About the Usability and User Experience Community
Member Profiles: 1999

Edited by Craig Marion, Membership Coordinator

• Jennifer Anthony
• Sabahat Ashraf
• Mike Bradley
• Theresa Coble
• Daniel Cohen
• Michael Cretzman
• Holly Curtis
• Maureen Gordon
• Mark Hall
• Mary E. Hightower
• Deb Lewis
• John Prince
• Tiana Scott

Jennifer Anthony
Moss Software
Irvine, California
jennifera@mosssoftware.com

After obtaining my degree in Journalism at California State University, Fullerton, in 1995, I basically fell into the technical communications profession.  Since then, I've been a tech writer for just over two years and a publications manager for about two and a half.  I have a staff of two writers, and the three of us together have made it a departmental priority to improve both our application and the documentation. 

I'm relatively new to the field of usability, but I'm learning fast -- this SIG has been a great help.  One of my biggest challenges is making management aware of the need for usability testing of the product and the documentation.  I've made some big strides recently in providing input on our application's GUI that has actually been listened to and implemented.  My next goal is to convince management to allow us to conduct on-site visits and usability testing, neither of which has ever been done by my company before.

When I'm not working, you can usually find me reading, shopping, watching The X-Files, listening to my large CD collection, or -- most of the time -- working on my family photo scrapbooks.  I'm also a Creative Memories Consultant, so most weekends I'm teaching other people how to preserve their families photos, history, and memories in an album that includes not only photos, but also documentation.  It's the perfect creative outlet for a tech writer!  

Sabahat Ashraf
Mentor Graphics Corporation
Warren, New Jersey.
ashrafs@alum.rpi.edu

Having interned as a technical writer, my first job right out of engineering school was to become the sole writer in Pakistan's largest indigenous telecommunications equipment company. I was part of the "Technical Services Department," which also handled some product design and layout. Given that and my engineering degree, plus the fact that a technical writer must almost by definition be conscious of usability, before long I was involved with the physical design of the products. I became really conscious of how users interact with products, the role documentation plays in the mix, and how good interface design can help a technical writer and vice versa.

My next job was with the offshore site of a British software house. Before I knew it, I was also writing the text for and giving input on software interfaces. By this time, I had decided to get further education in technical writing and joined an M.S. program in Technical Communication from RPI. Here I formalized my study of usability, taking courses such as "User Documentation and Interface Design" and "Information Usability."

Now I am responsible for two suites of microchip-design software at Mentor Graphics. And the fight for usable document design continues.

What do I do for fun? Well, lots. Check out my home page!

Mike Bradley
Oakland California
mbradley@techpubs.com
www.techpubs.com

I've been a tech writer in the SF Bay Area for 15+ years.  I've always been interested in usability but, being a contractor, seldom participated in formal studies.  The past few years has rekindled my interest as (1) software and hardware have become increasingly annoying and (b) I've had to use Windows PCs instead of the Mac.  I call it the Nuclear Power Plant syndrome -- engineers can design anything and promise that it will work wonders, but when it's brought online, look out! 

In the first decade of the desktop computer, tech writers and others changed the industry's mind about understanding and caring for the user.  We won management's support to create documentation that would be easy to use and effective.  It was an exciting time because we made great strides, inventing new forms and styles as we went along.  I feel as though I've seen little real progress since then and it disappoints me tremendously.  While the delivery technology has grown by leaps and bounds -- with WinHelp, Apple Guide, SGML, the Web, and CDs -- most of the documentation is so difficult and arcane that the average computer user is forced to ignore it.  And please don't get me started on 800-page user manuals!

My main activity outside of work is in the National Writers Union.  I've held several offices in my local and have been a grievance officer and contract advisor for nearly ten years.  And I like to sit on my deck and watch the possums climb up our palm tree.

Theresa Coble
Seward Learning Systems, Inc.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
tcoble@sewardls.com
tlcoble@pioneerplanet.infi.net

I'm an instructional designer for a multimedia development company.  I started out as a classroom teacher developing and testing cross-cultural instruction on uncooperative high school students.  In 1991 I learned to program interactive courseware.  Now I create standards, flow charts, storyboards, prototypes, design documents, and write scripts that include video, audio, and interactivity before anything goes to a programmer because my clients are corporate.  I hand these documents off to others for further scrutiny and rewrite more times than I care to admit.  At times I wear more hats than can fit on my pointed head.

