The Challenge
Most of my projects start with a spreadsheet—data lines, labels, fields, and values. My instructions can be as vague as "make it look pretty" or as detailed as "I will tell you exactly what to build". Either way, for the most part, my process stays intact. So, respectfully, I ask what the purpose of this project is? Who is the audience? What is our anticipated ROI? Of course, I ask a ton more questions, but it gets people thinking when I start with these. That pretty much sums up my job, to facilitate, guide—to get people to think, to see the bigger picture.
In drilling, automation is the future, but for the present, manual processes are the reality. Rig workers rely on their guts, the feel of the drill bit, and luck to do their job. Being able to take the guesswork out of drilling is an ongoing task within the industry.
At the start of each shift, the Rig Manager needs to communicate where they are in the drilling phase to the oncoming crew. A lot of that communication is done via whiteboard.
The Process
I had to do a lot of user interviews for this project. I visited an oil rig and command center (an office where operators monitor rigs remotely) and spoke directly to future end-users. After speaking with different types of users, Derricks, Drillers, Roughnecks, and Company Men, I create personas for each user.
It was essential to know each user's individual goals, needs, and frustrations with their job to understand what would work best for them.
After our user research and persona analysis, we decided that a dashboard layout customized to each user's role and needs would be the best direction for the user experience and layout.
With this approach, we were able to think of the app functionally modularly. We had break-out groups working on more complicated widgets while testing and development continued in tandem on more simplistic, straightforward widgets.
Our team was highly collaborative and diverse. Working remotely, I facilitated all design sessions and meeting with our product manager, product owner, subject matter experts, developers, and end-users for testing. We took a Lean UX approach, quickly knocking out wire-framed prototypes for immediate user feedback.
