Scalable Usability Testing

Transforming Business Outcomes and Team Practices Across Domains at Delta Air Lines.

Challenge  

Crew and Catering teams relied on informal or inconsistent user feedback, making it difficult and costly to identify user needs early and measure usability improvements across interface design iterations.

​

Approach

Introduced early-stage usability testing with end users to gather actionable feedback on prototypes e.g., Pilot Pay (Crew), RES UI (Catering). 

Developed and deployed a comprehensive usability testing toolkit across multiple domains - facilitator guides, SUS scoring files, and standardized summary templates to enable consistent, repeatable testing. 

Leveraged Delta Air Lines provided AI tools to automate and accelerate the creation of usability testing summaries, reducing manual effort and turnaround time. 

​

Outcomes

• Crew teams shifted development to include the mobile approach based on pilot feedback, aligning solutions with real user workflows and expectations. 

• RES UI project scope was reduced by 50% as a direct result of usability insights, saving $400,000 in un-needed development.

• The Pilot Pay team independently replicated the usability testing process on multiple occasions, using SUS scores to track and demonstrate measurable improvements across prototypes resulting in 22% (71.3 to 91.3) usability improvement.

• 94.2% UX usability testing satisfaction rate as reported by participants in the follow up survey - above the 80% initial target rate.

​

Key Learning

Architecting systems - tools, templates, and processes that teams can adopt and evolve is as valuable as uncovering the initial user insights; true impact endures and multiplies beyond direct involvement.

​

Growth Opportunity

Embed usability testing as a product lifecycle practice, create a centralized insights hub for data-driven decisions, and expand into next-generation capabilities such as AI-powered testing to drive global scalability and innovation across Delta IT.