Instructional Media for Tech
Instructional Media for Tech
I designed and developed a curriculum of a dozen or so video tutorials to help new online store owners get their store up and able to take orders within 30 days. This was a fun project because I simultaneously developed the curriculum and the video tutorial style guide.
I’ve worked with the QuickBooks Desktop for Mac engineering team for many years, helping with UI text, and writing online help and user guides.
Over the course of three editions, I variously wrote chapters, and acted as developmental and technical editor for this book.
A few years ago I helped prepare data for an online auction. The UI was non-intuitive, confusing, and unforgiving. It occurred to me that many of the volunteers entering the items for auction would have trouble and this could lead to a poor auction experience, and to the school failing to meet fundraising goals. I decided to document the procedure. In the process, I noticed that once you get the hang of the environment, all you need is a cheat sheet, a job aid, so I created that too.
I thought a better use of the client’s annual business profile space might be something that would give prospective customers (i.e., parents) some insight into the special methods of a Montessori school, and tie in to the bumperstickers the school had just produced. I pitched an article idea describing Montessori’s Cosmic Education. The educators at the school were so pleased they keep copies of the article in the lobby for parents to pick up.
A few years ago I was honored to be asked to be the cuer for Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker. The job came with no instructions. Trying to come up with a systematic and long-range solution, I eventually devised these cueing instructions. The tool was presented to the board of directors and has been used ever since.
This is an excerpt from a novella work-in-process about Lara, a young woman whose world is shattered when her husband and five-year-old daughter die suddenly.