My focus was solving a data fragmentation problem. I led the UX strategy to centralise global airport data, enabling Emirates to streamline inventory and flight maintenance, handle incident management with real-time alerts, and improve operational efficiency across its network.
The challenge
Emirates' airport operations were hampered by data scattered across multiple legacy systems. This led to inefficient workflows, high maintenance costs, and heavy reliance on error-prone manual processes. The core challenge was centralising this global data and designing a system that could provide real-time, actionable insights to a distributed operations team.
My role
As the Lead UX Engineer, I guided the project from problem definition to a functional product, working within the UI Centre of Excellence's principles.
I led workshops with the operations team to analyse existing workflows and define the core requirements for a consolidated portal. I then facilitated design sprints to rapidly explore solutions, focusing on an intuitive, map-based interface for visualising global airport status.
We conducted user research to understand the diverse needs of the operations team. This informed a modular, card-based UI that presented complex information clearly and could scale easily.
A significant part of my role was the real-time alerts and notification system. I designed a system to instantly notify operations of disruptions, categorising alerts by severity and using role-based routing to get the right information to the right personnel immediately.
I ensured the portal's UI was developed in line with the Emirates Design System. The modular components we created enabled extension to the DeNA (Dnata Emirates Network Application) native mobile apps, giving operations staff access to critical information on the go.
Impact
The Global Airport Repository Portal was integrated into the airport operations team's daily workflow. The project received the Emirates NAJM Award in 2017 for Excellence in Aircraft Inventory System Design.
The platform enabled efficient inventory and flight maintenance processes, reducing costs and keeping data consistently up-to-date.
The real-time monitoring and alert system allowed teams to respond proactively to disruptions, minimising delays and improving operational resilience.
By providing a single source of truth, the portal gave the operations team reliable data for better decisions, which in turn improved the end-customer experience.