The Human Factor in Interpretation and Visualisation

E&P software has rapidly evolved from the early interpretation workstations of the 80-90s to<br>a sophisticated, integrated and unified system for interpretation, visualisation and increasingly<br>virtual or augmented reality. However, relatively less effort has been spent in investigating<br>how people, either teams or individuals, interact with these technologies towards realising the<br>value for their organisations. In recent years much emphasis has been placed towards<br>enabling team-based collaborative work processes within visualisation centers (Collaborative<br>Visualisation Environments, henceforward abbreviated as CVE’s), but a simple truth remains<br>that specific core tasks in E&P are performed primarily by individuals. At risk of<br>generalisation, whereas Development and Production are predominantly team-based work<br>processes, Exploration on the other hand is a task that relies heavily on an individual’s skills<br>for discovery. The E&P enterprise that recognizes the individual’s relevant skills and provides<br>an environment for both the individual as well as teams to perform optimally gains a<br>significant competitive advantage. Additional efforts are needed to specify and provide<br>visualisation environments for individuals or small teams geared towards Exploration.