Craig Marion
928 Xanadu West, Venice, FL 34285		 craig.marion@verizon.net  
941-484-2571  

OBJECTIVE


I'm an information architect whose greatest strength is in the development of performance-centered software and comprehensive performance support systems. I've won awards for two companies for my EPSS designs and am a recognized authority in this area. I also have strong experience in instructional design, technical writing, user interface design, and software usability.

For family reasons, I need to work from home much of the time. I'm looking for an opportunity to work remotely (at least most of the time; some travel would be fine), preferably for a single employer.


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2001-
present 		SI-Learning, Rockville, MD, a vendor of instructional systems and performance support systems and a division of SI-International, Inc.
Principal Insturctional Designer/Performance-Centered Designer
 
  • EPSS/Performance-Centered Design: Designed an EPSS for a government agency that enabled inexperienced personnel to create business plans. Led the project, which involved working with information systems professionals to create the most sophisticated software applications our division had ever undertaken, from concept to delivery. In other projects designed calculators, wizards, decision support, and reference tools for a variety of applications including a handheld computer. Integrated performance support with WBT by designing and developing tools to make work easier, then working with ISDs to center course instruction around the new tools.
  • Instructional Design: Created and contributed to design plans for a variety of WBT courses. Developed fresh approaches to presenting information and designing software simulations. Wrote storyboards for a wide variety of projects. Specialized in designing performance support tools and writing WBT storyboards that featured them simultaneously.
  • User Interface Design: Worked with a variety of professionals to determine the content and behavior of Web-based instructional and performance support systems, then wrote
"(Craig's success can be) attributed to a number of factors: the thoughtfulness, efficiency, and consistency he brings to his work, his detail-oriented nature, and his willingness and persistence in following through on all assigned tasks. . . . Three other areas in which Craig excels, and which contribute enormously to the quality of his work, are his ability to thoroughly grasp all facets of the project, the finely tuned design skills he possesses, and his creativity. . . . Creativity is almost second nature to Craig. Ever mindful of the users and their tasks, he brings fresh approaches to whatever he is involved in."

John Willcocks
Staff Manager, SI-Learning
SI International, Inc.
  plans, maps, and diagrams for building them. Writing these plans generally involved working extensively with graphic artists to create user interfaces that pleased stakeholders while concurrently developing functional requirements for the tools and systems. Researched and determined the content for a suite of software tools for a handheld computer, then created the design plan for the tools and worked with a programmer to build it. Developed an interface for an information portal modeled after AskJeeves®. Completed the analysis and design of an information portal for a time-critical national security project in three weeks.
 
  • Project Leadership: Served as team leader on a variety of projects. Planned and organized activities, conducted meetings, worked closely with team members, clarified and coordinated project, project tasks, set target dates, dealt with problems and issues. Developed a one-page project map that showed the status of a complex project at a glance; the map became a model for project management in the division.
1997-2001 Strohl Systems, King of Prussia, PA, a vendor of business continuity planning software
Manager, Documentation and Usability
 
  • Software Design: Participated on design teams for all software products and the company website. Studied the work of our users performed through research, interviews, and task analysis. Then reshaped our software so that it reflected its users' work and appeared more intuitive to them. Contributed design prototypes and innovations and worked with developers iteratively to improve interface design throughout the development cycle. Made presentations at various conferences on design innovations and won an award for excellence in design at the 1998 EPSS/Performance-Centered Design Conference.
  • Usability: Introduced usability goals and objectives, user profiles, "personas" (Alan Cooper's design technique), low fidelity prototypes, cognitive walkthroughs, and heuristic evaluations into the product development cycle. Conducted formal and informal usability tests as well as user surveys. Isolated usability problems and met with developers to resolve them and improve products. Trained product testers (from Support) and QA evaluators in usability
"Craig . . . worked directly with the development staff, focusing on usability and performance engineering. He was a member of the product design teams where he helped engineer product interfaces that were easy to use. He helped make our software simpler, easier to understand, made it look better, and made it more powerful. He even published many of these advances in journals, online publications, and spoke of them at conferences. All of which positively promoted the software and the company."

