DE

Markus Rozkalns

Work · Aviation

Instructor Operating Station

Turned an engineer-built IOS into a coherent, instructor-driven system. Its weather page went from five tabs to one visual, altitude-based page, and the research set the course for one touch-first IOS for helicopter and fixed-wing.

Client
Loft Dynamics
Country
Switzerland
Industry
Aviation, VR flight simulation
Year
2025–2026
My role
Primary UX designer, helicopter IOS; lead UX, fixed-wing concept
Team
Three-person UX team on the fixed-wing concept
An instructor at the operating station, with a pilot flying the H125 VR simulator behind him

Problem

Three helicopter simulators shared one Instructor Operating Station. Its function display, where instructors set weather, aircraft and more, had been built step by step by different engineers.

  • Inconsistent layouts from page to page
  • Features that were hard to find
  • Too many clicks for routine tasks
  • Weather alone took five tabs, set for one location at a time, by filling in fields
  • Expanding into fixed-wing, where touch is the standard, raised the bar further
Instructor station next to the H125 VR simulator, with the old IOS function display on the right screen
The instructor operating station

Approach

Every decision traces back to evidence. Each step has an ID, and every insight and decision names the evidence it came from.

  1. S001

    Source

    Instructor and pilot interviews

    30+ conversations with instructors and pilots on Loft's helicopter simulators, including dream sessions on the perfect weather setup.

  2. S002

    Source

    Alaska Airlines, Seattle

    A four-day workshop: interviews, simulator observation, scenario walkthroughs and lesson planning.

  3. S003

    Source

    Lufthansa Aviation Training, Zurich

    Two days shadowing instructors and studying their lesson-planning software.

  4. E001

    Evidence

    A patchwork display

    Inconsistent layouts, hard-to-find features, too many clicks.

    From S001

  5. E002

    Evidence

    Five tabs, one location

    Setting the weather meant hopping between five tabs and filling in fields.

    From S001

  6. E003

    Evidence

    Screens on board, in motion

    Fixed-wing IOS screens sit on full-motion simulators, where a mouse can't be used.

    From S002, S003

  7. I001

    Insight

    Instructors think in altitude

    Asked to dream the perfect setup, every instructor arrived at an altitude-based format.

    From S001

  8. I002

    Insight

    Touch is mandatory

    For fixed-wing, the IOS has to be designed for touch first.

    From E003

  9. I003

    Insight

    Training follows lesson plans

    Airlines work through prepared scenarios, unlike the more ad hoc helicopter training.

    From S002, S003

  10. D001

    Decision

    One altitude-based weather page

    Weather layers set by drag and drop, for several airports at once.

    From E002, I001

  11. D002

    Decision

    Temperature by altitude

    I'd planned a single field. Instructors asked for temperature curves, and I changed my mind.

    From I001

  12. D003

    Decision

    One IOS for both

    A single flexible IOS for helicopter and fixed-wing.

    From I002, I003

  13. D004

    Decision

    Eight design pillars

    Defined and presented at Alaska Airlines to guide every page.

    From E001, I003

Solution

I was the primary UX designer on the helicopter IOS redesign, including input on hardware decisions, and lead UX on the fixed-wing concept, doing about 60% of the UX work in a team of three.

Phase 1: helicopter redesign, starting with the weather page

I redesigned the mouse-based IOS one page at a time, and each page shipped. The weather page came first and became the most visible result: designed with touch in mind, adapted for mouse, so it works in both.

  • One page instead of five tabs, with METAR integration
  • Weather for departure, arrival and alternate airports, my own insight from the interviews
  • Weather layers set by drag and drop instead of form fields
  • Temperature curves by altitude, asked for by instructors once the layout was altitude-based
Weather page detail: outside air temperature as a curve by altitude
Temperature curve on the weather page, set point by point by altitude

Several other pages followed and shipped on the same principles.

Phase 2: a concept for one touch-first IOS, for helicopter and fixed-wing

From the research at Alaska Airlines and Lufthansa, I defined eight design pillars and presented them to Alaska's leadership. The map was the open question: available on every page, and as familiar as the maps people use on their phones.

Markus Rozkalns at Alaska Airlines headquarters in Seattle

On site at Alaska Airlines, Seattle

Full-flight simulators at the Alaska Airlines training center

Full-flight simulators at the Alaska Airlines training center

Outcome

The helicopter pages shipped, with one weather page in place of five tabs. Built from 30+ instructor and pilot interviews, it felt tailor-made to the instructors, and the concept work that followed rests on eight design pillars I defined.

Alaska Airlines leadership valued the long-term thinking and a concept that is expandable, adjustable, customizable and timeless. With less than a year in the industry, my outside view was called an advantage: not the same solution in new packaging, but a concept that tackles problems they had faced for decades.

“He was particularly good at grasping complex requirements quickly, structuring different user and business interests, and deriving clear, practical design solutions from them.”

Fabi Riesen, founder and former CEO & CTO · Loft Dynamics · Switzerland
Translated from the German reference letter

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