HMI prototype for an air-traffic tool

Radio communication in air traffic control uses call signs (aircraft flight identifiers) and many other abbreviations. These can sound confusingly
similar, leading to potentially hazardous situations and even accidents.


Eurocontrol asked Namahn to design an HMI prototype for a tool to detect and resolve potentially similar call signs. This tool is to be used by all air traffic stakeholders in the Eurocontrolarea of operations.

Understand
By carefully observing the operators at work, we gained an in-depth insight in their needs and practices. Individual airlines had introduced some automatic functionality with the help of database applications. However, these first approaches towards an automated solution led to repetitive work and were applied only locally.

Explore
Using the input from the operational concepts, functional requirements and field studies, a mental model was devised for the future tool. This model defines how users responsible for detecting and resolving similarities in a given flight plan will perceive the application, its content and behaviour inside the workflow.

Define
We created HMI mock-ups that were refined across several iterations based on feedback from EUROCONTROL and its stakeholders. The final HTML prototype allowed basic navigation and interactions. Our HMI design was able to hide the complexity of the tool’s underlying algorithms without loosing any functionality or efficiency.

Eurocontrol's priority had been a realistic first mock-up to be presented to aircraft operators and air traffic stakeholders. We created a minimal but pertinent engineering specification to communicate all design concepts to the future developers in a concise and practical format.

Our design helped Eurocontrolto communicate their vision of how to deal with call-sign similarity issues and get essential buy-in and commitment from the international stakeholders on using the proposed tool. It is scheduled to be made available via Eurocontrol's Network Operations Portal, which provides operational information on European airspace to all air traffic stakeholders.