I joined the Usability SIG to learn more about usability because I believe it will help.  I suspect it is similar to the goals of formative and summative evaluation.  I'd like to learn how to design and use usability testing so I can determine how well my design and interactivity work.  Do I really need all those prompts?  Does my audio always have to be the same as the text the user reads on screen?  How effective is the interactivity?  Does it contribute to learning?  How much text is enough on screen?  When do users tend to get confused and frustrated?  What makes them smile?  What is the difference between a female and male experience with the learning material?  I hope to learn the answers to these questions and more in this SIG.

I don't seem to have much free time.  When I do, I sleep, go out to dinner with my friends, get a neck massage, and travel (I'm going to Kilimanjaro in 2000).  I prefer living in the mountains and by the ocean, but I live on the prairie, so I dream about the mountains and ocean.  

Daniel Cohen
The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
Washington, DC 
dcohen@bna.com

For me, the path into the technical communication field included a legal career.  I started work at BNA as a legal editor just as the company began the difficult transition from print publishing into electronic publishing.  As the company's electronic publishing efforts began to grow, I became a technical writer providing end-user documentation for a rapidly increasing number of CD-ROM products and products distributed on other electronic media.  I'm currently Documentation Manager, IT-QA.

My interest in usability arose from the pain and tears of patching the wounds of suffering interface designs with the inadequate bandages of help files and user guides.  Attending several excellent courses with titles like User-Centered Design made me aware of the body of literature and research surrounding usability and human factors by great minds like  Don Norman, Jakob Nielsen, Alan Cooper, Edward Tufte, Ben Schneiderman, William Horton, JoAnn Hackos, and others.

I have become a firm believer in the importance of usabilty testing, the importance of understanding one's users, and the consequent need to build usability testing and other processes for gathering information about users into the product development cycle.  To build support for usability efforts in my company, I have sponsored brown bag lunches on usability and arranged for courses on usability issues to be offered through the IT corporate training section.

In my spare time, I enjoy photography and travel. 

Michael Cretzman
CYBERplex Interactive Media
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
michael.cretzman@cyberplex.com
http://www.cyberplex.com

I'm an Interface Developer/Technical Writer at CYBERplex, a web solutions juggernaut for Fortune 1000 companies in North America.  Prior to this I was a tech writer, but after leaving a nightmare of a job I moved into freelance writing, research and programming on the early web (1996).  As an Interface Developer, I work with designers and web developers creating web sites for e-commerce, corporate identities, information management, and even computer-based training.  My technical writing involves all Internet back-end systems and is very challenging due to the constant changes in technology.

My Interface Developer work is a lot like technical writing as it calls for arranging information into components according to user and client needs.  It involves steady programming for web browsers and incorporates everything I've learned about writing procedures and presenting information visually.  CYBERplex is focussed on client strategy and all our work falls under the strategic direction of our clients' solutions.  This results in fine-tuned production work, allowing me to explore all the ways users interact with information.

The combination of these two professions, technical writing and interface development, has acted as a catalyst for my understanding of learning processes.  Documents and web sites are very different interfaces for information and their differences provide rewarding challenges.  I would encourage technical writers to look into 'information architecture' fields such as interface development for ways to challenge their understanding of communications and instruction.  These fields may offer rewards beyond their current technical writing work.

Holly Curtis
Campana Systems
Waterloo, Ontario
hkc@campana.com

Back in 1989, I was a coop student in Rhetoric and Professional Writing at University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada).  With a full time term and a part time term under my belt, my supervisor quit and they offered me the job of managing the department.  I went on to manage a fluctuating staff of three to eight people.  In 1994, I took a position at my current company.  My mission was to create a technical communications department and produce documentation for the company's products.  Now, with five additional writers in the department, we are operating at full steam, with usability as one of our main concerns.

