Man working at a desk with dual computer monitors displaying spreadsheets and data analysis in an office with large windows showing trees and parked cars outside.

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 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 sty

  • 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

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.

A detailed spreadsheet for well planning and monitoring, including sections for well names, well name changes, drilling schedule updates, well factory AFEs, forecast output, and aquifer data, with various links, buttons, and data fields for managing oil and gas well operations.
Screenshot of a Well Factory Planner dashboard with sections for land, drilling, facilities, reservoir, specialty, and favorites. Displays a status dashboard, notifications, and activity report with charts, graphs, and well data.

Table and 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”

  • Heavy lines and font (visual weight)

  • Unhelpful Zebra shading

  • Inconsistent column header height

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

Right Contextual Pane: Comments | Change Log

What We Solved

Comments

Screenshot of a data table titled 'Land Information,' showing well and land details with columns for area, home, drilling rig, well name, acres, NDIC number, and comments, with instructions and tips for data management at the bottom.
Screenshot of a well information management website with a green header. The page shows a table listing land data such as area, AWT, DSU index, drill site, well name, mountain range, forecast, comments, acreage, land code, and other details. There is a sidebar menu on the left with options related to land and well information.
Screenshot of the Hess Well Factory Planner website showing a table of well information, with tips on using the interface on the right side.
Screenshots of a Well Factory Planner software interface displaying land information, drilling, facilities, reservoir, and other planning data in a table format.
Screenshot of a well factory planner interface showing land information, drilling data, facilities, reservoir, specialty, and favorites tabs. The table lists land plots with details like area, AWT, DSU index, home DSU, drilling rig, well name, MTN, planner forecast, comments, DSU acreage, land information, and multiple well IDs.
Screenshot of a well factory planner webpage showing a table of land information including well names, locations, drillings, and comments, with a green header and side menu.
A screenshot of the Hess Well Factory Planner webpage showing land information table, with a popup window for replacing a value, and a green navigation panel on the left.
Screenshot of a Well Factory Planner web application showing land information data, with a pop-up window for replacing a value in a table, and a green sidebar menu.

Custom Developed Solution

Creating a customized solution is usually more expensive to build than a non-customized off the shelf solution but there are advantages:

  • The client own the code, so there are no recurring licenses, and they control the end of life.

  • It fits your organization like a tailored suit.

  • The client controls the scope, so it doesn’t need to be overloaded with a lot of features users don’t value.

  • Depending on how it is designed and built, change management can be minimized.

What We Solved

Replacement Value

  • When multiple cells in a column are selected, and the action is invoked (icon clicked), a Replacement Value dialog prompts the user to enter (or paste) a replacement value. This value will replace any existing or null value.

  • The Replacement Value field is contextual to the data type. If replacing dates, a date field is shown. If a validated (drop-down) value, then a corresponding drop-down with the valid values.

Relative Date Changes

  • Planning often involves moving a date forward or back to align with changing circumstances. Hess needs a version that can move multiple dates and still preserve their relative position to each other. An example would be pushing back all well dates associated with a single pad.

  • When users select the dates they want to move, and then invoke the toolbar control, a dialog asks for the date move direction (forward or back) incrementally. 



  • Example: Push all these dates back 1 month from where they are individually.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR BUY vs BUILD

Off the Shelf – Customized

VS

If heavy or even light customization is needed to make off the shelf solution fit the need, this was not advisable.

  • The client incurs technical debt. Every time there’s a new release it needs to be thoroughly tested to ensure it does not break any customization. The more customization the more testing.

  • Customization can be quite expensive. There’s still a lot of development and testing to be done.

  • Customization need to be permitted. Some SaaS vendors won’t customize because it breaks things for their existing customers.

  • Comment threads displayed in a single cell are ineffective for many reasons. We devised an interaction pattern that allows for multiple comments pertaining to a single record to be timestamped and shown as a threaded conversation.

  • The icon indicates that comments are available to view. (This could also include a counter if helpful.)

  • To add a new initial comment, we show a ghost comment icon on hover. When a user clicks the right pane is opened and the user enters the initial comment, whereupon the comment icon is displayed in the cell.

Change Log

  • Comment threads displayed in a single cell are ineffective for many reasons. We devised an interaction pattern that allows for multiple comments pertaining to a single record to be timestamped and shown as a threaded conversation.

  • The icon indicates that comments are available to view. (This could also include a counter if helpful.)

  • To add a new initial comment, we show a ghost comment icon on hover. When a user clicks the right pane is opened and the user enters the initial comment, whereupon the comment icon is displayed in the cell.

Accelerators: Efficiency Features