Back to Work

Web Platform / UX Case Study

Stravyx

Australia's on-demand drone services network. Book a CASA-licensed operator in minutes, with one upfront price and real-time confirmation.

Role

UX Designer

Duration

Apr – May 2026

Platform

Responsive Web

Tools

Figma, FigJam

Stravyx homepage hero, book a licensed drone operator in minutes

Overview

Australia has thousands of licensed drone operators, ready to work and impossible to find. Stravyx is the infrastructure layer that connects them to the businesses and people who need them.

Working in a team of four, I helped design the platform end to end: the homepage that serves four different audiences, the mission booking flow, and the operator onboarding journey. The goal was a product that feels like the established national network it wants to become, not a startup still finding its feet.

Stravyx was founded by Joel Gage, who also founded Upskill. The product is still in active development, with no public release date announced yet.

The Problem

Australia has over 2,800 CASA-licensed drone operators: qualified, ready to work, and invisible. No single platform connects them. Businesses find operators through a Google search, a bit of hope, and a phone call. There are no published rates, no verification, and no real-time dispatch.

It is a $3.2 billion market with no infrastructure layer. That gap is exactly what Stravyx was designed to fill, and every decision we made solves for it.

The Landscape

We mapped the market on two axes: how intelligent the system is, and how much effort it leaves to the user. Most competitors are point solutions. They sit at high effort or low intelligence, so users are still doing the coordination themselves or leaning on tools never built for on-demand service.

Capability landscape comparing Stravyx to Aerologix, Drones for Hire and FlyFreely

That gap, between capability and usability, is where Stravyx sits: high system intelligence with low user effort. It is the only platform combining job matching, dynamic pricing, automated fulfilment, and an infrastructure layer into one system.

Market positioning map placing Stravyx at high system intelligence and low user effort

Benchmarks

We studied products outside the drone space that had already solved parts of our problem, then adapted what worked.

Uber, for the booking flow

Uber removes decision-making from the user: no manually choosing a driver, the system matches automatically, and tiered pricing gives clear options up front. Stravyx adopts both directly, assigning the best-fit operator and offering four urgency tiers.

Airbnb, for confidence before commitment

Airbnb builds trust by showing what you get before you commit. This pushed us to focus on outcomes over services: you are buying an inspection report or a 3D model, not a drone flight, so the deliverable leads.

Globhe and Canva, for guided entry

Globhe nails the client-versus-operator split but then abandons users on a generic page. Canva shows how different users can land on the same page and each feel it was built for them. Drone services lack that familiarity, so we paired every outcome with a plain-language description.

These findings converged on two design decisions: a two-button hero split (I need a drone service / I'm a drone operator) and outcome-first discovery, where the platform asks what you need rather than who you are.

Design Principles

Three principles anchored every screen we designed.

Inevitability

Stravyx should feel like the category leader that was always going to exist. Not a startup finding its feet, but an established national network.

Clarity

Every user, whether consumer, enterprise, operator, or investor, immediately understands what Stravyx does and where to go, with zero learning curve.

Confidence

Users feel safe handing Stravyx their money, their data, and their professional reputation. Trust is not a feature here. It is the product itself.

How Might We

Five questions pushed our thinking toward reducing friction and increasing clarity.

  • How might we make booking a drone service feel as simple and immediate as ordering an Uber?
  • How might we make onboarding feel fast and lightweight while still collecting the information needed for intelligent matching?
  • How might we guide different user types (consumer, enterprise, operator) to the right journey with zero learning curve?
  • How might we create a drone platform that feels obvious, effortless, and fully formed from day one?
  • How might we reduce the booking process to the minimum number of steps without losing important detail?

MVP Scope

Before moving to design, we prioritised six core pages against effort and impact. The high-impact, low-effort work sat clearly in the booking and homepage experience, so that is where we focused.

  • Mission booking flow, the core conversion path
  • Homepage, serving all four audiences from a single front door
  • Operator join and onboarding flow
  • Mission categories, the outcome-based entry points

High Fidelity

Outcome-based service selection

Instead of asking users to browse operators, the platform asks what they are trying to achieve: inspect something, map or survey land, capture aerial footage, or monitor a site. Each outcome connects directly to CASA-licensed operators who specialise in that service. No browsing, no searching.

Stravyx outcome-based service selection screen

One price, four urgency tiers

The Stravyx Network Price is generated automatically and shown before you commit. Users choose how fast they need the job done, from surge pricing dispatched in seconds through to a discounted rate for pre-booked recurring work. One price you accept or decline. No quotes, no surprises.

Stravyx pricing tiers screen

From booking to delivery in three steps

Tell us what you need, we match and dispatch the best available operator behind the scenes, and your deliverable arrives ready to use. The FLIGHT SCORE algorithm handles operator selection so the user never has to.

Stravyx how it works, three step flow

Verified, rated, insured operators

Every operator holds a valid CASA licence, insurance, and a FLIGHT SCORE rating built from completed missions. Surfacing operator history, completion rates, and specialties turns trust into something visible and measurable.

Stravyx verified operator profiles

Visual Direction

Stravyx had to look like the infrastructure layer for a multi-billion-dollar market, not a passion project. Six words anchored the identity: trusted, precise, Australian, capable, accessible, grounded. A deep forest green carries authority, with mint reserved for every call to action and trust signal, so the interface is always signposting where to act. Type is set in Inter for clean readability at every size.

Four principles guided the design direction:

  • Trust first. Credentials, pricing, and verification are visible before we ask anything of the user.
  • Mobile first. Every flow works at 390px, because site managers book between meetings.
  • Plain language. Every label reads clearly to someone who has never booked a drone service.
  • Australian built. Local operators, local tone, real aerial photography over generic stock.

What's Next

Validate designs against survey results

All screens need to be tested against survey responses once received, to confirm direction and surface anything that needs refinement.

Mobile-first build

Everything was designed desktop-first. A mobile version of the homepage and booking flow is critical, because the target audience books on the go.

Post-mission deliverable experience

The moment a client receives their report or footage is high value and has not been designed yet. Getting this right closes the full client journey.

Enterprise accounts

Enterprise clients managing multiple sites will need bulk booking, reporting, and account management tools. Building toward this early makes scaling easier.

Operator rating and reputation system

The FLIGHT SCORE is a strong differentiator but currently invisible. Surfacing operator history and success rates would increase both trust and conversion.

My Role

Stravyx was a team project with four designers. I contributed across research, the how-might-we framing, MVP prioritisation, and the high-fidelity design of core pages including the homepage and booking flow. Working within a shared design language taught me how to keep a single, coherent voice across many hands.

Want to learn more about this project?