The Design Challenge:
Designing for Journey meant creating interfaces for highly technical aerospace workflows without overwhelming the user. The platform needed to support engineers and satellite operators, and mission planners working with orbital parameters, maneuver data, subsystem requirements, and simulation outputs, while still making the experience feel intuitive, navigable, and efficient.
The main UX challenge was organizing complex mission data into clear steps so users could move from analysis to decision-making, whether they were selecting compatible spacecraft subsystems or designing a satellite constellation.
Journey is a satellite mission design and simulation platform built to support users throughout the mission lifecycle, from early design and simulation to procurement and operations.
My role focused on UI/UX design for key satellite mission planning workflows, including subsystem matching and satellite constellation design. I worked on turning dense technical inputs, simulation outputs, and procurement requirements into interfaces that helped users understand their options, compare results, and take the next step with confidence.
For this case study, I am highlighting two areas of the platform: Subsystem Matching and Constellation Designer.
Role: UI Designer
Tools: Figma, Illustrator
Feature 1: Subsystem Matching
Subsystem Matching was designed to help customers move from mission analysis to procurement more efficiently. After generating a Mission Summary, users could match with spacecraft subsystems that met their mission requirements across categories such as propulsion, attitude determination and control (ADCS), communications, and power systems.
The goal was to create a workflow that allowed users to quickly narrow down a large catalog of subsystem options, compare relevant technical details, and submit Requests for Information (RFIs) to multiple manufacturers with mission context already attached. This transformed what once took weeks of intensive engineering work into a process that could be completed in days through an intuitive interface.
My design work focused on optimizing the matching experience around clarity and decision-making. I explored how the engineers truly want to filter results by mission requirements, review subsystem details, compare compatible options, and move into an RFI flow without losing the context of their mission data.
User flow
This extensive design project required me to fully understand the processes that the engineers are used to. For this I learned and applied systems-thinking to create mindmaps and diagrams that I could use to get quick feedback from the endusers in their own language. Below you can see an example for mapping the path from mission summary to subsystem selection and RFI submission.
Final Design
This work helped shape how complex mission planning workflows could be translated into clearer, more structured product experiences. By focusing on hierarchy, guided workflows, and decision-support interfaces, the designs made technical mission data easier to navigate and helped users move from analysis toward action.
Final Design
Feature architecture
Structuring Constellation Designer around two planning paths: template-based design and optimization.
Feature 2: Constellation Designer
Constellation Designer was created to support satellite network planning within Journey. The feature allowed users to explore satellite constellation design through two main paths: geometric constellation templates and multi-objective optimization. For geometric constellations, users could work with established constellation. For more complex planning needs, the optimization workflow helped users balance multiple goals and constraints to generate constellation designs tailored to specific spatial and temporal mission needs.
My UI/UX work focused on making this planning process feel more guided. I explored interface structures for selecting constellation types, defining mission parameters, reviewing analysis cases, and interpreting design outputs in a way that supported both technical accuracy and usability.
