Improved data comprehension and workflow for engineers in oil and gas industry
Client
PetroVietnam
Role
Defined user flows and detailed mockups
Communicated with stakeholders
Built and maintained the design system
Handed off designs to dev
Team
Team of 6
Sole product designer
Timeline
2020
Overview
I led the product design of a data platform for a state-owned oil and gas corporation, where clients struggled with handling large volumes of complex data and creating requests manually — leading to slow, effort-heavy workflows and a higher risk of human error. As the sole designer in a team of 6, I designed a unified workspace that enabled users to read data and work more efficiently.
Problem
Scattered information with no shared process
In oil and gas, completion is the stage after drilling a well, preparing it for safe and efficient production. At this stage, the main work involves planning and installation, where PetroVietnam engineers are the primary users. Based on the PRD and user workshops, I gathered the key insights needed to define their persona.
Research
User persona
Petroleum Engineer
Khoa
Khoa is a dedicated Petroleum Engineer who manages large volumes of daily well data, working primarily on web-based monitoring tools during long, continuous desk sessions.
Jobs to be done
Review well data across separate systems
Discuss findings and next steps with other desk engineers
Create a work request by compiling well data into an Excel form
Pain points
Have to jump back and forth between different tools just to read and piece together well data.
There is no way to collaborate virtually, so discussions happen in different places and hard to track.
Creating work request manually is slow, repetitive, and can easily lead to mistakes.
Major design decision #1
Bring well information into one place and make it easier to review
My first requirement was to design two features — Schematic View and Composite Log — as two separate tabs. After demoing to users, though, I saw they struggled with constantly switching between the two screens, so I redesigned them into a single merged view with a toggle.
Schematic View
A visual map of the wellbore structure and equipment.
Composite Log
Layered well-log data engineers cross-reference against the schematic.
Major design decision #2
Support virtual collaboration around the exact point in the well
To solve the collaboration problem, I looked at how mature collaboration tools already solved it, then chose a hybrid approach: annotations start as in-context conversations on the schematic, then can be turned into a work request when needed.
Direct, in-context (Figma-style)
Comments anchored directly to the artifact — fast and natural for discussion during review, but lightweight and limited for tracking ownership and approvals.
Structured, centralized (Jira-style)
Issues are easy to assign, track, and review, with strong workflow and approval status — but less effective for spatial discussion tied to a specific point on the schematic.
Major design decision #3
Use contextual shortcuts and prefilled data to speed up work request creation
I automated this step because it met two conditions: engineers repeated it constantly, and every field they filled in could be predicted from what they were already looking at.
Two hidden entry points
A quick-create menu and inline annotations both let engineers kick off a work request right from the point on the schematic they're already looking at.
Prefilled from existing data
Of 30 available data fields, only 5 actually needed manual input — the rest could be inferred from the schematic and log the engineer already had open.