Explorations in NASA’s Interface Design

Tooltips, Multi-Modal Musings and Beyond

Micah Tinklepaugh
5 min readFeb 13, 2023
CubeSat From Sketchfab

If you recall from my last article, I’m attempting to improve the design for ground control software that manages space vehicles during space missions.

My aim is to create holographic displays but before something as novel as that it is necesarry to start with somethings much closer to what is currently being used so I can learn practical design systems and be immersed in the current culture of design in aerospace. So I’m going to design a multimodal interface using a voice assistant. But beforethis I’ve identified one of three possible UX/UI issues to address with NASA’s Open Source Mission Control Technology (MCT).

NASA Enhancement Item 6113

The issue at hand here is how the text is appearing relative to the bar graphs in the Time strip, a user interface element showing events planned for execution. The designer made a recommendation to clip the length of…

--

--

Micah Tinklepaugh

I design products for people and systems. I also like to swim, bike, and run.