Technical & Visual Communication
Instruction Guide
Shutterfly represented a two-year foray into writing for an e-commerce company. When this assignment was introduced, it was easy to consider writing my own version of a step-by-step guide based on the current workflow. At the time, uploading photos was a top customer pain point. While this work features views and specifications from the Shutterfly.com website, it was publicly available content at that point in time, and the screenshots are from my personal account.
The instruction guide project was my first introduction to a technical style communication. The research, analysis, translation of technical speak and user testing all happened before a single word is written. User testing was key because each audience persona, from zero tech experience to tech savvy, engage with the workflow differently and from different entry points. This guide focused on a persona with low-tech experience and supported online desktop photo uploads only.
It was written to be both informational and educational, identifying key data up front to anticipate and avoid errors further into the process. Using hierarchical content and steps, while incorporating screenshots, encourages an association and success with each of the steps along the way.
Promotional Infographic
Arizona is home to year-round activities, some that vary with the seasons. Okay, maybe there are only two seasons, summer and not summer. But there are over 400 lakes across the state. As a family who have a love of the outdoors and previously owned a boat, getting to know the local lakes, especially those that offered various recreation opportunities, was a must. When this project was assigned, it was an easy decision to use a lake we hadn’t been to yet and do all the fact-finding I normally would and let that inspire me.
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The project called on visual communication skills to create an infographic that was both informative and visually appealing. The heading and headlines and varied color blocks of content were intentional to achieve the desired effect. In addition to the design elements, creating an effective communication tool required research, selecting the top features, organizing and presenting the information for at-a-glance readability.
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This was my very first-time using Adobe Illustrator and to be able to create every element in this project from scratch was both a challenge and rewarding. The love/hate relationship with Illustrator has morphed into a love for learning something new.
Persuasive Infographic
As a mother, raising healthy and active kids was a priority. Reflecting on the importance of active play, outdoor play, and social play in my children’s lives was a motivation for this work. Coming face to face with research that emphasized the decline in the physical and mental health of our youth today kept the focus on delivering content that was researched, informative and relevant to the discussion.
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This infographic project was a fact sheet of data and content to support the selected position, in this case it was to emphasize the importance of play, social connectivity and fresh air to combat stress, anxiety and obesity in school-aged children. This form of communication is one of my favorites as it is a technical communication powerhouse. It combines both technical and visual communication skills to produce a communication that was informative, persuasive and creates awareness. Carefully placed content and supporting data tables helped to create a scannable view of this important topic and provides the reader with thoughtful takeaways.
Project Charter
Project management has been woven throughout my career. Working on teams led by experienced project professionals provided only a glimpse of what it means to coordinate these initiatives. As more and more companies are starting to include project management experience among their required competencies for open positions, it was an easy decision to choose project management as the related coursework for my degree.
From taking classes in project management basics and layering on other practices, like resource management and schedule management, I now understand the value of this knowledge and the importance of honing these skills. Developing these skills would only benefit my ability to manage communication assignments as a project.
While a straightforward document, the project charter is a type of proposal and required both knowledge of project management processes and technical communication skills to complete. The charter is formed from multiple project management practices, the work breakdown structure, resource estimates (time and materials), and data collected through stakeholder input. It’s a unique point of view to effectively communicate the facts of the project in a way that tells the project’s story, the timeline and financial obligation to encourage proposal acceptance.