My first introduction to the concept of usability (new buzzword back then) was at my first position.  We did usability testing through the University of Waterloo's Centre for Professional Writing.  This was full blown lab environment testing, with video equipment and two-way glass.  I only got to watch, but I was hooked.  Later, we went on to perform several series of tests, both formal and informal.  I've always been an advocate of good, usable design and believe that any form of testing or feedback is necessary for good design.  I'm a big fan of Ginny Redish and have attended several of her presentations.  She has further cemented my devotion to the pursuit of usable design.

As an STC volunteer back in 1992, I also helped organize a conference on Usability in Waterloo and got to meet exciting pioneers in the field like Ginny, Amanda Prail and Kent Norman.  Having been actively involved on the STC council in Southwestern Ontario since 1990, I'm now moving into the role of President for the upcoming year.

I am looking forward to learning more about usability concepts, recent research, and how the whole area has evolved.  Yes, I'm a keener.  

Maureen Gordon
UWI.Com -- The InternetForms Company
Victoria, B.C.
mgordon@uwi.com

I have never been so grateful for a SIG newsletter as I was for my first usability SIG newsletter, in 1996. With less than a year under my belt as technical writer/documentation manager at UWI.Com, an Internet startup company, I decided to conduct usability testing on the user manuals and online help we'd produced. My boss okayed the idea. Then his boss heard about it. Suddenly, I was asked to conduct usability testing on our graphical design software program and, due to pressure and egos and deadlines, was given two weeks! The newsletter had arrived a month before and bless it, it contained an article about how to conduct usability testing. As it turns out, I helped redesign the user interface of that product!

I now manage the Training & Documentation department at UWI.Com, and have two wonderful technical writers on my team who care about usability as well. The challenge, of course, is to develop usable documentation with the smallest budget in the company. That makes us pretty creative! I love my work, and when I'm not at UWI.Com, I learn karate, walk by the sea, paint my house, read, and have friends over for breakfast. I am very interested in communications, organizational dynamics, and leadership.

Mark Hall
National Decision Systems
San Diego, California
mark.hall@natdecsys.com

I've been a Product Design and Usability Specialist at National Decision Systems, a market research software company, for about a year and a half now.  I previously worked as a developer and systems engineer at the Boeing Company (Seattle, WA), and as a product planner at Summit Information Systems (Corvallis, OR).

My foray into the software usability field began about two years ago.  Shortly after a technical writing/graphic design/usability specialist joined our company in early 1998, I was asked if I wanted to join her just-forming Design and Usability Group.  Since I had tired of dealing with the tedium and politics involved in my product manager role, and because I missed being involved on the creative side of development, I said, "Sure!"  I've been an active UI designer, usability tester, and overall usability advocate ever since.

I began my usability education by reading About Face by Alan Cooper, The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, and GUI Design Essentials by Susan Weinschenk.  I'm currently reading Usability Engineering by Jacob Nielsen.  These readings, coupled with my boss' mentorship, the perusal of usability-related websites (I particularly like "asktog.com" and "useit.com"), and interactive design workshops, are helping me build a solid foundation in the field.  But I have much more to learn, and the STC's usability SIC newsletter and Website are a great complement.

Just two words are needed to summarize my personal life right now: "engagement" and "band." I've been engaged to Harriet for about four months now (as of early August -- CM), and have less than three months to go 'til the big day!  It's been a fun, yet hectic time.  I've been playing with the Pomerado Community Band for about a year, and with Big John's Little Big Band -- comprised of members of the Pomerado band that love to swing and "will play for free dinners" -- for about 3 months.  For more on those and other personal subjects, check out my website.

Mary E. Hightower
Geac Computers, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia USA
mary.hightower@geac.com

I have been a tech writer for four years and working with HTML and intranets since late 1994.

My interest with usability came when I tried using the things I wrote and created. I concluded, if I created it and it's difficult for me to use it or understand, how much more so for others? My first customer base was a mixture of internal and external, technical and extremely non-technical people.

I took a few classes in quality control and testing for software, then applied what I had learned to my technical writing and web design. After writing a document or creating a web page, I would use it and test it, then ask someone unfamiliar to do the same.

