Dealing with Drilling Data: An interaction design study on distributed collaborative work in oil drilling operations

Dealing with Drilling Data: An interaction design study on distributed collaborative work in oil drilling operations

Weijdema, J.M.

Stappers, P.J. (mentor)
Lauche, K. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design for Interaction

2011-07-13

The main question in this study is: “How can the distributed collaborative work system as it exists in drilling operations be improved from the perspective of the people involved concerning their context of information, communication and location during monitoring? ” Well-presented and well-understood data can improve the resilience of the system, since people have a higher awareness of the ongoing process. A system view is used to get an overview and understanding of the different important elements in the collaborative work system. In the user research this is further narrowed down to a focus on the monitoring task. The first two chapters describes the project, the context of oil and gas, a short description of the most important work tasks for drilling and completions teams onshore: planning, monitoring and troubleshooting. Three relevant themes concerning the distributed work system are addressed: collaboration, technology and the different environments used. The different people involved in distributed drilling are spread over different locations: one group of people is based offshore and the other people onshore are dispersed over different companies and locations as the operators’ office, the service companies and the rig contractor. All managerial people involved have a video conference twice day for updates and plans. Literature study on the subjects of distributed and collaborative work indicates human factors to consider. Such as the quality of experience between the user and collaborative technology: social ergonomics and team factors that show effects on asymmetry within and between teams on the different levels of information and awareness. Subject of this study is data monitoring, thus the theory of ecological interface design describes a framework for designing interfaces in complex environments. Users can be supported in their monitoring task by a representation of data on different levels of abstraction. This evokes full understanding of the system. By presenting higher levels of abstraction of data, the cognitive workload is reduced. When necessary the user can still zoom in on the detailed level of the process. A user- and context study, context mapping (Sleeswijk Visser, 2005), is executed to get an understanding of the work system from different perspectives and all the interrelated parts. People on different levels and positions in the organisation participated. In this method participants are involved by mapping their own context by means of small explorative tasks and making pictures of their work environment. Research results are shaped into eight different personas to represent the different perspectives. The user research further showed different types of data and types of data users. In most situations more information is not necessarily better, it could lead to distraction or an overload. Attention should be paid to present the right information to the right people on the right moment. The presentation of the data is an important factor in the perceived quality. From the different user groups the design proposals aim on two types of users: the driller whose actions are directly related to the data, and on onshore engineers, which monitoring behavior is characterized as ‘glancing use’. In conjunction with improved data presentations consistency is a key factor in creating matching user expectations on the systems output. Both the visible and invisible structure of the system, are important for user acceptance. Based on the above results three design directions are defined: the drillers dashboard, onshore data presentation and the role of the collaborative environment as part of the system. In the drillers environment an increased amount of available data resulted in more information to fit in an unchanged environment ergo a misfit in required functionality and design on the level of positions of elements and inconsistency in handling and layout. The information, alarms and tools are not optimally positioned in respect with one another. An information and alarm strategy should be defined to apply on existing environments, on environments to be designed, to prepare them for the future. This system approach must assure that every new element added is considered part of the system. Established standard such as ISO 11064 can be used. Maybe say out of reach? Onshore engineers primary task is to plan new wells, during this planning offshore operations are ongoing. Part of the engineers work is to keep track of these rig processes during the day. For that they monitor real time data and there are morning meetings.The interfaces used for real time data monitoring present sensor and machine data as individual numbers, gauges and graphs. Users have to assimilate those to get full understanding. Designs for new data widgets are proposed: The first proposed widget: a dynamic image is developed to summarize all valuable rig data in one picture. Users now can recognise the pattern instead of having to assimilate all separate data feeds. The image is created during co-creation sessions with people from the actual user group. The second proposal handles with the fact that not all actions from offshore influencing the data (e.g. change in mud pit volume) are presented on the monitoring screens. As it is necessary to complete the picture a widget is proposed to represent offshore actions as small notifications, to make sure the information is complete and equally distributed over the people involved. This notification system is inspired by the formerly used Public Announcement system on the rig. Onshore engineers work five days a week whilst offshore processes go on 24/7. This difference in working times results in onshore engineers monitoring data at home as well. And during the five days in the office they spent only a small amount of their time behind a desk. For these reasons consideration should be given to the application of data on mobile devices. Mobile devices have the opportunity to integrate information and communication appliances: linked to a server (cloud) this information can be centrally coordinated. Mobile devices have small (touch) screens and therefore require a different approach to interfaces design. Dedicated applications have to be developed.

interaction design
data presentation
distributed work
user study

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:54f8817f-c035-4de4-9ab1-99119acd4a01

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Weijdema, J.M.