ECS: Electronic Communication System

Transforming Pilot-IOC Communication with ECS

TL;DR

The solution in all its forms

ECS is a streamlined real-time messaging tool designed to enhance communication between pilots and IOC.
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Pilot's mobile app

The pilot-facing app they'll use to communicate with the Integrated Operations Center.
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Integrated operation center app

The IOC facing webapp that will help schedulers interface with the pilot's requests.
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Progressive Webapp

A PWA version of the app pilots have access to just in case.
Overview
Quick communication between pilots and the Integrated Operations Center (IOC) is crucial for smooth operations. However, traditional communication methods often lead to delays, miscommunication, and operational inefficiencies.
Richard Till
Director, Crew Schedule Planning
"Thank you for all your efforts on ECS. Being able to create great user experiences is one thing. Being able to create them in a politically charged environment with all eyes on you is another. Thank you for working with Lextech; for working with the APA; for working with me and my team."
Nuong Lu
Manager, IT Applications
"James, my sincere appreciation of your passion and dedication that you have put into ECS- you intentionally deep dive to broaden your understanding of the crew schedulers and crew trackers. You grasp the complexity of ECS workflow and data structure with ease. Your creativity and practical solution build a top notch set of tools to support ECS within CME."
The Challenge

A Fragmented Communication System

Before ECS, pilots relied on a mix of radio, phone trees, and e-mails to recieve and relay critical operational updates to IOC teams. This led to a host of issues:

Pilot Frustrations

Delays in message responses frequently caused pilots to actively wait anywhere between 10-15 mins or up to 2hrs before receiving responses from IOC.
Urgent communication (e.g., gate changes, crew schedule modifications, maintenance updates) got buried under non-urgent communications.
Pilots had to wait for verbal confirmations while balancing other cockpit responsibilities.

Operational inefficiencies

Miscommunication often resulted in delayed clearances, incorrect crew assignments, and last-minute flight changes.
Untimely communication created a dependency on reserve pilots.
IOC teams struggled to prioritize requests without a clear system for urgency levels.

From Research to Implementation

Before designing ECS, I conducted extensive research and design thinking exercises with pilots, IOC teams, and airline operations managers to understand their pain points. Through 50+ user interviews, usability tests, and workflow observations, here's what we found:
Pilots wanted clarity
Processes were confusing. They needed a simple, distraction-free interface that allowed them to send and receive messages with minimal effort.
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Usability tests
We conducted tests with pilots to make sure ECS was intuitive and easy to use even with all its nuanced customization capabilites.
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Surveys & Interviews
Everyone had an opinion about what we "needed" to build but it was important to keep the teams focused on the big picture.
IOC teams needed organization
They struggled with sorting urgent vs. non-urgent requests, leading to inefficiencies and misprioritization.
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Manual processes slowed operations.
Without message history or automation, key information was often lost, requiring repeated clarifications.

Design Approach

Both the pilots and IOC users were going to need different things to help them succeed.

Each group had
different requirements

Pilot-facing app

Always moving and focused on their next task
Credit card mockups

Minimal, directed design

Limit the amount of decisions they have to make

Dark mode

Ability to use the app in light and dark environments

Intentional communication

Keeping 2 way communication to an as needed basis

Progress indicators

Let the pilots know they're being taken care of

IOC specific SPoG

Seated and need to be able to support pilots at all levels
Credit card mockups

Dense, content heavy

They need to be able to see everything, everywhere

Prioritizing operational requests

A way to focus on tasks requiring immediate attention

Sharing workload

IOC members need to cover for others when busy

Auditing functionality

Record history, logs, and permission levels

Content management system

Record history, logs, and permission levels
The Solution

Pilots are now free!

I designed ECS to replace the outdated communication methods with a structured, digital-first approach that prioritizes clarity, speed, and automation.
Quick one-way communication for pilots
Pilots no longer have to wait in a queue to relay simple information.
Live schedule updates
Quick access to critical info

Freeing up pilots with progress indicators

Pilots could now move on to more impending tasks without having to actively wait by their phones
The Solution

IOC is also kinda free

IOC users now had more control and visibility into prioritizing important information.
Prioritizing with bird's eye view
Assignment shuffling
Quick handling
Multi-tasking with messages

The impact

After a year, ECS has significantly improved operations related communications between pilots and IOC.
📉 Response Time Improvement
Average IOC response time decreased from 15-20 minutes to under 5 minutes.
Pilots could request and receive operational updates without actively waiting.
✈️ Operational Efficiency Gains
30% fewer delays caused by miscommunication.
Reduced daily calls to the IOC by 1,000 calls.
Richard Till
Director, Crew Schedule Planning
"Thank you for all your efforts on ECS. Being able to create great user experiences is one thing. Being able to create them in a politically charged environment with all eyes on you is another. Thank you for working with Lextech; for working with the APA; for working with me and my team."
Nuong Lu
Manager, IT Applications
"James, my sincere appreciation of your passion and dedication that you have put into ECS- you intentionally deep dive to broaden your understanding of the crew schedulers and crew trackers. You grasp the complexity of ECS workflow and data structure with ease. Your creativity and practical solution build a top notch set of tools to support ECS within CME."
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