What makes a drilling application go from ordinary to an award-winning platform?
- ClientBaker Hughes
- My RoleSr. UX Designer / Solo
- Timeline1 Year
Project overview:
The Problem
To remain competitive in 2019, Baker Hughes needed to overhaul its legacy software suite. The core challenge lay in deciphering complex, highly technical workflows and translating them into scalable, intuitive UI solutions that modernized the entire user experience.
The Solution
I led the UX translation of complex plug milling operations by partnering closely with product and engineering teams. By architecting dense workflows into intuitive, manageable sections, I delivered a UI solution that successfully reduced downtime, lowered costs, and improved overall efficiency. The resulting product won the Baker Hughes Technology & Engineering Excellence Award and set the foundation for multiple subsequent software initiatives.
"Success often breeds success"
The success of the xSight Plug Milling interface established a new benchmark for usability, prompting other departments to bring me in to modernize their own software solutions.
- xSight Analytics
- Sabio Drilling Insights
- Gemini Bit Mgmt
1
Learning 'plug milling' operations:
To design effective solutions, I first needed to immerse myself in the complexities of plug milling. I collaborated closely with the lead project stakeholder to master the operational nuances and translate them into actionable UX use cases
In oil and gas, plug milling is the process of removing temporary 'frac plugs' from horizontal wells. To improve operator performance, I designed an elegantly simple interface that aggregates highly complex variables: plug details, manufacturer, status, and run groups. This allowed users to make critical decisions without cognitive overload.
2
Don't force the details - minimize them:
Early version of the collapsible job details module
A key requirement was ensuring job details and timelines were always visible. However, operators also needed maximum screen space for critical data plots. The example above demonstrates my solution: a minimized, collapsible detail section. This interaction pattern proved so successful that it caught the attention of other teams, leading me to implement this new standard across multiple Baker Hughes products.
3
Fast to follow - Sabio Drilling Insights:
Sabio Drilling Insights became the first product to integrate this interaction pattern. It served as a catalyst for a broader design transformation at Baker Hughes, proving that we could successfully distill billions of data points into clear, highly readable visualizations.
4
Solving a multi-million dollar problem:
To eliminate the costly practice of commissioning new drill bits when comparable inventory already existed, I designed a smart, shopping cart-style requisition system. By leveraging the Gemini software to proactively suggest on-hand inventory and highlight faster delivery times, this new workflow accelerated order fulfillment while saving the company millions of dollars monthly.
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