Subsurface Data to Insights - Live+
Industry
Oil & Gas
Client
Walking Tree, LinqX
Service
UX Design
Date
2025
Overview
Turning underground operations into actionable insights.
In hydraulic fracturing (fracing), every parameter—from pressure to chemical mix—can impact safety and cost.
Before Live+, engineers were juggling 6–8 disconnected tools just to understand what was happening.
Goal:
Create one unified platform for engineers to monitor live data, simulate “what-if” scenarios, and prevent costly errors.
SITUATION
Oil & gas engineers work in extreme environments—sometimes with limited connectivity and no margin for mistakes.
On-site engineers struggled to see real-time changes quickly.
Remote teams needed to compare planned vs. actual performance across multiple wells.
Project managers needed a single, trustworthy summary to track risk and cost.
💬 “We realized our users didn’t need more data. They needed a way to see meaning in the data.”
High pressure, high risk, and high data overload.
TASK
As the Lead UX Designer, I was responsible for:
Translating field workflows into an interactive, usable system.
Designing for low-connectivity environments.
Balancing real-time monitoring, simulation, and collaboration needs across roles.
Lead the end-to-end UX for a complex technical platform.
ACTION
Learning the Job
We joined field operations and observed how engineers responded when things went wrong.
→ This helped design for real decisions, not ideal workflows.
Mapping Workflows
We condensed dozens of tasks into five key use cases:
Monitor a job live
Run a simulation
Compare past vs. current jobs
Get proactive alerts
Share findings with teams
Designing with Familiar Mental Models
We structured the UI exactly how engineers think:
Pad → Wells → Stages
Sensors or simulation models track each stage.
This reduced the learning curve dramatically.
UX Decisions That Mattered
Decision | Why It Helped | UX Principle |
---|---|---|
Live vs. Simulate Toggle | Safe scenario testing | Progressive Disclosure |
Vertical Well View | Matched underground layout | Recognition over Recall |
One-click Plot Comments | Contextual collaboration | Collaborative UX |
Red/Green Job Pins | Quick job overview | Color Accessibility + Fitts’ Law |
Dynamic Parameter Sliders | Instant feedback loops | Immediate Feedback |
From noise to narrative.
RESULT
Live+ and Cempro replaced multiple disjointed tools with one cohesive platform where:
✅ Engineers monitor live data in real time
✅ Teams simulate “what-if” scenarios safely
✅ Managers get risk alerts instantly
Outcomes:
Reduced decision lag
Improved collaboration between field and office teams
Simplified complex data into visual stories that anyone could understand
From noise to narrative.
LEARNINGS & NEXT
We learned that great UX in technical domains is about aligning with users’ mental models, not teaching them new ones.
Next Steps:
AI-driven pattern detection for early risk alerts
Offline sync for remote regions
Rolling out shared design system across Core+, XOPS, and Live X
Simplicity wins — especially in complex systems.
CLOSING NOTE
What was once complex technical noise is now a clear visual story.
Live+ empowers teams—from oil fields to control rooms—to understand and act on what’s happening beneath the surface.