The contents of this portfolio have been chosen to demonstrate the variety of projects and deliverables I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to during my tech comm career. They are listed in reverse chronological sequence, so that my most recent work appears at the top.

Using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) is now an established practice. This online portfolio takes additional advantage of the “Features & Teasers” function of WordPress and the Thesis theme to automatically display the portfolio items in a two-column format, with links and thumbnails.

Please scroll down to access links to individual portfolio items.

While unemployed, I invested time and attention on “Web 2.0″ and current online trends.

In addition to designing my own website, I created and installed a custom background for my Twitter page and also helped a friend with his business site.

Starting with a digital photo of snow outside my front door, I worked with the image in Photoshop to crop it, re-color it and apply filters. The resulting image was used to define my personal “brand,” being incorporated into my business card, portfolio, and online presence.

To select the primary colors, I did internet research to find where my aesthetic and the surrounding culture intersected. I also used online color tools to refine the palette.

This generic, “vanilla” training guide for the company’s standard, in-house ERP systems was produced using Adobe Framemaker.

Most of these users would be transitioning from non-standard systems onto the corporate standard, and it was anticipated that many would never have used a mainframe system before. The goal was thus two-fold: (1) to acquaint them with the system’s menus and screens, and (2) to teach them how to navigate confidently and efficiently in a non-Windows environment.

I designed the book to be used alone as self-training, or in a classroom setting with an instructor. It was patterned after the book for a class I taught for new programmers at the company.

This book, written in Microsoft Word, provides step-by-step instructions on how a particular plant or location is to implement web-based logistics software from a third-party vendor.

Basic technical information was provided by the project’s functional and technical leads, but the overall flow of tasks, level of detail, audience specificity, and contextual setting were based on another cookbook I had created and which had been used very successfully. In both books, I mapped out the implementation process as it made sense to me, then confirmed with the team leaders to produce the documents.

Yes, greenscreen.

Since it is immediately available to end users at their point of need, the quality and usability of mainframe help is actually very important. Without the benefits of rollover tips and GUI interfaces, when these users press <F1>, they will either find the information they’re looking for on the first page, or they will call the help desk.

So writing for greenscreen is like a puzzle: How can I fit the most critical information in the least space?

When I was assigned my first mainframe help project, I quickly developed a template that allowed me to do my writing in Microsoft Word – easy to revise and send for edits – and simply paste the finished text over into the live system 20 lines at a time. This method saved my coworkers and me countless hours over the years.

These two quick references are based on a templated format I designed to support implementation of third-party software.

The Microsoft Word template is flexible enough to include screen images with callouts, short procedures, icon legends, and glossaries for new terminology.

One of the challenges when creating quick references is to fit in the “one more thing” that project leaders ask for after reviewing the draft. This template can accomodate these changes easily.

While many aspects of SharePoint were enforced enterprise-wide, the need to publish a library of content dictated that my team’s site be organized for ease of audience use.

The home page provides a jump-off point for entering documentation requests, access points for end user documentation for several enterprise-wide systems, and a list of links they might find handy.

In 2008, I initiated a redesign of how the process flow documentation was accessed. Previously, the only way to access the flows was via a tree-structure that also listed numerous support files and was very confusing. I sketched out an idea for a new interface – one that resembled Visio diagrams but was actually a progression of HTML image maps that would lead users to where they needed to go. Two other team members then made this vision a reality.

This Flash demo is one of a series that introduced shipping clerks to a new web-based logistics system.

After familiarizing myself with the application and the overall project spec, my first step was to write a script in Microsoft Excel and get it approved by the project leader. I then used Adobe Captivate to record the video and Audacity to record the audio (with my own voice). I edited the audio into a series of short clips and merged them with the video, adjusting the animation timing as needed.

The resulting compiled project was published enterprise-wide on SharePoint.

This Flash-based simulation was produced using Adobe Captivate.

Since Captivate’s automated features do not function with a mainframe, I created the fields, entries, and navigation manually.

The project was only a prototype, but it proved that Captivate could be adapted for mainframe training, averting the need for much more expensive tools or outside consulting services.