Client: Jeff Johnson, author (Morgan Kaufmann, publisher)

Task: Edit the manuscript for Designing with the Mind in Mind: A Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules .

Dutchgirl’s solution

I provided light editing for this illuminating book. First, Johnson (author of GUI Bloopers, a manual for software engineers on avoiding common mistakes in user interface design) outlines up-to-date research on cognitive psychology. Then he shows how the design of human beings determines the rules of usable design for software and websites.

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Client: F. Randall Farmer and Bryce Glass, authors (O’Reilly Media and Yahoo! Press, publishers)

Challenge: Enhance the value of input from expert reviewers of the manuscript for Building Web Reputation Systems by editing the manuscript before review.

Dutchgirl’s solution

In this book, coauthors Farmer and Glass show — with architecture and system diagrams, formulas, and a detailed case study — how to build a system that reveals surprising and powerful information about users’ motivations and intentions and the quality of user-contributed content on a site.

My edit of the manuscript allowed expert reviewers to focus on reviewing the book’s content without being distracted by problems with clarity, usage, style, spelling, or grammar.

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Concept for full-page binder ad

Here are the alternative headlines [PDF].

“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:

“I continue to be extremely pleased with the way the brochure presents me. You captured perfectly the image that I was trying to convey. A friend of mine, the retired head of advertising of a Fortune 500 company, thought the brochure was the best thing of its type he had ever seen. It’s part of the reason my coaching practice has grown very nicely this past year.”

Client: Alan Becker, M.B.A., coach for executives and boards of nonprofits

Challenges: Develop a marketing tool that would attract new coaching clients.

Dutchgirl’s solutions

I developed the copy for this trifold brochure, which includes a “Non-Profit Frustration Quiz” and describes how Alan’s coaching sessions work.

Alan Becker coaching brochure [PDF]

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Client: Adobe Press

Challenges: Edit “Designing Business: Multiple Media, Multiple Disciplines,”  by Clement Mok, for clarity and accuracy, and complete the work on a tight schedule.

Dutchgirl’s solution

This book explored the ways in which digital technology changed the relationship between designers and businesses. In editing the manuscript, which included theory and case studies of software projects, I drew on knowledge about digital technology and experience in print publishing.

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… or to discuss your project, contact us.