Emanuele Pagani
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Creative Director & UX Design Lead · 2018 – 2020

Kittyhawk

Kittyhawk (later rebranded as Aloft) was a leader in drone operations management software, partnering with the FAA to build tools for safe and compliant UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) operations. Its platform enabled both enterprise customers and regulators to manage flights, airspace compliance, and pilot operations at scale.

Services

  • UX product design
  • Brand design
  • Marketing design
  • Stakeholder management
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What Emanuele did

As Creative Director & UX Design Lead, Emanuele led design for both the core platform and external-facing products, most notably the FAA’s B4UFLY app, the official airspace awareness tool for drone pilots in the U.S. He was responsible for shaping the end-to-end user experience across mobile and web, while also building the company’s visual identity, go-to-market assets, and customer-facing communications.

  1. 01Designed and launched the FAA’s official B4UFLY app for iOS and Android, reaching 1M+ active users
  2. 02Rebuilt the Kittyhawk mobile experience, delivering a complete UX overhaul across platforms
  3. 03Created and implemented the brand identity, including full visual language and scalable design guidelines
  4. 04Designed a new B2B marketing website and digital funnel, resulting in a 400% spike in organic traffic and generating a $1.2M+ revenue pipeline
  5. 05Balanced hands-on execution with strategic brand storytelling across product, marketing, and investor-facing channels
  6. 06Partnered with the FAA and other regulatory bodies to ensure tools were safe, compliant, and intuitive
An airspace authorization on the Kittyhawk app, held in two hands
Airspace advisories for a location, with the facility map and LAANC status
Mobile app
The airspace grid around a pinned location
Weather for the flight: wind, gusts, visibility and Kp index
Step 1 of an authorization: choosing an altitude up to 400 ft
Pre-check results: failed, with the reason
Pre-check results: eligible for auto-approval
Assets: aircraft, authorizations, flights, batteries and checklists
Restricted airspace over the Bay Area
The Kittyhawk app: track, customise and automate enterprise drone operations
Logging in
LAANC pre-check: eligible for auto-approval
Airspace and weather for a location
Map settings and layers
Flight conditions over the sectional chart
Airspace and facility map ceilings
Map styles
The flight deck over the map
Flight conditions and the flight deck
Live drone camera over a forest
Live drone camera in the city
Fleet management on a laptop, tablet and phone
Platform
Flight logging on a laptop
Preflight checklists on a phone
In-flight operations: a live drone feed on a phone
In-flight operations: a thermal drone feed on a phone
Mapped flight data on a MacBook
Reporting on a tablet
Kittyhawk on phone, tablet and the drone controller
Flights on the web map
Planning an area on the web
The fleet table
A flight's details
The app's flows
UX process
Sketching on a sectional chart
Wireframes
Screens in progress
Partners: the FAA and B4UFLY
The colour palette
Design system
Air Control colours
Buttons and their states
App Store: 4.2 stars
Results
App Store: 4.6 stars
Kittyhawk Brand Book cover
Brand identity
Logo usage page from the brand book
Kittyhawk business cards
A Kittyhawk enamel mug: Fly right. Keep the data tight.
Where Flight Happens poster, city at night
Where Flight Happens poster, desert
Round Kittyhawk stickers
The Kittyhawk app icon
The Kittyhawk mark on navy
Icon usage
Brand colours
Typography
A Kittyhawk product brochure
Marketing collateral
A Brief History of Aircraft Identification, printed
The aircraft identification paper, open
Secure Your Drone Data, printed
A product brochure
Brochure spreads

Impact

My work enabled Kittyhawk/Aloft to scale its credibility with both enterprise customers and government partners. The redesign of B4UFLY significantly improved usability and adoption among drone pilots nationwide, while my brand and marketing contributions helped build a pipeline of over $1.2M in new business. By unifying UX and brand, I strengthened the company’s positioning as a trusted partner in regulated airspace operations.