Energy & SustainabilitySK Gas

SK Gas eLNG Information Architecture Consulting

Enterprise System
Information Architecture
Role-based Menu
Value Chain

Pain Points

We had to verify that LNG’s unique work processes connect smoothly with the system screens.

Understanding the Business Insights Behind System Work

We began by understanding the principles and overall process of the LNG business and analyzing users by role based on the industry value chain. This let us understand work processes grounded in the fundamental nature of the energy business and the criteria for workflows. The starting point was how to provide a user experience that considers the connection with system screens, centered on the LNG value chain.

We considered how to minimize the gap between field staff used to existing ways of working and the new system, and how to connect them naturally. This led us to redefine a value-chain-centered workflow that reflects business processes. Adapting from the way they had always worked to a new system was a big adventure and challenge for them.

The expected effects of the project are as follows.

– First, standardizing the B2B information structure: defining menu access standards based on common tasks and connected workflows.

– Second, defining work access scenarios based on activities for each user permission.

– Third, raising the efficiency of the system while providing a familiar work environment.

Strategic Lens

We redefined the workflow around the LNG value chain.

Analyzing the Legacy System

Through analysis of the As-Is menu tree and program list, our first priority was to understand unit work functions for each user permission, classify the menu access structure for all user permissions, and establish a hierarchy by user work unit.

01. Menu Tree & Storyboard Analysis

We compared the As-Is menu tree against the storyboard of each screen to find where actual workflows and system menus diverge. Unit functions scattered across permissions were regrouped into work units, and we identified where the same function appeared in several menus or where completing one task meant moving between several menus, laying the groundwork for restructuring the menu hierarchy.

02. Establishing a Value-Chain-Centered Workflow

By establishing the entire workflow connected to the system on the basis of the LNG value chain, we aimed to enable seamless work connections in a timeline-based cycle and help set the standards for system processing.

Creative Approach

Behavior scenarios by permission and a journey timeline set the criteria for which menus appear.

Guiding User Behavior

By defining the behavior of the various users with a stake in the work and mapping service flows for each scenario, we could lay the foundation for an information architecture tied to work behavior. Rather than simply listing menus, this means showing menus based on the user’s service scenario and defining a natural flow to the next action.

01. Setting Work Behavior Scenarios by User Permission

Based on the workflow, we distinguished tasks that users can handle jointly according to their unique roles from those they must handle individually, allowing us to check for conflicting or unnecessarily overlapping parts.

02. Setting Menu Display Criteria by User Permission on a Customer Experience Journey Timeline

By defining activities for each user permission, we set criteria for displaying work menus based on a timeline of the customer experience journey,

and provided information architecture options for different perspectives.

We provided a workflow-based information structure, a structure based on to-do tasks by user permission, and a dual structure separating work and operations, which also shaped the most optimized design of work screens.

03. Providing Guides for Menu Composition Principles

Rather than stopping at an information architecture guide, we distributed a guide that can be applied to actual menu composition, so it can be used for CRUD-based menu structures. Grouping and task priorities that raise work efficiency allowed us to apply a consistent and convenient architecture.

Analyzing the menu hierarchy by user work permission, we derived a menu activity index aimed at sequential structural design following the order of work and at improving the hierarchy of navigation (GNB, LNB, utilities).

Delivered Experience

We derived a CRUD-based menu composition guide and a menu activity index.

Recognizing the Importance of Information Architecture

Diagnosing information architecture, as this project did, is very unusual in Korean IT projects. Information architecture is often treated as just one simple task within the overall project. With information architecture frequently built without understanding the industry’s business and interpreting it from the perspective of users’ work scenarios, this project was meaningful from the moment its importance was recognized. Reviewing the information architecture of a system still in development was highly unusual, but also rewarding. We thank the client and the project team members who helped so much in a short time.

SK Gas eLNG IA Consulting — 3D image of an LNG terminal with an information structure diagram

Client

Rebuilding an LNG business system around its value chain and the people who use it.

Project Information

Industry: Energy & Sustainability
Project Type: Optimization
Role: Business Analysis, IA Design, IA Guideline

Client: SK Gas
Client Introduction: Founded in 1985, SK Gas is Korea’s leading LPG company, expanding from LPG import and distribution into eco-friendly energy such as LNG power generation and hydrogen. Amid rapid change in the energy industry, it aims for global leadership as a “Total Solution Provider” by expanding its existing business, maximizing synergies and creating new growth engines.

The biggest task and mission of this project was to analyze employees’ work status, frequency of use and processing cycles in SK Gas’s B2B-based internal and external work systems, and improve those systems to run smoothly and efficiently.

The hardest part of the project was understanding the special work processes of the energy sector and verifying whether the processes and system screens were seamlessly connected. We spent long hours discussing work processes with the people closest to the work, sometimes in debate, and where processes seemed to need improvement, it became time to reinterpret them together from both sides’ perspectives.

Case Intelligence Summary

Pain Points

We had to verify that LNG’s unique work processes connect smoothly with the system screens.

To improve SK Gas's B2B work system, we first had to understand employees' work, how often they use it and how often tasks cycle. The hardest part was understanding the workflows unique to the LNG energy business and verifying that they connected smoothly to the system's screens. For field staff used to the old way of working, adapting to a new system was a big leap, so narrowing that gap was the challenge. And because the system was already under development, its information structure had to be reviewed both quickly and accurately.

Strategic Lens

We redefined the workflow around the LNG value chain.

We started by understanding how the LNG business and its overall process work, analyzing user roles along the industry value chain. Analyzing the as-is menu tree and program list, we understood unit tasks by permission, classified menu access for every permission level and set a hierarchy of work units. Comparing the menu tree against each screen's storyboard, we found where real workflows and menus diverged, where functions were duplicated, and where one task forced users to jump between several menus. On that basis we redefined the workflow around the LNG value chain so tasks connect without breaks across a timeline-based cycle.

Creative Approach

Behavior scenarios by permission and a journey timeline set the criteria for which menus appear.

Instead of simply listing menus, we designed an information structure where users meet menus according to service scenarios and flow naturally to their next action. Using the workflow as a base, we separated shared tasks from individual tasks for each role and checked where they conflicted or overlapped unnecessarily. We defined activities by permission and set menu-exposure rules on a journey-based timeline. We then proposed three information-structure options by viewpoint — workflow-based, to-do by permission, and a split between work and operations — leading to the best work-screen design.

Delivered Experience

We derived a CRUD-based menu composition guide and a menu activity index.

Going beyond an IA guide, we distributed CRUD-based menu guidelines that could be applied to actual menus right away. Grouping and task priorities that raise efficiency gave the system a consistent, convenient architecture, and analyzing menu hierarchies by permission produced a menu activity index for sequencing work and improving the GNB, LNB and utility levels. We also defined a B2B information-architecture standard based on shared tasks and linked workflows, along with work-access scenarios by permission. In Korean IT projects, where information architecture is often treated as a minor task, diagnosing the IA of a system still in development was a rare case.

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