CyberstringSL
Bringing the Oilfield into 3D

I never imagined I'd be working in the energy sector. But once I was on the job at Halliburton, joined by a motley crew of ex-game developers and artists, it became a genuinely interesting one: a mix of science, engineering, and innovative solutions, all in service of one goal, making the software easier to use so that communication and safety improved with it.

To understand the problem, we went where the work happens. We visited oilfield rig sites in East Texas, the Permian Basin, and Louisiana, interviewing oilfield workers about how they used the software of the day: their pain points, their wishes, and the ways software can make a real difference when safety issues need to be communicated visually.

A common refrain: the current software was archaic and hard to use, "like Windows 3.1." Unless you were deeply familiar with both the software and the subject matter, it was hard to understand, and that made communicating safety issues, or even financial choices, more difficult than it needed to be.

As a designer I had no idea what our programming team could actually pull off. But the challenge sent them on a voluntary expedition to find out. A few days later, one of the devs came back to show me a basic well visual, rendering in Unity, built from actual well-logging numbers.

The mandate that emerged from our field research, and from our after-hours prototype, was to take the legacy well-completion software oilfield teams relied on and rebuild the experience around clarity. The tool, CyberstringSL, needed to accomplish several things simultaneously.

As UX Designer I owned the translation layer: devising how legacy software information became usable UI elements sitting on top of a 3D well model I imported into Unity. My toolkit spanned 3D Studio Max for modeling, Adobe Illustrator and Fireworks for UI assets, Photoshop for texture and visual work, and the Unity game engine as the runtime itself.

After the beta, CyberstringSL was widely adopted by Halliburton contractors from Brunei to Oklahoma. The end result was a much more modern experience, by 2010 standards well ahead of its space, that let oilfield users explore variable conditions, equipment, and costs, and communicate all of it clearly and visually to their audience. Better communicated decisions, made safer.

It was no longer just a tool used out of necessity. People were genuinely excited to use it: functional, and uniquely modern in that space at the time. It helped improve Halliburton's safety record and was instrumental in landing and retaining contracts.

I like to highlight this case study because it showcases an innovative solution to a legacy software problem that found real success. Here's what it taught me.