Some Example Projects

Instructional Design

For Tandem Computers: Web site design and development. Performed a detailed needs analysis for the construction of a new web site aimed at creating a valued communications link between a corporate marketing group and worldwide field personnel. The web site features were to foster interaction, transfer information, and function as a general sales tool. Since numerous corporate internal sites were all competing for field mindshare, we devised a three-pronged site launch involving a special mailing, personal phone calls from marketing personnel to key field personnel, and prizes for personnel who emailed technical questions to the site in the first month. A scrolling banner, which changed daily, advertised technical updates to important products or corporate news. The web site achieved the client's objectives: the fundamental communication features and structure make it more of a sales tool, rather than just another web site, and the site visit statistics are high. The site was launched in April 1998, and it still receives rave reviews.

For Tandem Computers: Sales product training using Web technology. Developed three 100-page sales training courses: one on selling Web servers, another on selling multimedia servers, and a third on selling a new computer hardware architecture. Each course was designed to be downloaded to each field representatives' laptop and viewed with the Netscape browser. Portions of the courses are customer viewable, doubling as sales training and as customer presentations about the topic. Each course has a different look and feel: for example, one has a whimsical graphic design style, another has a surfing motif, and the third looks like Wired magazine. The hypertext structure was designed to accommodate the diverse needs of the 1500 people worldwide who would access the courses. The top level contains the general information that sales representatives need and the second level of the hypertext structure contains the detail that technical analysts require. Because of the positive field response to our first Web sales training course, Tandem hired us to design two additional sales training courses using Web technology.

For Compaq Computer Corporation: Sales product training and certification test design. Constructed a two and one-half day product training course and certification test for sales representatives who were being trained to provide business-critical, enterprise solutions in the finance, retail, and telecommunications markets. Beginning with an existing set of product and marketing presentations, we identified key facts and concepts and constructed learning objectives and learning activities to drive home the key points. Participants gave the course high usefulness ratings ("4" on a 5-point scale), and all trainees passed the 52-item, 90-minute certification test.

For Netscape Communications Corporation: Online tutorial design and development. Offered guidance on the design of an online tutorial using browser technology for an important Netscape client. The client requested corporate-wide online training, for approximately 50,000 employees, on a customized Netscape application. We wrote the learning tasks and procedures according to detailed specifications and evaluated the alpha and beta product.

For Oracle Corporation: Course design and development. Designed and developed a five-day training course on a proprietary application implementation method consisting of 10 complex processes, such as business requirements mapping, technical architecture design, business system testing, and performance testing. Using PowerPoint slides and notes, the instructor found our materials to be well structured and easy to use.

For Sun Microsystems: Technical training on user interface design. Designed and developed a two-day workshop to be delivered to 500 engineers (in groups of 16) on Designing Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The 200-page leader's guide consists of ten modules each describing a single step in the user interface design process. Key points are conveyed through examples; to facilitate skill-building, presentation of each step is followed by a team exercise in which participants apply the process to the design of a sample project. Team presentations throughout the workshop contribute to a highly-interactive learning experience.

For Apple Computer: Sales skills training. Designed and developed a six-hour, instructor-led sales training course which included sales dialogues on audiotape, slides, written exercises, and role-play activities. The course was designed to be entertaining as well as instructive for the intended audience, college students who sell in campus bookstores across the country. To convey customer service concepts in a memorable fashion, four audio segments have Dragnet's Joe Friday investigating customer complaint cases. During the investigations Friday points out where mistakes were made and suggests how to avoid them in the future.

For Apple Computer: Reseller training. Designed and developed a five-hour, instructor-led reseller training course for all of Apple's engineering resellers. Together with slides and a 100-page leader's guide, class interaction was facilitated through analysis of reseller scenarios and by a Plan of Action exercise.


Documentation

For Claris: Tutorial for a drawing program. Developed a 100-page step-by-step tutorial explaining how to create different kinds of business graphics with MacDraw Pro. Tasks included creating an integrated text and graphics master, user testing, and evaluation of the effectiveness of the materials. Because of the quality of our work, Claris hired us to write a style guide for other vendors to follow.

For Apple: User's guide for a database program. Developed a 20-page tutorial on how to perform the main user-level tasks and a 30-page user's guide describing the main screens in a 4th Dimension database application. The camera-ready materials complete with integrated text and graphics (including screen shots) were developed in four weeks.

For Hewlett-Packard: Corporate-wide needs analysis to determine documentation standards. The goal was to develop a format standard for all of HP's product documentation (i.e., user, reference, and service manuals). After analyzing their existing documentation across their six markets (mass consumer products, instruments, analytical, computers, manufacturing, and medical ) a competitive analysis was performed. Next, constraints on document development were determined by interviewing documentation managers across the company. A review of the psychological research literature on text readability/usability was also carried out. This information was used to generate a family of formats based on a usability perspective. The new standard took into account: product complexity, task complexity, reader background knowledge, reader purpose, reader expectations and market requirements. Our report was judged to be excellent by The American Institutes for Research, the foremost documentation research firm in the country.

Other technical editing projects have included manuals on UNIX, database programs (4GL), and computer networking (TCP/IP).


Needs Analysis & Evaluation

For Sun Microsystems: Needs analysis for a course on designing graphical user interfaces. The goal of the analysis was to specify current knowledge of and attitudes towards the user interface design process, user interface standards, and project team roles. Tasks involved questionnaire design, in-depth personal interviews with personnel evenly distributed across the company, and data analysis. Findings were supported with statistical analyses and quotes from the interviewees. The report was such a clear statement of the state of user interface needs at Sun that it was forwarded to senior management.

For Tandem Computers: Designed and developed a customer survey to determine the effectiveness of all Education Department customer training courses. Created a detailed report and slides with easy-to-understand graphics summarizing the results.

For the U.S. Department of Education and the Lawrence Hall of Science: Evaluation. Over a two-year period, analyzed data and wrote evaluation reports on the effectiveness of a teacher in-service training program designed to promote sex-fair mathematics instruction.


Process Improvement

For Palo Alto's Community Breast Health Project: Analyzed the tasks performed by the Project's volunteer Information Specialists to provide a comprehensive job description. Also designed job aids such as technical reference sheets for frequently asked questions, and redesigned the client intake form to be more efficient and usable.


Statistical Analyses

For Sun Microsystems: Analyzed customer-requirements survey data to determine the most important sets of requirements for software and hardware training courses.

For Tandem Computers: Carried out a survey to determine the effectiveness of a new web site designed to foster more interaction between groups in the corporation as well as to transfer information. Also analyzed both course evaluation data and survey data for field training and web site requirements.