Digital Twin
UX Research – UX Design – UI Design
Digital replication of oil plant to improve performance and efficiency
About the project
This project has been sanitized so as not to show the client’s name. This client is an international company engaged in the industrial sector of subsoil liquid and gas drilling among other things.
The Digital Twin tries to provide to the client operations and projects with a transversal integrated digital tool to allow real time information overview, communication between work streams, enhance asset efficiency and optimize production.
This project started with a liquid and gas extraction plant in the middle of the Amazon rainforest but would expand to the rest of the stations around the world. Both onshore and offshore.
Digital Twin key functionalities:
– 2D/3D representation
– Real time information
– Filter scenarios
– Real-time alerts
– Access to detailed information
– 360° communication between verticals
– Create specific tasks and assign them to users
The problem
One of the main problems for the client was the lack of plant optimization. They were aware that logistical, infrastructure and personnel problems meant that the extraction plant was not as efficient as it should be.
They were missing valuable windows of opportunity to increase production and, therefore, the company’s profitability. In addition, they were using too many different software to manage the operation of the entire plant. This increased the complexity of achieving objectives.
The solution
We had to turn the situation around. We had to get a real-time digital replica in the cloud that would mirror the factory in the real world. This way will give us to have a 360-degree view of everything that was going on in the factory. And not just for a few engineers, but for the whole team: maintenance, logistics and management.
This improvements would allow us with big data to make predictive models to anticipate windows of opportunity that can be planned, optimized and achieved by the team in the field.
The strategy
The strategy had to be flexible as the objective to be achieved was very complex: the final software had to handle a brutal amount of data in real time while launching predictive models. This added to the maintenance alerts and the glossary of information reflected in a simple and visual way.
Basically our plan was to transform a complex reality into a simple graphical interface. Or at least, as simple as it could be.
In order to achieve this, we created a timeline with milestones to be reached.
Research
Context
In order to accomplish a first product draft, we needed to understand how was the day to day in the plant, what kind of tasks they did and the needs of the employees. This led us to better understand the challenges faced by our users.
Who are our users?
What tools do they use?
Which are their current tasks?
Research / Users
Interviews
The interviews allowed us to see a complete overview of the situation, that lead us to detect the pain points in the work process of our users. Indeed, It is important to highlight the missunderstanding due to the team communication, the bad connection or the lack of information among others, as general aspects to be highlighted.
However, we were able to obtain better information about where the failures of the work processes were in each of the profiles involved.
Research / Users
How do they interact with each other?
After revealing the day to day of each profile, it seems interesting tracking which ones are touchpoints for others. So here we designed a diagram to understand which of the profiles talk a common language in terms of work.
Research / Users
Insights mapping
At the same time we could trace how this pain points were related with their day to day and in which moment of the processes we should focuss for each profile for solving the detected pain points.
Research / Software + Insdustry
Tool Clasification
With an accurate picture of the teams, how they interact with and knowing all the tasks involved, we decided to classify also the tools for a better comprehension. The tools were grouped by typologies related to functionalities. This way, we could easily integrate them, if needed, into the user flow of the Digital Twin.
Research / Define the problems
Common pain points
Even if there are a large variety of profiles and different nature of pain points, we can detect the ones that affect all the areas, thanks to this overview. Furthermore, we can start seen how all of them are deeply involved with bussines.
Long email list, outdated documentation without filtering, many sources for the same information or too much tools to use, among others, generate that much noise that is imposible to have the real information.
Attached to the disinformation and because of the same problems, it is difficult to be in control of everything that is happening. There are that many profiles that there is a need for mapping where is everyone for economic reasons.
As well as in planning, real time visualization would help to be more in control of the situation, avoid unnecessary travelling and be more aware of economic opportunities.
Ideate
Context
Thanks to the insights obtained in the interviews and the outcomes received from the business side, we can filter to detect the core Functionalities that will be covered up
in our MVP.
Ideate / Jobs to be done
Product definition
After detecting the a really large of common user needs, “jobs to be done” will help us to detect what is the higher purpose of this list of dessires our current users have.
Ideate / Business alignment
Business alignment
Having clear what the purpose is, we tried to align all of this desires that solve frustrations with the bussines outcomes. This way we can start planning which features should the MVP include.
Ideate / Ideate possible solutions
Ideation
The general overview acts as a common scenario for all the profiles. We have divided it in several clearly divided sections for a better understanding of the users.
Ideate / Validate solutions
User Flow
Design
Design / Low-Fi prototypes
Sketches
With all the information accumulated in the research and ideation phases, I started to develop paper prototypes to speed up the process and discard ideas more quickly.
Design / High-Fi prototypes
3D Render
From the beginning of the project we worked in parallel on the creation of 3D scale models that accurately represent the liquid and gas extraction plant selected for the project. Thus, when we reached the UI phase it was practically finished.
Design / High-Fi prototypes