There is no doubt the pandemic affected different fields, aviation, education, medicine...etc, yes we find a way to adapt with the situation yet some challenges consumed more efforts in research to solve it specially the ones related to the physical tools and equipments.

The Issue 

Although the academy solved the problems of conveying theoretical knowledge through online conferencing apps like Zoom or Teams, yet the academy's instructors find difficulties to explain one of the tools which is CRP-5 Flight Computer which is a tool includes all necessary functions for the commercial and airline transport pilot examinations that can be used for calculation and conversion of temperature, time, distance, volume, altitude, speed, weight, fuel, the instructors had to explain how to use it by showing it to the cadets through the webcam.

Then they came up with a simple idea, they took a photo of all the parts separately and reassemble the photos and place them on top of each other, the result was good since the main goal is to train the cadets.

During our discussion with one of the instructor and his manager about making an efficient virtual clone of this computer as mobile app, the main concern was to keep the accuracy of this tool since its used for different calculations during the cadets study, besides keeping simple for any one to use the app without further explanation.

We already knew our product's main users since this tool is so specific and it can be used only in ATPL ground school studies, so the first user was the Instructors who are teaching the tool, the second user will be the cadets which will get the benefit of having a portable tool, here is the main highlights:

To be honest it was hard to keep the design as it is for the users, but I tried to come up with some sketches and here are the final drafts and excuses my hand-drawing 🤭 

We decided to start the project after this sketch. below is the initial prototype for the app, this was the starting point for us as we had to make sure the app maintain the actual CRP-5 functionality, following is the explanation of main components and their functionality of the prototype the main challenge was the tight deadline for this project, the release of this app must be after 2 months only from the date of the meeting.

After showing this to the management the design had many enhancements, they added more details related to brand or some required functions that will enhance the app design and main features, the final result became the following:

Since we got the green light to start building the app and due to the tight time frame of the project, the wise decision was to shift the testing part after finishing the app, and the shocking part was after we finalized the app, we received a lot of good feedback and a little comments related to the functions, and that's because we kept testing the app internally in the R&D department during the development process (Alpha Testing), and when we shared it with the instructors they like it and they gave us a good recommendations and functions enhancements (Beta Testing).