All Entries in
content writing

« Newer posts

Web application for child welfare professionals

November 30, 2007

Client: Administrative Office of the Courts (State of California), San Francisco

Challenges: AOC asked me to copyedit “static text” for an online application, but little of the copy in the application met usability standards for user interfaces. The site provides resources for child welfare attorneys and social workers.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

With the client’s permission, I rewrote virtually all of the copy for the application. Key improvements included these changes:

  • Developed information architecture: Improved navigation in the application, writing navigation labels that were easy to understand and comprehensive.
  • Prioritized information: Retooled planned page layout and content so that the most-used information appeared high on each page.
  • Rewrote for maximum “information scent”: Rewrote the copy into concise, active sentences packed with keywords that orient users.
  • Made other usability recommendations: Recommended changes to meet other website usability standards. Examples: Add a “Search” label next to the search box; activate functionality with the Return key; and streamline functionality of site registration form.

Live page:
California Dependency Online Guide This link goes to a different site

See also: , , , , ,

Software how-to guides for teachers

November 18, 2005

“Cate is an exceptional editor. She takes muddled drafts and transforms them into crisp pieces that communicate technical concepts in plain English. She makes language appropriate for a range of audiences. Cate immediately grasps the key concepts in a piece, even when it’s her first exposure to the subject. I’ve always felt our work was substantially better when Cate worked with us. Cate makes instructions for interactive applications accurate and easy to use.” —Kirsti Aho, Macromedia/Adobe

Client: Macromedia/Adobe Systems

Products: Contribute, Captivate, Flash, Dreamweaver

Challenges

Software how-to guide drafts were hard to follow, contained errors, and did not conform to Macromedia’s standards. Audience for these guides was college teachers.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I edited or rewrote the guides for the following:

  • Clarity: Were the instructions hard to understand?
  • Flow: Did the instructions follow in the right order?
  • Accuracy: Did the text describe the screenshots accurately?
  • Style: Did the text follow company style for usage, format, and so on?

See also: , , ,

Writing corporate content on banking and finance

July 30, 2005

Clients/employers: Intuit, World Savings

Challenges: Produce effective company communication with customers, job seekers, regulators, and others, on topics that can be both sensitive and complex.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

Working with teams to define business goals and user tasks, I developed information architecture and wrote usable, persuasive website content for subsites on privacy, online security, corporate philanthropy, and careers.

On all subsites, content strategy required solving problems specific to the banking and finance industry. For example, privacy issues have unique implications in the context of online banking and tax software.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

See also: , , , , ,

Content and UI writing for caregiver resource site

October 1, 2000

CaregiverZone logo

“Caregiving professionals are always looking for resources they can confidently recommend to families. Cate’s concise, clear descriptions made a great contribution to the CaregiverZone site’s credibility among my colleagues.” Dean Kidder, RN, Director of Business Development

Client: CaregiverZone, a resource site for caregivers of elderly relatives; www.caregiverzone.com

Challenges: Provide informational support for family members making important and sometimes urgent decisions about a relative’s treatment, care, or placement in an institution. Treat an emotionally sensitive topic with sensitivity while providing clear, concise information on health care, health insurance, and legal issues.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

Working with staff, outside health care experts, and usability consultants, I provided these deliverables:

  • Concise descriptions of caregiving resources in over 100 categories, from Meals on Wheels programs to Medicare rules
  • User interface copy for site registration, sign-in, and sign-out, including contextual help, error messages, and automatically generated email messages
  • Other site content, such as company information
  • A style guide for content and user interface copy

America Online introduced CaregiverZone as its caregiving portal in summer 2000. USA Today named it a “hot site” in March 2000.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

See also: , , , , , ,

Content writing for chipmaker

February 1, 2000

Client: Transmeta, maker of low-power microprocessors

Challenges: Describe Crusoe microprocessor technology as part of Transmeta’s widely publicized website launch.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I wrote content about the workings, features, benefits, and applications of Crusoe, Transmeta’s software-based microprocessor technology (trademark: Code-Morphing Software), which was designed to prolong battery life compared to conventional processors.

The website launch was moved up by 3 weeks after the company got word that AMD, a competitor, planned to launch a similar product. A Wikipedia article on Transmeta This link goes to a different site describes the public speculation about Transmeta and its website.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

See also: , , , ,

Content strategy for design portfolio

February 1, 2000

Client: Aaron Marcus and Associates, user interface design; www.amanda.com This link goes to a different site

Challenges: Develop a model for a portfolio of work by a user interface design firm.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I provided architecture and content for one portfolio entry that served as a model implemented by AM+A. The model included a summary and basic details about each project and accommodated animated screenshots of key functionality.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

See also: , , , , , ,

How-tos for WebTV subscribers

June 1, 1999

Client: WebTV (Microsoft)

Challenges: Describe to people who have never used computers (or, in some cases, even a typewriter) some basic features of WebTV and the Web, and how to begin using them.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

Many WebTV subscribers were unaware of how they could use WebTV. To help new subscribers get started and to reduce subscriber churn, I wrote tips that subscribers received in a series of emails. The tips:

  • Used plain language to explain basic features of WebTV and the Web, such as the address book and bookmarking, and used common real-world tasks in examples
  • Concentrated key phrases in subject lines to communicate the topic and benefit of each tip (so that the subscriber would know whether the message was of interest without opening it)
  • Included links in the tips to the relevant functionality in WebTV

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

See also: , , , , ,

Website redesign for educational products company

May 1, 1999

Client: Lightspan Partnership

Challenges: Present a complex line of educational products and services for K-12 students and teachers.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I developed all content for Lightspan’s new site, including:

  • Descriptions of products and services targeted at teachers and administrators
  • Promotional headlines and copy
  • Corporate content
  • Page layout and contextual links
  • Consulting on site architecture and navigation

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

See also: , , , , , , ,

Website for the Internet Archive

March 31, 1999

The Internet Archive, at archive.org, has been making copies of the Web since 1996. It’s a free library of virtually all publicly available sites on the web.

In 1999 the Internet Archive asked me to develop a new site that would communicate the Archive’s mission for the public good and serve as a resource on privacy, copyright, and other complex legal issues.

Here are before-and-after links to archive.org (courtesy of the Archive’s own Wayback Machine):

Before: Archive.org in October 1999 This link goes to a different site

Link to picture of Internet Archive homepage before redesign

After: In April 2000 This link goes to a different site

Link to picture of Internet Archive homepage after redesign

See also: , , , , , ,

Website redesign for software developer

April 1, 1998

Client: Tom Sawyer Software, graph visualization software developer

Challenges: Convince potential customers in many industries of the business and technical benefits of the company’s graph visualization technology, which is is used to create visual representations of complex data.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

Tom Sawyer’s products were designed to be embedded in other software products that are used to store, manipulate, or generate such data. The products had applications in diverse industries: network management, software design, human resource management, criminology, and others.

The old website was heavy on descriptions of technical features, but the company needed to communicate with business decision makers as well as engineers. I reorganized and added to the content to target a wider audience, make the site more visually appealing and interactive, and provide more opportunities for site visitors to contact the company.

For more details

… or to discuss your project, contact us.

See also: , , , , ,

« Newer posts

Copyright © 2012 Flying Dutchgirl Communications · Subscribe to portfolio + blog · Contact us