About the Usability SIG
Member Profiles: May - October 2001

Edited by Susan Duncan, Membership Coordinator

• Victoria A. Kirkpatrick
• Basil White
  
  

Victoria A. Kirkpatrick
Star Systems, Inc.
Maitland, Florida
Vkirkpatrick@star-system.com

After seven years as an Executive Assistant to the CIO for the largest regional electronic funds transfer network in the United States, technical writing seemed to be the next logical step in my career. I had reached the top of the ladder as an executive secretary, and wanted to continue to learn news skills and utilize the skills I already had. I approached management and, fortunately, they created a technical writing position for me.

As an executive assistant , I was responsible for various technical and user manuals and the company's operating regulations. I was fluent in the industry terminology, having been a participant on our Operations/Technology Committee for seven years. What I lacked in technical knowledge, I made up for in writing skills and my ability to learn new things quickly. In my new position, I continue to learn more about the technical aspects of my company's business every day. Star Systems has grown tremendously and the technical writing department has grown along with it. As a technical writer, I have responsibility for the company's statistical data. I am currently in the process of taking our many manuals and statistical reports and converting them to PDF for use on our company intranet.

When I'm not learning more about my job, I enjoy making porcelain dolls with elegant gowns for my granddaughters, working on various other crafts projects, reading, swimming, and walking on the beach.

Basil White
Washington, DC
basilwhite@basilwhite.com

One day at boarding school, my English teacher, a tall, elderly Texas priest with a full head of shocking white hair, had each student write a set of instructions for folding a piece of paper so that it will fit into a 3 1/2" x 6 1/2" envelope. We then exchanged instructions and followed each other's instructions explicitly. No one folded the paper correctly. That lesson taught me how challenging technical communication can be, and the value of learning how to communicate in a style that minimizes opportunities for misinterpretation.

At the 1997 STC conference in Anaheim, then-Usability SIG president Ginny Redish asked the attendees at the Conference SIG meeting what the SIG could do to serve the STC in new ways. I suggested that we should adapt the STC manual evaluation workshops into a method for evaluating the usability of the products for which STC members create technical communication.  Since then, the Usability Evaluation Workshop has become a useful way to learn the dialogue of usability, share expertise with others, and provide useful tips to developers on how to improve their products.

At the STC conference, I am known as the "usability bouncer," because I stand outside the conference room where the Usability Evaluation Workshop is held and prevent the uninvited from threatening the intellectual property of the unreleased products being evaluated in the room. Become an evaluator, or submit your product! It's fun.