United Airlines

CATEGORIES | DIGITAL, UI & UX DESIGN

AGENCY | ONE NORTH

United Airlines underwent a huge initiative to revamp airport signage in alignment with their updated brand guidelines. As the UI design lead, I played a pivotal role in driving this initiative forward, contributing to the redesign of crucial screens deployed across airports nationwide. I also helped reorganize their vast signage library, which involved managing a multitude of sizes and restructuring all the files to follow a cohesive naming system. In collaboration with UX designers, developers, user testers, and the brand team, we executed multiple rounds of testing with airport passengers. Our goal was to craft designs that not only adhered to the new brand identity but also make information more accessible and relevant to passengers.

Flight Information Displays (FIDs)

When working on the FIDs, we considered using tiles instead of presenting flight information in a traditional list format. Our exploration revealed that using tiles offered more versatility in emphasizing important details and establishing a clear hierarchy for each flight's information. We also introduced flight status and iconography to enhance user comprehension and usability.

Flight Information (FLIFO)

When working on the FLIFOs, we had the opportunity to be more creative in how we presented flight information. These displays served as one of the initial screens passengers would see upon arriving at their gate. I explored three distinct approaches: one involved enhancing the existing design, while the other two explored the integration of the updated brand identity. In addition, I considered the possibility of incorporating destination images and tailoring the display to match the time of day corresponding to the arrival time.

States & Display

Gate Information Displays (GIDs)

For the GIDs, I had to come up with a design that aligned with the FLIFO displays while accommodating both double-screen and single-screen formats. This challenge arose because certain airports used two screens to display flight information, whereas others relied on just one. To address this, we thought of the concept of dividing the screen into quadrants, which simplified the transition of information from double-screen to single-screen setups. Moreover, the design of the right two quadrants mirrored the DBDs and served to visually distinguish various passenger groups.

States & Display

Dynamic Boarding Displays (DBDs)

For the DBDs, we had to adapt the updated design to accommodate an additional wider screen size, incorporate new brand colors, and ensure alignment with the styles of the FLIFO and GIDs. This presented the challenge of exploring various color combinations, some of which were tested at airports to gauge peoples’ reception. The complexity arose from the fact that certain colors already carried specific connotations (e.g., red for stop, green for go, and gray for inactive), and some colors appeared inconsistently on different screens, which couldn't be standardized across all airports. After thorough user testing, we discovered that a dark blue/green combo proved the most successful, largely due to passengers' association to the United brand, familiarity with this pairing from previous designs, and the visual contrast between the two colors.