Usability testing is something many documents and web sites do not go through enough, if at all. I recognize the amount of time, money and lost users that would be saved if the document or web page was tested for usability. I cannot say enough about it. My preferred way to write about a process or software is to actually do it myself, just like a first time user, and if I can be a first time user, that's even better. The quality of the document improves dramatically.

When I'm not typing away at my keyboard, I'm at home with my husband, relaxing. I love to read, cook and write, and music is always playing. Extracurricular activities include taking courses in interior design/architecture, socializing and enjoying my favourite time of the year, fall. Above all, I am disgustingly organized.

I'm looking forward to learning more about usability through this SIG.

Deb Lewis
Online Computer Library Center
Dublin, Ohio
lewisd@oclc.org

I have been writing user documentation at OCLC for 5 years.  Besides writing printed user guides and electronic help systems for a particular line of products and services, I manage content for the company's extranet.

OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization.  We put great stock in usability testing even before we became ISO 9001 certified.  We are fortunate to have a complete Usability Testing Lab (Ulab) with all the cameras and recording devices necessary for evaluating user interfaces, documentation, and workflows.  VLab support and management staff are provided by our Quality Assurance Division.  They are a wonderful group of usability mentors.

I used our ULab two years ago during the development of the first extranet interface, and will be using it again this Fall to test the redesigned interface.  I have also used the Lab to test users' reaction to an electronic Help file, a printed "Getting Started" guide and a printed "User Guide" -- all of which accompany one of the software products I support.

I look forward to each issue of STC's Usability Interface newsletter and have begun to attend local BuckChi (Central Ohio ACM SIGCHI Chapter) monthly meetings whenever possible.  Outside the office, I enjoy watching my three boys struggle to grow up and stay young at the same time.  I'm a heartless gardener, a hopeless dog-lover, and am looking forward to growing old with my husband.

John Prince
Teknekron Infoswitch Corporation
Fort Worth, TX
JPrince@teknekron.com

As a Senior Technical Writer for Teknekron Infoswitch Corporation, I have been given the opportunity to implement usability strategies for several different media.

I have designed several usability strategy techniques for testing our hard-copy documents - from the alpha phase to the final production phase. These techniques involve testing the usability of the document by documenting everything we experience while using it with the product. I then create miscellaneous scenarios that I feel users may experience by developing test problems that focus on particular tasks. By recording the time it takes us to complete each of these scenarios, we are able to determine if and how they could be performed in a more efficient manner.

Because online help is a different medium for which to transfer our information, I have approached the concepts of usability in a different manner. My first task is to design a plan for the help system by envisioning situations that may prompt users to access the help system. Questions when using help typically differ (in that they are more concise) from questions referenced in hard-copy documentation. I begin with the three general questions asked most by users: "What is it? . . . How do I do that? . . . Why did it do that?" From here, I can focus on each piece of the product, and isolate each situation that may invoke these user questions. This is where I begin designing the windows that will appear in the help system and define the navigational guidelines. I employ certain prototype methods, beginning with horizontal prototyping, and proceed through to the high-fidelity method.

In my life outside of work, I enjoy playing tennis, golfing, and watching sports.

Tiana Scott
Documentum, Inc.
Albuquerque, NM
tiana.scott@documentum.com

Hi, I'm a staff technical writer for Documentum, a California-based software company that sells a suite of Knowledge Management products. I've been with Documentum for 6 yrs - watching the company grow from 16 people to over 600 (I believe) today. In the beginning, I was the tech pubs department and wrote everything. Today, there are several writers in the department and I concentrate on documenting the server API and system administration procedures. I telecommute from Albuquerque.

Like many companies, Documentum is moving towards online documentation and online help. My interest in usability grows out of that shift. I think usability is a big factor in the success of online documentation. I am particularly interested in those aspects of usability that look at organization of information, information access, and modularization.

In my free time, I pursue a variety of interests. I'm a fiber artist, working primarily in quilting, knitting, and natural dyeing, but I also do some bobbin lace, spinning, and basketweaving. I ride dressage, practice aikido, and love to hike. Musically, my tastes run to Celtic (traditional and non-traditional) and folk.