All case studies

Air to Air Field

A technician app that takes an HVAC service call from arrival to signed job on one phone, built for 101° attics, gloved hands and spotty signal.

UX/UI Capstone, Southern InstituteField serviceMobile
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Four final screens: Today's Route, Diagnose, Quote and Job complete
Role
Solo UX/UI Designer & Researcher
Timeline
2026, sprint based course
Tools
Figma, FigJam, Figma Slides
Deliverable
Clickable prototype, 20 screens
At a glance

One phone, from arrival to signed job.

20high fidelity screens
8steps from arrival to signature
2field technicians tested
4design changes from testing
Problem

One service call lives in five different places.

At Air to Air AC & Heating, the company I co-own, a single call is spread across paper tickets, texts from the office, photos lost in a camera roll, quotes worked out in the tech's head, and financing explained out loud. Jobs run long, homeowners feel pressured, and replacement opportunities slip away.

How might we help HVAC technicians close out a service call faster, while giving homeowners quotes they can actually trust?

Research

What I learned in the truck and on the phone.

I combined my own experience running dispatch and customer calls since 2023 with conversations with our field technicians, a review of our job tickets and Google reviews, and a competitive look at ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro and Jobber.

One hand, 101° atticTechs work hot, gloved and often one handed. Typing is the enemy.Big tap targets and Pass / Fail toggles instead of forms
Signal drops where the work isOutlying service areas lose coverage mid job.Offline first saving with a visible sync queue
Trust comes from seeing itHomeowners believe a photo and plain words more than jargon.Photo tagged findings on a customer facing screen
Price shock stalls the decisionA big total with no context feels like pressure.Good / Better / Best with monthly financing side by side

Personas

Mike, the Field TechPrimary user. HVAC technician, 5–6 calls a day.
“I want the paperwork done before I leave the driveway, not at 9 at night.”
Needs to finish each call fast, show proof instead of just his word, and never redo lost work.
Maria, the HomeownerSecondary user. Stone Oak, 13 year old AC.
“Just show me what is wrong and what it costs. No surprises.”
Needs plain language findings, repair vs. replace on her own terms, and her monthly cost before she commits.
Design

Eight guided steps, with clear hand-offs.

Eight guided steps take the tech from arrival to signature. At three of them the phone is handed to the homeowner, so those screens switch into a clearly marked customer view.

User flow: Arrive, Diagnose, Photos, Findings, Quote, Financing, Sign, Complete
Technician steps in orange, customer steps in blue

Process

  1. Discover & defineSprints 1–3: research, personas, problem statement, information architecture
  2. Wireframes & testingSprint 4: 20 low fidelity screens across 7 sections, then usability testing
  3. Style guide & flowsWeek 5: color, type and components; the end to end service call flow
  4. Clickable prototypeFinal: 20 connected high fidelity screens in Figma

Style guide

Built for bright sun and busy hands: high contrast navy and orange, 48px+ touch targets, one primary action per screen, and color that always means status.

Style guide: color palette, Inter type scale and components
Color, typography and core components
Testing

Tested in the field, with the people who'll use it.

Tested with: 2 Air to Air field technicians, Mike and WoodyTasks: clock in, then quote a 15 year old unit
What we sawWhat I changed
Customer screens looked just like tech screens, so it was unclear when to hand the phone over.Customer views get a blue header, a “Customer view” tag and plain language headlines.
Dispatch messages sat one level deep, easy to miss between jobs.Kept a focused 4 tab nav and surfaced office alerts on the Today screen.
Losing a signature or photos when signal dropped was a real worry.An offline banner plus a sync queue that shows exactly what is waiting.
Typing notes with gloves on, in a hot attic, was slow and error prone.Pass / Fail toggles, photo tagging and a 4 step progress bar replace free text forms.
Customer view findings screen and offline sync queue screen
Two changes from testing: the customer findings view and the offline sync queue
Companion app

Air to Air GO, the homeowner side.

Field covers the technician. Before it, I sketched GO, a booking and tracking concept for Air to Air customers that answers the question behind most calls to our office: is someone coming, and when?

I restyled it with Field's design system (navy, signal orange, Inter type and bordered cards), so the two apps read as one service from the homeowner's first booking to the tech's signed job.

Air to Air GO home screen with next appointment, booking and Comfort Club
Results & next steps

What I'd do next.

Designing for my own team meant every assumption got checked in the truck, not in a meeting.

The biggest lesson from testing: the moment the phone changes hands matters as much as any single screen. Next, I want to test on live service calls, measure time from arrival to signed job before and after, and connect scheduling, payments and financing.

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