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Project Summaries

Overview

A brief description of a representative sampling of completed projects is here, in two sections. Projects related to documentation, training and performance support are followed by website design and development projects. Some include further links to excerpts from the projects, so you can see first hand just what they looked like and some of the layout or construction detail.

Linked sample documents will open in a new window—just close the window when you've finished browsing the contents. Most of the sample documents are stored in PDF format (the single spreadsheet example has been ported into a web page) so you can see the content and layout in the original form, and will require the free Adobe Reader to open the file.

Documentation, training, and performance support

Clark Training & Consulting, Phoenix, AZ.

Worked as a marketing and communications consultant to overhaul their seminar manuals and to develop and implement a marketing plan. I edited and revised the seminar manuals, workbooks and other content for a series of five instructional design workshops for this fledgling seminar business, then developed direct mail pieces to support marketing. The company is now a major supplier of instructional design training.

A partial lesson sample is available here as a PDF file. This is a small sampling of the seminar manual content—14 pages from a total of well over a thousand pages written—but will nonetheless give some idea of the content and how it was developed. One key to the success of the seminar series was that the manuals were structured in such a way as to be useful as desktop reference following the initial training, an example of reference-based training. In this method, users learn not only the lesson material, but how to easily refer back to the reference for on-the-job support.

American Honda Motor Co., Torrance, CA.

Created a five-day workshop teaching electrical troubleshooting skills to dealership motorcycle technicians that was translated into five languages and rolled out worldwide. It has since been used by Honda as a model of training design for other contractors. Key to its development was use of protocol analysis, wherein expert performers are recorded and the stages of their problem solving work process analyzed.

A short lesson sample is available here as a PDF file. This is a small sampling of the workbook content from five full days of instruction and practice and, of course, does not include the physical teaching aids. Since troubleshooting training benefits greatly from "hands-on" practice, we created circuit models (components mounted on plywood that could be connected to a 12v. power source) modeled on the lesson diagrams so the technicians could go from workbook to practice bench and see the "same" layout to practice on. From there they went to "rigged" motorcycles with electrical troubles and diagnosed and repaired those.

Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA.

Worked, along with other staff of CPT Training & Development, as in-house contractor supporting Intel’s College of Quality. We developed custom technical training materials for classroom and electronic (desktop) delivery in Intel divisions worldwide, online help files for custom software tools, proofed and edited documentation prepared by Intel staff, prepared PowerPoint presentations for senior management to deliver, and developed several workshops which were handed off to Intel University.

The Intel work was often mission-critical and very confidential in nature, and we are prohibited by non-disclosure agreements from providing samples or excerpts. So please read on for more ...

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.

Developed and taught a two-credit-hour course to teach the fundamentals of the design of experiments in the social sciences and the statistical analysis of data. The course was required of undergraduate psychology majors. Following rollout and two semesters of evaluation, the course was handed off to regular faculty.

Metal Boat Society, Vancouver, WA.

Wrote the By-laws to govern operations of the organization. After nearly 20 years of existence, it was time for an overhaul. The newly revised by-laws are currently posted for member review, and will be presented for approval at the next general membership meeting.

Developed an HTML-based front end to showcase a comprehensive collection of back issues of the society's flagship print publication, the Metal Boat Quarterly, available from the online store on CD-ROM. The issues are stored in PDF format, with an auto-run menu to facilitate issue selection.

Performance Sailing Yachts, Bellingham, WA.

Developed a comprehensive operations manual to provide a task-based framework for day-to-day operations of the business. Interviewed officers and staff, re-wrote job descriptions and procedures and laid the groundwork for a structural reorganization of the company. Stayed on as temporary director of operations until one of the partners was able to return from a leave of absence and assume the duties.

Villa de la Reyna L.L.C., Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico.

Prepared the organizational overview, Articles of Organization, an extensive Operating Agreement and other supporting documentation for a property development company engaged in building and marketing a series of fractional ownership properties in a Mexican vacation destination on the Sea of Cortez.

The operating agreement was the most complex of the documents, as it had to establish "ground rules" governing operation and shares distribution and the conditions of resale of the shares, and be acceptable not only to the developers but also to the original purchasers of the eight fractional ownership shares of the property. Needless to say, "revision, revision and more revision" was the order of the day. The sample document available here as a PDF file consists of only five pages out of a total of 20 or more, and with substantive changes to critical content, but the general idea should be clear enough.

Black Dog Bar & Grill, Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico.

Designed logo, menu and promotional pieces and created an extended series of spreadsheets to enable owners to track cost of goods and services and create "what if" scenarios to use in projecting profit and loss.

Data from the Excel tracking spreadsheet is available here as a PDF file for review. Exporting it changes the appearance slightly, and of course the formulas are not included, but you can get the general drift of how it worked by inspection. The document, as others on the page, will open in a new window—just close it when you're finished.

Buzzards Bay Press, alive and well in hyperspace.

More fancy than fact, BBP has published a cookbook that includes historical favorites from, yes, Buzzards Bay, although perhaps not the one that comes first to mind. It has also published a totally unprofitable line of note-cards.

Just in case you're into good things to eat (who isn't?) there's a few recipes from the cookbook here. No layout magic here, just a straight-forward 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 layout to make the most of standard paper sizing for small run production on an office copier.

And just for good measure, there is a PDF copy of a booklet with a history of The Iowa Prairie available here. It cannot really capture the look and feel of the finished product, but does provide some insight into the layout. The project involved taking handwritten notes and transcribing, editing and organizing, then adding graphics to complete the layout and desktop publishing the result.

Web page authoring

Web work is a somewhat different animal. Users are able to interact with the content displayed on web pages in a very different way than with hard copy documentation, and the writing techniques and development process differ accordingly. The links below will open the websites so you can explore them first-hand.

	www.metalboatbuilding.org MetalBoatbuilding.org is a non-profit loosely formed worldwide association of folks involved in home-building, restoring or simply maintaining metal boats. With a far flung membership, the group needed a web presence to facilitate member communications and interaction and to make resources available to users worldwide. The website was developed from a php-based content management system, with custom templates and extensions, and includes links to an online magazine, various informational sections, and a php-based online forum.
	www.sandyallen-realtor.com Sandy Allen, Realtor®, Palm Springs, CA, uses this site to showcase the range of her listings in this high end market, and attempts to draw browsers in for a closer look.
	www.haciendabnb.com Hacienda del Mar, Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico, is an upscale bed and breakfast located in a popular resort area along the northern Sea of Cortez. The website attempts to capture the ambiance and style of the Hacienda in order to draw prospective clients.
	www.e-write.biz e-write L.L.C. is the organizational shell for my work, most of which is done online. It includes some simple Flash headers and an assortment of presentation and document styles to give the viewer a feel for how they might work in another application. The site is based on a custom page template in which content is embedded in hidden tables. It will soon feature an interactive section where clients can upload files and review work in progress.
	www.buzzards-bay.net A neighborhood association with no known principals. Located on Clear Lake in northern Iowa, Buzzards Bay does not appear on maps, but is nonetheless well known to inhabitants. This “for fun” site simply tries to capture the “feel” of the area and provide a point of reference for locals.