IFE Studio

Opportunity

Airlines traditionally relied on in-flight entertainment (IFE) vendors for every change, resulting in long lead times and high costs.

IFE Studio was built to change that, a first-of-its-kind product within AERENA.

Key Challenge

IFE configuration spans multiple overlapping dimensions that quickly become unmanageable:

• Flight Dimensions: Routes, aircraft types, and tail numbers.
• Passenger Logic: Compartment, language group, and demographics.
• Constraints: Regulatory requirements and content restrictions.

The key challenge was defining predictable rules across a massive matrix of combinations without exposing unnecessary complexity.

My Role & Approach

I defined IFE Studio from first concept to production delivery as the sole designer with end-to-end ownership. My approach centred on formalising logic before designing screens:

• Logic Modeling: Defined how business rules layer and override across variables.
• Conflict Prevention: Categorised constraints to prevent invalid configurations by design.
• Validation-First Design: Real-time preview to verify the experience before deployment.

Design & Solution

The result is a structured, visual tool where complexity only surfaces when relevant to the task:

• Route-based Rules: Automated deployment across routes, no manual duplication required.
• Passenger Targeting: Tailored experiences per passenger group, independently configured.
• Full Layout Preview: Simulate the passenger journey with changes applied live.

Outcome & Impact

IFE Studio was successfully deployed on Discover Airlines' A320 as part of the AERENA rollout.

The IFE system on the aircraft was configured entirely in IFE Studio — the first airline-owned deployment of its kind. No vendor, no months-long lead time, no cost per change.