AeroMaps: A Map-First Interaction Architecture for Pilot-Centered Electronic Flight Bags with Inspectable Decision Support

Abstract

Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) have consolidated charts, navigation, weather, performance, traffic, and planning into portable displays, yet the usability of an EFB remains application-specific: pilots can gain rapid access to information while still encountering training, search, distraction, workload, and information-access problems. AeroMaps investigates a design hypothesis rather than a new navigation algorithm: familiar consumer-map interaction patterns can be selectively transferred to aviation so that complex functions remain close to a persistent spatial context. The iOS prototype is implemented in SwiftUI and MapKit and combines airport search, direct waypoint construction, aircraft and weight-and-balance planning, fuel/reserve summaries, weather-briefing structures, live-capable ADS-B traffic, GPS route progress, deterministic risk-oriented planning, and an inspectable decision trace. An artifact-based interaction audit of ten representative tasks found that eight (80%) are intentionally completed from the Map surface without a top-level tab transition. This result describes information architecture rather than human performance. Live-capable, simulated, deterministic, and proposed components are distinguished explicitly. The paper specifies a counterbalanced pilot evaluation using task time, errors, navigational backtracking, context switches, NASA-TLX, System Usability Scale, and situation-awareness probes. The contribution is a testable map-first interaction architecture and implementation evidence, not a claim of improved flight safety.