AIR Card Command Center & Merchant Portal POS
As a sole designer, I brought on a multi-million government contract by creating designs for credit card processing software and merchant point-of-sale software.
Background
The US government contracts credit card processor software to fuel and service aircraft.
The AIR Card Command Center is the main component of this contract as the credit card processing software, where government workers can audit transactions paid by the credit cards. The Merchant Portal POS is the corresponding point-of-sale software for airport merchants to accept government credit cards for fuel and services.
I was brought on as a Product Designer to design AIR Card Command Center from the ground up and reiterate existing software for the Merchant Portal POS from the contract proposal to completing both products.
- Process: 2-Week Sprints, Site Map, High-Fidelity Mockups, Design System
- Tools: Adobe XD, AzureDevOps, Lucid Chart, Zeplin
- Duration: August 2021 - Present
- Role: Sole Product Designer
- Client: United States Government
Challenges and Resolutions
- How do we create simple designs for complex workflows with multiple users using two separate products?
The AIR Card Command Center and the Merchant Portal POS have interacting workflows for different users. From the 200-page guideline set by the government and internal research with the team, I gathered and consolidated all the requirements for each product and created interconnecting workflows. For each feature of the product that corresponded with each other, I created the designs on the two products in tandem to make sure every flow matched each other.
- How do we design a product with no access to the users?
For the Merchant Portal POS, we had previous research completed from the users, but for the AIR Card Command Center, we had no access to any users because we were a company proposing a new software to win the high-security government contract.
But I had access to stakeholders and consultants who had over 5+ years of knowledge on the aviation industry and the government program by providing services to their merchants. I conducted internal research and utilized best UX practices, such as creating accessible, consistent, and simple designs. I also leaned on my design intuitions from my years of experience.
- How do we meet aggressive deadlines for multiple products as the project's sole designer?
I communicated with developers and stakeholders to set MVPs for both products and prioritized the designs based on the development timelines. The development team was working in parallel with the design team, creating the software based on the designs as they were finalized.
I had to be flexible and make quick design decisions and started with high-fidelity mockups due to the deadline of the proposals. The two design systems for the two individual products were created while I created the initial mockups and continue to evolve as new components are created.
Results and Next Steps
We were awarded multi-million 5-year government contract with an “Outstanding” mark for the software design, proving the value of product design. The two products are still currently in development but we are getting ready for usability testing with government officials.