UX, UI, Service
Boarding pass system
Project Overview
BLADE is a technology-powered, global urban air mobility platform committed to reducing travel friction by enabling cost-effective air transportation alternatives to some of the most congested ground routes in the U.S. and abroad.
In 2022, after acquiring two European helicopter services, A requirement from the EU’s Aviation Authority, requires all fliers to have a boarding pass.
As a first assignment, I was tasked to design a pass to fulfill this new requirement.
What starts as a simple visual design/ ui request, turned into an exercise in service design.
The Process
Audit of existing UI
The Challenge
User journey map to help communicate the implementation and flow to everyone- for stage 1
Boarding pass styling in app w/ new branding 
The Solutions
This was my first task at BLADE. So I knew nothing about their product flows and how their system operated.
Stakeholders first asked me to design where a boarding pass would go into their current app, that could be printable, and added into apple wallet.
Approved Designs by US stakeholders
Iterations designed based on scope
Boarding pass styling in app w/ current branding 
They had also just received native app designs from Metalab, however it had not gone into development yet. As it was unclear what the development timeline would be, I provided two stylings to the stakeholders for approval.
I began with a general audit.
Boarding pass- printed from check in at airport
There was miscommunication between the European teams on the ground which were recently acquired by BLADE and the US team, about the requirement details. Europe only had standard A4 printers (not standard for receipt printing) and wanted to prioritize efficiency/resources over brand, which was the priority and main focus with the US stakeholders.
Also, the scope of building new features into the current app to include an apple wallet would also not be pushed live fast enough for launch in Europe.
This meant changing they type of print design, and when the user would be able to access it.
After learning of all the challenges, I worked with the European operations lead to quickly figure out a solution that was a compromise for both the European team’s requirements and the US stakeholder’s expectations for a version 1.
Until tech could prioritize the build of the boarding pass into the app/system, we would print onsite to fulfill the EUAA requirements for operations.
Then I broke the journey down into a visual map, so that all teams were aligned on the user’s experience for version 1.
The Learnings
As a contract hire on their first project at a large company in the middle of a merger, I learned very quickly that for this client, I would have to isolate the right stakeholders before I begin a project. There were so many people in leadership that wanted to have a say in the visual design outcomes, that I didn’t seek the two who actually would implement and operate the designs. I also learned that communication was key.
From this first project I also developed a pretty good understanding of their product system, and it would aid in my next couple assignments.