About the Usability and User Experience Community
Member Profiles: 2009

Edited by Linda Patryas, Membership Coordinator

• Julie Larson
• Marek Glinski

Julie Larson
Technical Writer
Cray, Inc.
julie@cray.com

Why Usability and Technical Writing?
I’ve spent my career mired in the customer service organization of high tech companies fighting to keep customers happy. More often than not, the battle cry was “usability,” sometimes disguised as "installability" or even "reliability." Following a five-year hiatus from all things technical, I landed in a technical writing position, where my service background meshes well with the usability focus in a customer documentation organization. Not to mention the fact that I love to write.

Education and Professional Background
I have a BA in Computer Science and Math from St Mary’s University in Minnesota. My first position out of college was as a UNIX System Administrator for AT&T. I have spent the majority of my career in Cray’s customer service organization, working in various capacities as a support analyst and manager. My next position, and the most challenging, was the role of full-time mom. Five years was more than enough. I dusted off my technical skills, worked at the U of M as a Software Administrator and most recently moved back to Cray as a Technical Writer.

Personal
A husband and two teenagers keep me busy when I am not working. I’m an enthusiastic sports fan – football, basketball and baseball (in that order). The only sport I still manage to participate in is golf.

Marek Glinski
Technical Writer
Rapid7, LLC.
marek_glinski@rapid7.com
www.markglinski.com

Usability and technical writing
As the User Assistance lead at my company, I’m a member of the User Experience team, and I report to the director of UX. My goal is to reduce support calls significantly. I work with UX to make our user interface text more useful and understandable, to embed context-sensitive Help throughout the UI, and to construct an extensible Help information architecture that makes information quick and easy to find. Usability imperatives drive all of this. I’m learning as I go along, so I’m excited about the resources that this SIG provides.

Background
I have a B.A. in journalism from Columbia College, Chicago. I’ve worked primarily as a freelance writer in journalism, marketing, and technical communication over the past 20 years. I started out as a contractor at Rapid7. Impressed by the mission, growth, and culture of the company, I became a full-time employee in late summer 2008.

Personal
I’ve been married for 10 years, and I live in LA. My interests include fictional writing in various forms, classical guitar, yoga, and meditation.