Edmund D. Meyers, III
Vice President
Product Development
Strohl Systems
  principles and had them log usability bugs in the QA database. Made usability part of the company culture.
 
  • Documentation: Using RoboHelp, transformed system-oriented online help to task-oriiented help. On new projects, integrated user assistance into the user interface and changed help to FAQs. Enhanced the visual dimension of manuals so users could scan them and see the point of what was being explained with minimal reading. Introduced video clips using Lotus ScreenCam and a quick-reference card that effectively replaced a user manual.
  • Project Management: Scoped, planned, and managed a variety of documentation projects. Supervised writers and documentation assistants. Edited writing for consistency. Planned and coordinated outsourcing of graphics and publication of documents.
1993-1997 SMS Corporation, Malvern, PA, a vendor of hospital information systems
Advanced Technical Writer, Decision Support Systems
 
  • Documentation: Using RoboHelp, designed WinHelp for over a dozen projects including three releases of a data warehouse product that drew together and managed data in multiple formats from multiple platforms. Developed a conversion methodology for upgrades and a help specification form that structured information acquisition from Subject Matter Experts that were used as models in other departments.
  • Project Leadership and Management: Lead writer and documentation project manager for my division. Managed over a hundred documentation deliverables for several products. Scoped projects and created information plans. Planned projects for other writers and edited their work.
  • Usability and Performance Support: Served on two company-wide teams, one focusing on usability and the other on electronic performance support. Championed these efforts in my division. Created and presented seminars on them and implemented design techniques such as contextual inquiry.

PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE

  Created a website, the Software Design Smorgasbord, to track developments in ten areas that have a bearing on making software performance-centered. Updated it regularly since May, 1997. The site was selected by taskz.com as one of the ten top sites on the Web for usability research and information in the third quarter of 2001.

URL: http://www.chesco.com/~cmarion 		"Jean and I are very impressed by the Software Design Smorgasbord. We think it's one of the very best resources on interface design and related topics on the Web."

David and Jean Farkas, authors
Principles of Web Design


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

2004 SI International's Business Plan Developer EPSS won first prize for PCD Solutions in the 2004 EPSS/PCD Competition. I designed it and led the team that built it.
2004 "Improving Your E-Learning with Performance Support and Knowledge Management Innovations," ASTD 2004 Conference (Washington, DC).
2002 "Attributes of Performance-centered Systems: What Can We Learn from Five Years of EPSS/PCD Competition Winners?" Technical Communications, November 2002. Winner of the Society for Technical Communications' Frank R. Smith Outstanding Journal Article Award.
2001, 2002 Judge at the Fifth and Sixth Annual PCD/EPSS competitions, which were held in conjunction with the Online Learning 2001 and 2002 conferences (Los Angeles).
2000 "Make Way for Interactive Assitance", News & Views, a publication of the Philadelphia Metro Chapter of the Society for Technical Communications, May 2000.
1999 "Evolving a Software Product through EPSS to Performance-Centered Dedsign", a presentation to the Back Office Performance Support European Project on November 15, 1999 (Paris).
1999 "What Is Interaction Design?", News & Views, May 1999.
1999 "From Online Help to Integrated User Assistance", a paper presented at the Society for Technical Communications annual conference (Cincinnati) and published in its Proceedings.
1998 Strohl Systems Plan Assistant EPSS won 3rd prize in the 1998 EPSS/PCD Competition. I worked with the lead developer in its conceptual design, led the team that created its information content, and submitted the winning entry.
1998 "What is EPSS and What Does It Mean to Information Designers?", Intercom, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communications, December 1998.
1997 "What is Performance Centered Design?", Intercom, August/September 1997.

EDUCATION

Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA. Certificate in Instructional Design.
Maxwell Institute, Norristown, PA. COBOL, RPGII, Assembler.
M.A., Temple University, Philadelphia. Comparative Religions.
B.A., Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL. Honors program in the humanities. Triple major in philosophy, religion, and sociology.