top of page

Nova

2026   |   UX and UI skills

Nova is a fictional piloting system designed to support an individual's mental health for deep space transport

The Problem

We are living in a second space race, but this time it’s to Mars. Governments and Private Companies are funding new advancements to get large amounts of people to Mars and beyond. Soon, interplanetary space travel will be available for the human race to travel between solar systems, and human colonies will begin to appear throughout the galaxy.

​

With the rise of Space Tourism, I wanted to speculate as to how people will navigate deep, uncharted space. Travel times can span years to decades in space, I wanted to explore how this can be done with consideration to the pilot's mental health.

The Process

  1. Background Research - I studied basic physics to comprehend the basic principles that underpin space, because I wanted to simulate building for professional environments. I also researched current space navigation and emerging and comparable technology in the space industry.

  2. UX Research - I interviewed 2 commercial pilots as the closest users to draw comparisons to astronauts

  3. Analysis - Synthesised the user and technical requirements

  4. Requirement definitions and a refined problem statement - The foundation of what I needed to design for and accomodate

  5. Concept Exploration and Ideation - Nova was ultimately the amalgamation of 2 different ideas, with the concepts weaknesses being uplifted by the other idea. This meant I would need to make a desktop and wearable version to accommodate the need of health maintenance.

  6. Sketched screens

  7. Information Architecture 

  8. Wireframing

  9. Visual design - Created a style guide and UI library for a uniform aesthetic to the system

  10. Voice recording - Recorded lines for the personal assistant

  11. Animation - Keyframe animated the UI to rotate exactly to the voice lines I had recorded.

  12. Prototyping

  13. User testing x5 rounds - We tested the design with 12 people over 5 rounds of user testing and iteration. This enabled changes to the AI assistant to be more organic and intuitive, with more natural social interactions. The system was refined with streamlined gesture controls and aligning the interface with user expectations.

  14. Final Design Confirmed

Final Design

Nova Video.mp4

About Nova

Nova was designed to provide the correct amount of assistance while monitoring the user's mental health. I completed a long, iterative process that enabled me to create a unique and novel design solution. By constantly referring back to my stakeholders and engaging with users, personas and experts, I was able to design a speculative AI assistant and piloting system .

bottom of page