User Research for Offshore Oil Rig Software
OVERVIEW
To understand the user, you have to know their goals and how the environment along with other factors would have an influence on how their goals could be achieved. I have created a breakdown of what this information would be for an initial round of research on an sample Oil & Gas project.
Methodology
The information I have gathered is very general, since I don't have the parameters of a specific real-world project, as well as, the access to interview industry users and stakeholders in person. To get an understanding of the issues rig operators and crew would contend with day-to-day, I relied on information from industry reports and interviews in corporate journals. If this project were to go further, I would like to be able to interview users to better grasp their individual challenges and goals. This would help me to tailor solutions to their specific needs.
To look at this issue, I broke down the information into the following:
Who Is Involved
Subject Domains
Possible User Goals
Possible Challenges For The Project
Main Themes
General Content Recommendations
WHO'S INVOLVED
USERS
- Well Site Manager (Company Man)
- Offshore Installation Manager (OIM)
- Toolpusher
- Barge Supervisor
- Maintenance Supervisor
- Geologist
STAKEHOLDERS
- Operator Stakeholders
- Drilling Contractor Stakeholders
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS (SME)
- SMEs will be chosen to advise on their subject of expertise
- See list below for possible related subject domains
SUBJECT DOMAINS
INDUSTRY
• Oil & Gas Industry
• Offshore Drilling
• Global Oil Pricing
• Government Regulations
RIG INFRASTRUCTURE
• Structural Engineering
• Drilling Rig Operations & Management
• Vendor and Manufactures of Rig Equipment
ENVIRONMENT
• Geology
• Geophysics
• Local Environmental Concerns
• Meteorology
SAFETY
• Risk Management
USERS
• Cognitive Information Processing
• Performance Under Stress
APPLICATION
• Technology Infrastructure
• Data Science
• Information Security
POSSIBLE GOALS
- Oversee economic viability of all well sites in an operators portfolio.
- React promptly to dynamic situations in Oil and Gas market that affect viability of well sites
- Know realtime status of rig and equipment structural health and performance
- Up-to-date progress on well site operations
- Have an inventory of equipment
- Keep a crew log – know who’s working when and on what
- Track if site project is on schedule and on budget
- Forecast accurate budgets and schedules of upcoming well site projects
- Perform post mortem analysis on successes and failures during well site project
- Be able to predict possible drilling downtime
- Advanced notice of drilling downtime in order to make and implement plans that would prevent it from occurring
- Know when downtime occurred in the schedule and why it happened
- Be able to analyze Non-Productive Time in order to create an optimization plan
- Know the probability of a crisis occurring along with it’s possible scope and outcomes afterward
- Be able to properly assess risks and prepare for them ahead of time
- Easily access whether rig complies with current specifications and regulations to maintain rig certification
- Help in transitioning from a corrective to preventative maintenance cycle
- Keep track of safety record
- Alerts for any problems with the equipment
- Keep accurate and up-to-date geological research
- Know accurate and up-to-date weather reports
- Provide a way to guide new and inexperienced engineers through their workflow
- Reinforce best practices on machinery
- Offer suggested solutions for troubleshooting problems
POSSIBLE CHALLENGES
- Resistance from operators to share information about their process
- Aversion to being the first operator to try something new
- Resistance from operators on changing their day-to-day process
- Limited access to interview users due to daily rig management duties
- Drilling schedule and budget can not accommodate roll out and testing of new software
- Concern that more complexity in machinery means more possibilities for failure somewhere along the process
- Finding an available experienced technician to diagnose and solve any issues with equipment if an unexpected problem occurs
- Disruptive technological advances that will require changes in daily operations
- Government regulations that will require changes in daily operations
- Equipment manufacturers restrict access to product APIs
- Competition from competitors products
MAIN THEMES
Simple and Efficient
Because time is big money on a Rig, with daily operation costs easily getting into the millions of dollars, downtime is a critical issue to tackle for operators. The sheer amount of tasks and specialists that have to be managed requires a lot of work to keep everything running smoothly. To relieve some of the weight of that cognitively demanding juggling act, it’s valuable to distill complicated procedures down to simple processes. This makes things clearer and frees up mental space for the user to focus on evaluating ongoing operations and be aware of any issues that might come up.
Stacking the Odds in Your Favor
Fear of the unknown came up frequently as a topic in my research. Between dealing with the volatility in the Oil & Gas market and the financial, physical, and environmental risks of running a rig project, you can understand why change in “how things are done” may not be welcome. Providing a better way to leverage insights from the vast amount of data produced will give the user confidence and a better understanding of what to expect during a project. We can achieve this by incorporating tools that help analyze situations, predict possible outcomes and suggest courses of action.
