CONTEXT

Agency: Frog Design
Role: Lead Visual, UI, Group Facilitation & Concept Generation

Connecting infrastructure via sensors and wireless networks is cheap and easy, but understanding the human motivations, desires and values underpinned by the Internet of Things is a challenge. We had to look at the Industrial Internet through the lens of human behavior, offering methodologies and frameworks for design teams.

Working with a great collaborative frog team in Austin who were entrenched in the world of oil, gas and energy, I started into the rabbit hole of scientific research and new technology to aid in recovery and efficiency of oil wells. In this project I was leading up visuals and taking a strong hand in drawing up the user experience/user interfaces and focus for our workshop with GE and Chevron.

We needed to get to the bottom of how this new technology would be utilized by the Chevron employees who were working in the field with the oil wells. To start understanding the user side of the problem, we drew up a workshop that brought together different Chevron and GE employees to answer strategically thought out questions that would help us hone in on how the product would be used, if the field workers would accept this new technology and if we could create more efficiency and really tease out unmet needs. 

I found so much fascination in this new world I was digging into, that I couldn’t help but be intrigued at the puzzle of old systems, geology and problem solving efficiency in to technology. While sorting through our papers to come up with a game plan for our clients, I came to identify with the user and really feel our project hit the nail on incremental efforts both companies could move towards to make the relationship certainly a mutualistic relationship.