The Objective

1. To take 25 applets that are used to run the tools in the BHA ( bottom hole assembly), and collect data from the borehole and combine them into one easy to use intuitive software title.

2. Bring training time down from 5 years to 1 year to master the software.

3. Conduct user testing along the way to get their feedback.

4. Deploy the software to all the land-based oil rigs with Baker Hughes tools.

Scope of this case study: Outfitting a mud motor

My Role

UX / UI designer

Time line

2 years

Release Date

June 2015

Understanding the Domain

Rig Life!

To truly understand the domain of the petroleum and natural gas industry, you must leave the office and dive into the environment. I needed to talk to the users, to see what their daily hustle was like. I wanted to see what exactly the various jobs entail. So bags were packed, steel toes where bought, and fireproof coveralls were issued.

During my visits, I got a tour of the rig to see how it all comes together. I was excited to head out to a live platform since its a part of the oil industry you don't often see. I sat with the engineers while they used a beta version of Cadence and asked questions and observed.

I completed my 9 hour day shadowing one of the FSE's and returned to the office with a holistic understanding of the challenges that the FSE's face.

Step 1: Out fit your motor

When I started to think about how the new motor set up would work, I thought about things that people, especially the under 40 crowds, are familiar with. When I started to think about setting up the Mud motor, it felt just like outfitting your FPS charter with the medic kit and using the defibrillator instead of the first aid kit. Same charter different options.

Mud motors are no different. Each Mud Motor has a finite number of things that can attach to it.

To the left is what the diagrams that we used to create the visual respiration of each accessory looked like. The FSE takes this out to the tool and fills in the blanks then inputs them to Cadence once they have set up the motor.

Now that we have that out of the way we can move on the the Re design of Mud Motors.

Sketching and a lot of it.

Paper meet pen, pen meet paper.

To understand the problem I like to sketch. It allows me to organize my thoughts. This is something the entire UX team did and shared with each other. As a team we would look over each others sketches, provide feedback and improve our design very quickly.

Wireframing 

I wanted to demonstrate how this new mechanic would work to the engineers, stakeholders, and project managers.

  I reviewed the wireframes with my team, Project Managers, Product Owners, and FSE’s to ensure that I was on the right track. I incorporated the feedback into actionable wireframes. I chose Axure RP to design the wireframes as the end goal was to have a clickable prototype. 

Prototyping

To show a broader audience, I created a prototype to accompany the wireframes and final art. The prototype was meant to demonstrate the mechanics of how accessories would appear on the screen. To the left, you will see a short video of how it worked. The prototype was instrumental in collecting quality feedback about the interactions.

The feature was well received by the project stakeholders, FSE’s, and management. After I finalized the prototype, the wireframes were broken down into what visual assets the engineers to create the feature.

Final Art

The other side of my job at Baker Hughes was to do the final art for the features we worked on. I built an Adobe Illustrator library of all the UI components to ensure consistency and to speed up the processes. One of my responsibilities was to maintain this as we developed new assets they were added to the library.