Case Study:

Hess Oil + Gas

The Ask


Hess was utilizing a decades old oil well planning platform built on Microsoft Access. At the time of this project, the developer was set to retire, and a new modern platform was needed to ensure the future stability and ease of well design.

The Hess team considered four options to re-design and potentially re-platform the system:

  1. Face-Lift

  2. 1:1 Rebuild

  3. Refactor Rebuild

  4. Buy + Build

Our job was to ask and answer the question: “How might we leverage human-centric research methodologies and design to help determine the best path forward for the WFP redesign project?”

To move quickly and efficiently, we decided on using one persona and workflow from E2E to help determine the best implementation plan.

Design Goals

Our end goals for this project were the same no matter what Hess ultimately decided on -

  • Intuitive
    Users should be able to easily find the information they need in a way that makes sense to them.

  • Streamlined
    The platform should reduce the amount of time and effort needed to complete tasks and be aware or circumstances within the data record.

  • Personalized
    Professionals value the ability to personalize their experience and tune it for optimum efficiency and productivity.

  • Permissions
    The system should support visibility while preventing errors through sensible, well-defined permissions and change-logs.

main - initial view

Challenges We Identified

Organization (IA)

The organization of the containers appears tied to a Visio workflow with no real organizational context

Buttons to open forms and links to other pages are identical; no hierarchy

Inconsistent labeling and naming conventions

Yo-yo navigation style (anti-pattern)

Situational Awareness

No help for users in terms of knowing where things stand or what to focus on; it’s all navigation

No attention to visual weight or visual hierarchy; the page is difficult to scan and difficult to mentally order

Yo-yo navigation style (anti-pattern)

What We Solved

Intuitive global navigation (as per web conventions) organized by role

Allowance for user profiles and sessions (necessary for logging) and personalization

Secondary navigation options for additional features that need consideration

Navigation is removed from the main content area of the screen, making space available for charts and lists that help users know where things stand and what is important next.

table/form - navigate view edit

Challenges We Identified

Interaction Patterns

Single-cell editing

Basic table functionality

No differentiated cell or table “states”

Fragmented and static “Tips”

Navigation

For functional teams, cross-navigation between primary tables

Auto-collapsing left navigation optimizes horizontal space

Common Web Table

Standard icon toolbar gives access to tools and functionality

Read-only states show which fields to focus on for input/editing and which are for reference

Light visual weight makes it easier to focus on data, not cell borders

Tips and Instruction

Instead of keeping instructions static and visible, we chose to collect and collapse them as shown.

They are easily viewed by anyone needing guidance

They are out of the way for veterans who know their stuff

What We Solved

Single-value and Multi-cell Editing

Web tables support single and multiple-cell editing. The copied data can be within the table or from an external source

Single Row Shading (Hover)

Row shading on hover or selection is an easier way for users to scan across wide tables

Heavy lines and font (visual weight)

Unhelpful Zebra shading

Inconsistent column header height