About the Usability SIG
Member Profiles: 2002

Edited by Susan Duncan, Membership Coordinator

• David Alt
• Amir Ansari
• Farah Siddiqui Bullara
• Carrie Estill
• Barry Gordon
• Dean Gulstad
• Shauna McGee
• Jennifer Veltsos
• Bonnie Yelverton
  

David Alt
Professional Association of Contract Employees, davidalt.com
techwriter@davidalt.com

At some point in my initial career as a developer, I noticed that the lack of quality documentation is one factor that makes a project sink, rather than swim. I noticed that many development teams lack writers, and that many developers dislike writing or are unable to write. I figured I should embrace my fate and become that lone technical writer among developers.

What spurred this transformation was meeting an acquaintance who encouraged me to join STC, and who offered me the opportunity to volunteer at the chapter level. I followed her advice, learned a lot about a field whose existence I previously had not known, and adopted a primary identity as a writer. Since that point, I have become a better writer, and have been much happier.

The biggest change in this transformation was learning to think about the needs of the audience, rather than simply describe content. Now that this focus is second nature, I look toward usability as an area that can help me become even more valuable to my clients by helping me improve the overall quality of the product.

Farah Siddiqui Bullara
farah.bullara@intel.com

I work for Intel Corporation as a Human Factors Project Manager, and have worked in the high-tech field since 1990. I started my career as a technical writer and quickly moved into technical communications management, where I have continued my quest as a usability advocate. With a co-worker, I founded a Human Factors Engineering Department within Intel's Converged Communications Group in 1999. Since that time, I have managed usability projects, designed interfaces, conducted usability tests, written/ISO departmental guidelines, and performed other activities related to running a successful Human Factors department. I have been a member of the UPA (Usability Professionals Association) since 1996.

Before I started working as a technical communicator, I taught a communications course for engineering students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These days, I frequently find myself in discussions with developers about Solsoft's non-standard interfaces, which are supposed to be Java-like. I am also president of the France chapter of STC. In my off hours, I like to play bridge, go to concerts and operas, and travel. I have no kids and am happily married to a retired journalist.

Dean Gulstad
Polymer Studios, Inc.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
http://www.polymerstudios.com
dean@polymerstudios.com

My career has vacillated between creative and analytical types of positions. I've done print design, copywriting, and photography. I've also done IT project management, usability testing and analysis, technical needs assessments, account management and producing. Throughout my career, I've been most interested in how people communicate and learn. Making information accessible to the appropriate audience is one of the primary issues involved in usability. Unfortunately, written content is often not given the attention it deserves.

I'm currently a partner with Polymer Studios, an agency devoted to creating positive user experiences by focusing on information architecture, user interface design, usability testing and analysis, and the appropriate blending of technology and creativity.

When I'm not working, you'll likely find me playing with my 9-month-old son, reading, or indulging in the pleasure of motion picture scores.

Shauna McGee
Computer Sciences Corporation
Long Beach, CA
smcgee@csc.com

My technical writing career emerged out of an eight-year corporate computer training business. I had found that most of my students needed training materials that were based on completing a business task, not based on a list of computer software functions.

I have been working with a variety of customized e-mail systems, specialized databases and proprietary software applications. My goal is to address users' business roles, such as manager or administrator. I produce documents and manuals that are a combination of job procedures and software actions. Additionally, I have been promoting the importance of role-centered design to my colleagues.

There are three items that are important to making the computer and software usable to business people - adjusting the computer to accommodate vision, physical and work-style needs, observing and documenting the business procedures in combination with the computer procedure, and using business language instead of technical language. I look forward to learning about human-focused solutions for my clients and my company through our Usability Special Interest Group.

Jennifer Veltsos
Instructor & Internship Coordinator
Computer & Information Sciences Department
Minnesota State University, Mankato
jennifer.veltsos@mnsu.edu
http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~romerj/

When I started college, I didn't know anything about technical communication. I didn't even know that the university offered classes on the subject until my roommate changed majors in her junior year. Over the years, as she told me about her work and projects, I found myself becoming more and more interested in the field. Every job I've had since college, from tourism marketing specialist to doing public relations for a bookstore, has required me to create documents for internal and external users. Now I'm working as an internship coordinator in a computer science department, a job that requires technical writing skills. I finally decided to take the leap back into college and am pursuing a Master of Arts in Technical Communication.

I look forward to learning more about my new field of study and joining the great wild world of technical communications

Bonnie Yelverton
b.yelverton@verizon.net

I did my first piece of technical writing for a high school research paper about oscilloscopes. After graduate work at the University of North Carolina in Germanic Linguistics, I moved to Denmark to teach German and English. In 1987, I got a job with Danish Telecom working with engineers on a speech recognition project. My first encounter with the concept of usability occurred when I read an article by Jakob Nielsen, who was from the town in which I lived. Around 1990, I started a diaper service, working with the life cycle of washing and textiles. Here I did quite a bit of technical writing in the form of user guides and environmental reports. In addition, I worked as a translator for environmentally related companies. This whetted my appetite for environmental management, so I took courses in the field. Two years ago, I moved back to the United States. Before a recent downsizing, I worked for Vestas-American Wind Technology in California as the Documentation Coordinator, which meant translating and editing wind-turbine construction manuals. Not long ago, I started the Certificate in Technical Writing at UC Riverside Extension, and joined the Inland Empire chapter of the STC, for which I am Council Secretary. At present I am unemployed, but I’m spending my time learning new skills and trying to figure out XML.