Aviation · Commercial Flight Deck

Scaling EFB research across 200+ airlines

Commercial airline pilot reviewing an Electronic Flight Bag in the cockpit

Reduced pilot heads-down time by 30%.

Context

ForeFlight, a Boeing company at the time of the engagement, developing Jeppesen's FliteDeck ProX Electronic Flight Bag for commercial airlines. The integrated platform consolidated flight planning, charts, weather, and hazard awareness into a single safety-critical tool. ForeFlight now operates as Jeppesen ForeFlight.

Challenge

Validate that line pilots could safely and efficiently use the EFB in high-workload operational contexts while maintaining situational awareness and reducing heads-down time on the device.

How we helped

Conducted high-fidelity Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) simulation testing using real routes, diversions, and geographic edge cases. Moderated usability sessions used think-aloud, the System Usability Scale (SUS), and NASA TLX workload assessment, alongside A/B testing, cognitive walkthroughs, and FAA/EASA heuristic evaluations. Led a gap analysis across 200+ airline operators globally to prioritize the product roadmap.

The impact

•Identified 25+ critical use errors in flight planning and navigation workflows
•Validated feature adoption across 200+ airlines globally
•Reduced pilot heads-down time by 30% compared to legacy multi-app workflows
•Supported successful deployment to commercial airline fleet
•Cross-regional gap analysis across three continents directly informed feature prioritization
•Simulator evaluation surfaced haptic interaction degradation under turbulence, crew coordination gaps, and persistent trust erosion after system errors
•Findings shaped trust-signal requirements for digital sync features and confirmed the need for manual override on Auto SID/STAR