PulseCheck – Flight Crew Wellness App
PulseCheck is a mobile-first health tracking app designed for airline flight crews to monitor fatigue, mental load, and recovery during multi-day trip rotations. As a former flight attendant, I recognized the gap in wellness support for crew members navigating irregular schedules and limited rest windows.
Role: Product Designer (Solo)
Timeline: 3 weeks
Tools: Figma, Notion, User Interviews
Platform: Web and Mobile app (iOS/Android)
Goal
Design an intuitive, quick-check mobile app that empowers crew members to track their physical and emotional state throughout their trips, while also providing actionable insights for airlines to improve scheduling and support.
Problem
Flight attendants and pilots often experience high physical and emotional stress, leading to burnout. Airlines lack a systemized way to monitor real-time crew well-being, which can impact performance and safety.
My Role
As the sole product designer, I led the end-to-end design process — from user research and problem definition to wireframes, interface design, and prototyping in Figma. I also validated the concept with former crew members and mapped feature requirements aligned with operational use cases.
Process
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Conducted user interviews with 3 former airline crew
Identified 5 key stressors: inconsistent rest, dehydration, low morale, irregular meals, and poor recovery between flights
Validated that wellness apps were too time-consuming or not tailored to crew lifestyle
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Created personas (e.g., long-haul flight attendant, reserve pilot)
Defined core user needs: fast logging, reminders, easy trend view
Mapped potential airline goals: reporting, schedule feedback loop
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Brainstormed features: 30-second daily check-in, emoji sliders, hydration reminders
Prioritized MVP features: rest tracker, energy scale, mood check, trend dashboard
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Sketched mobile-first flows
Built grayscale wireframes in Figma focusing on simplicity and minimal taps
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Prototyped a 5-screen app in Figma
Received usability feedback: loved the tap-based interface, needed clearer time zone indicators
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Added animated transitions between check-ins
Introduced a rest clock synced to departure/arrival time
Replaced text with icons for fatigue-friendly readability
Why Kindred?
As a former flight attendant, I designed PulseCheck to minimize cognitive load while capturing critical wellness data. The interface prioritizes tappable emojis, slider scales, and auto-timezone sync to make check-ins fast and low-effort — essential in environments where rest is scarce and screens can be visually overwhelming.
Customer Needs (Airlines)
Data-driven insights to optimize scheduling and reduce fatigue-related incidents
Improve crew morale and retention by prioritizing wellness
Enable safer, union-compliant staffing based on real health patterns
Business Needs
Reduce burnout and turnover rates among crew
Monitor fatigue patterns without violating privacy
Create operational insights for smarter scheduling
Support union negotiations with data-driven safety metrics
User Needs (Flight Crew)
A fast, judgment-free way to track fatigue, hydration, sleep, and energy
Ability to visualize trends over a trip without complicated logging
Discreet and mobile-friendly design that respects time constraints and privacy
Wireframe
The wireframes for PulseCheck focus on speed, clarity, and wellness tracking on the go, optimized for mobile use during tight layovers or inflight rest breaks.
Screens included:
Home Check-In Screen – Tap-based daily log (rest, hydration, mood)
Wellness Trends Dashboard – Visual summary of fatigue, hydration, mood
Reminder Settings – Customize check-in notifications during trips
Insights View – Personalized tips to recover or adjust mid-trip
Results & Takeaways
This project reconnected me with a real-world pain point I’ve personally experienced. Designing for wellness in high-stress, mobile-first environments reminded me that great UX must be not only functional — but deeply human.
If implemented by an airline, PulseCheck could:
Increase wellness self-reporting compliance by 60%
Lower burnout complaints over 90-day trials
Inform better scheduling decisions with real-time wellness data
Tools Used
Figma · Notion · Canva