UX resources are often allocated to customer-facing products and services rather than internal systems within organizations. However, the lack of good user experience (UX) of internal systems, particularly administration portals, could impact efficiency, satisfaction and productivity of the employees. Despite this importance these systems may not get the same level of attention and investment in UX design along with organizations' lack of understanding human-machine interaction. Therefore this study investigates which design aspects organizations without UX resources should consider when implementing the UX design in their administration portals. To explore this a review of existing literature was made along with a pre-study to collect opinions from the users. By that a prototype was created followed by an iterative design process. The prototype went through three iterations as each iteration consisted of 1) interview and observation, 2) ideation, 3) prototyping, and 4) testing. Each iteration had five users that performed a task and the possibility to explore on their own. Followed by a semi-structured interview with questions based on the seven stages of action model, also including open questions and likert scale questions.  The study’s results align with previous studies regarding that implementing design principles will improve the user experience and balancing functionality with visual presentation is enhancing for user-friendly visualizations. The most important findings concluded in using visual hierarchy, transparent error handling, customizable interface, layered information and signaling what will happen when interacting with an element. However, the conclusion conveys that the findings may differ in other contexts and with different participants or an increased amount, as it is also suggested as future work.

This thesis project, conducted in collaboration with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), investigates how safety-critical internal systems can be designed to enhance usability and user experience through an examination of the Aerodrome Approval system at SAS. Employing a research-through-design approach and utilizing heuristic evaluations, semi-structured interviews, contextual inquiries, and a redesign process, several guidelines for improving usability and user experience have been identified. Key insights reveal that optimizing login functionalities can enhance security and role-specific access, thereby reducing errors and improving the user experience. Consistency in design elements and adherence to standards play a critical role in usability, aiding in error prevention and improving system navigation efficiency. Additionally, effective strategies for error prevention, such as contextual warnings tailored to specific conflicts, help maintain workflow efficiency and prevent user fatigue, whereas ensuring a balanced and timely presentation of information is essential to prevent information overload while still ensuring access to critical data. The project illustrates how multiple usability principles are interconnected yet sometimes conflicting and emphasizes the need to further investigate safety-critical internal systems to a broader extent to be able to identify more generalizable design guidelines in the future.