Manager Design

C.V. of Desiree

Sy

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Skills & knowledge

Activities & interests

****-*******: Information Design

Solutions

****-****: Peat Marwick Thorne

****-****: Technology Transfer, Inc.

Summer 1984: Ontario Cancer Institute

1993-present: Information Design

Solutions. Stouffville, Ontario. Consultant.Designed and taught part of a one-day workshop, "Internet

Publishing".

Designed and taught a two-day workshop, "Building in low-cost

usability," in several cities across Canada.

Performed heuristic usability analysis of graphical user

interface for manufacturing company.

Designed and conducted user analyses, task analyses and

usability testing for client work.

Designed and tested multi-media computer-based training for a

bank.

Participated in design and execution of an online report for

Paramount Pictures outlining recommendations for conversion of

documents to online format. Continuing on specifications for a

prototype for online policy and procedures.

Managed, designed, wrote, updated and edited a variety of

documents including a design document for a contact management

system, a style guide describing template use, forms for data

entry, newsletters, and online help systems.

1990-1993: Peat Marwick Thorne.

Toronto, Ontario. Senior Technical Communicator.Designed and conducted user analyses, task analyses and

usability testing for several products from different areas of

the information technology group in the firm (samples of some

materials on request).

Initiated and facilitated iterative usability design of

interface for internally-written software.

Developed a methodology for implementing simple online

documentation, including the co-ordination of graphic and

instructional elements.

Designed and implemented a hybrid online/paper-based document

system created in FrameMaker. This had two parts: a hypertext

front-end tool, and read-only electronic text files designed to

be printed on paper, but to be distributed electronically.

Managed, designed, wrote, and edited a variety of documents

including user guides for Macintosh applications and mainframe

internal systems (online, paper-based and the hybrid

online/paper-based), product demonstrations (in MacroMind

Director), an in-house writing style guide, forms for data entry

into mainframe systems, newsletters, and instructional posters.

1988-1990: Technology Transfer, Inc.

Toronto, Ontario. Technical Communicator.Designed, wrote, and edited a variety of documents for wide

range of clients as a consultant. Clients included Alias

Research, Liquor Licence Board of Ontario, and T-D Bank.

Managed projects, prepared proposals, using an extremely wide

range of programs and platforms.

Summer 1984: Ontario Cancer Institute.

Toronto, Ontario. Student Research Position.Subcloned and gene-sequenced the second constant region of

the human T-cell receptor.

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Toronto Region Computer-Human Interaction SIG (ToRCHI)1994/95--Programme co-chair and Special Events.

1993/94--Co-editor of CHI MemO, the newsletter.

Society for Technical Communication (STC)1991/92--Acted as STC liaison for the University of

Waterloo's Centre for Professional Writing. Sat on organizing

committee for the second and third of the Quality in

Documentation Conferences.

1991/92--Manager of the Education Committee, Toronto chapter.

1990/91--Secretary for Administrative Council, Toronto

chapter.

1989/90--Editor of the Toronto chapter's newsletter, which

won an Excellence award in the international STC newsletter

competition.

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Skills & knowledgeUsability TestingSy, Desiree. "Critical Factors for Starting Usability

Engineering in the Workplace." IPCC '94 Proceedings.

Banff, Alberta. October 1994.

Upcoming commentary of M.E. Raven's "Using Contextual Inquiry

to Learn About Your Audiences" in SIGDOC's journal,

*Journal.

Designed and taught a two-day workshop, "Building in low-cost

usability," in several cities across Canada. Also have taught a

shorter version of this course in-house for clients.

Designed and conducted user analyses, task analyses,

heuristic analyses and usability testing for clients, including

products such as paper and online documents, graphical user

interfaces and multi-media computer-based training.

Interface DesignDesigned and tested paper-prototypes of interfaces, after

appropriate user and task analyses.

Performed heuristic evaluations of graphical user interfaces.

Extensive knowledge of Macintosh Human Interface guidelines.

Good knowledge of X-Windows/Motif and Windows GUI standards.

Applicationsexpert knowledge of most word processing applications across

a variety of platforms

expert knowledge of FrameMaker, PageMaker, Ventura Publisher,

and Ready, Set, Go

good knowledge of HTML editors

Miscellaneousprofessional calligrapher (portfolio on request)

knowledge of typography, printing, pre-press

familiarity with 2-D and 3-D graphics and animation systems

(Alias Research systems, and Pansophic Graphics)

familiarity with Unix basics, through use of electronic mail

(Internet)

World Wide Web publishing knowledge

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Activities & interestsreading and collecting books

writing prose (portfolio on request)

ballet, piano (R.C.T., Grade 9 Honours)

American Sign Language (Level 4 certificate from Canadian

Hearing Society, 1988)

community theatre participant

Volunteer Committee of the National Ballet of Canada1994, 1995 Executive Committee member: Theatre Chair

1990-92 Music/Video purchaser for the Ballet Boutique

volunteer at the Ballet Boutique

involved with various special projects including the

National Ballet's Open House, New Production Fund letter-writing

campaign, Ballet Ball

Bachelor of Science; Molecular Genetics & Biology, Linguistics

(May 1987)

University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario.

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Desiree Sy,

abqoly@r.postjobfree.com

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