitness of these individuals, as well as the identification and management of potential health risks and hazards. AMSIS also supports the development and implementation of evidence-based policies and standards for aviation medicine.

Summary

AMSIS stands for Aerospace Medicine Safety Information System. It is a web-based application that supports the mission of the FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine. AMSIS provides a secure and user-friendly platform for managing and analyzing aviation safety data related to medical certification, aeromedical research, and occupational health. AMSIS enables the FAA to enhance the safety and efficiency of the national airspace system by ensuring the health and well-being of pilots, air traffic controllers, and other aviation professionals.

Tetra Tech collaborated with the FAA's Office of Aerospace Medicine to develop AMSIS, a web-based application that would streamline the medical processes for various aviation programs. The team conducted user research, interviews, and journey mapping to understand the needs and pain points of the current system users. AMSIS would support the following programs: Medical Certification of Airmen, Medical Clearance of Air Traffic Controllers, Oversight of the Aviation Industry's Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs, Designation, Training, Oversight and Surveillance of Aviation Medical Examiners, Internal Substance Abuse Program, and Avaition Medical Examiner Program.

Goals

Tetra Tech embarked on a project to create and implement a state-of-the-art online system that would consolidate the client's legacy systems into one unified platform. The legacy systems, which were developed separately in the 1990's, had various technical problems and user complaints. The outdated architecture of these systems made them difficult to maintain and upgrade, and they would soon become obsolete. Tetra tech aimed to deliver a modern and integrated system that would address the issues and meet the needs of the client and the end users.

Responsibilities

One of the essential steps in developing a user-friendly and engaging website or application is to design the user interface (UI) based on the user's needs and expectations. This involves three main processes: user flow mapping, wireframing and visual design. User flow mapping is the process of creating a diagram that shows how the user will navigate through the website or application, what actions they will take and what outcomes they will achieve. Wireframing is the process of creating a low-fidelity sketch or prototype of the UI that shows the layout, structure and functionality of each screen or page. Visual design is the process of adding colors, fonts, images and other aesthetic elements to the wireframe to create a high-fidelity mockup of the UI that reflects the brand identity and style of the website or application.

Tools

A UX designer is someone who creates user-friendly and engaging experiences for digital products. To do this, they need to use various tools that help them research, design, test and iterate on their solutions. Some of the tools of a UX designer are:

• User research tools: These are methods and tools that help the UX designer understand the needs, preferences and behaviors of the users. For example, surveys, interviews, personas, user journeys, etc.
• Wireframing and prototyping tools: These are tools that help the UX designer create low-fidelity and high-fidelity mockups of their designs. For example, Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, InVision, etc.
• User testing tools: These are tools that help the UX designer evaluate the usability and effectiveness of their designs. For example, usability testing, A/B testing, heatmaps, analytics, etc.
• Collaboration and communication tools: These are tools that help the UX designer work with other stakeholders and share their work. For example, Slack, Trello, Google Docs, etc.

Laying the Foundations - Mockups

This is a draft version of the Dashboard design. This feature received the most positive feedback from our potential users in all the testing sessions we conducted. They appreciated the convenience and efficiency of having their essential data displayed as soon as they logged in.

A detailed and realistic Figma design of the dashboard that showcases the layout, functionality and aesthetics of the user interface.

A high fidelity design in anticipation of future development.

Setting Visual Standards

The SVS (Style and Visual Standards) guide is a document that specifies the visual design of the application. It provides examples and guidelines for UI elements, components, graphics, fonts, colors, and styles that should be used consistently throughout the development process. The purpose of the SVS guide is to ensure that the application has a coherent and appealing visual appearance.

Sessions with Users

One of the main goals of the project was to ensure that the users' needs and preferences were met and respected. We understood that the users had a long history of using the previous products, which gave them a deep familiarity and expertise with them. Therefore, we anticipated that any changes or innovations would pose some challenges and frustrations for them. To address this issue, we organized extensive sessions with the users, where we facilitated dialogues and demonstrations of the new features and functionalities. The image below illustrates a Miroboard that contains several user journeys.

Final Development

The project progressed to the subsequent phase after we received encouraging responses from both the end users and the internal stakeholders. The latter group included the product owners and the senior staff, who evaluated our work and gave us valuable feedback. We then handed over the screens to the development teams, who had the task of converting them into the final functional product.

What I Learned

Working on large teams and developing applications for large user bases can pose many challenges. One of them is how to deal with the diverse and sometimes conflicting opinions and ideas that emerge from different stakeholders. In my experience, this can overwhelm the team and cause misunderstandings and delays. I learned that it is important to have a clear and consistent voice that represents the users and the development team in meetings. I also learned that having meetings with smaller groups and a well-defined agenda can help to make decisions or discussions more focused and productive.

One of the possible ways to improve the design process and the user experience of the application was to use personas and journey maps as tools for clarifying the tasks and the roles of the users. Personas are fictional representations of the target users, based on research and data, that capture their goals, needs, motivations and behaviors. Journey maps are visualizations of the users' interactions with the application over time, highlighting their pain points, emotions and opportunities for improvement. By creating and using personas and journey maps, the design team could have defined more clearly and accurately the tasks that the users wanted to accomplish with the application, and the roles that they assumed in different scenarios and contexts.