Current Job

I am currently employed as a technical communicator at TOWER Software in Canberra. TOWER Software's flagship product is TRIM Captura™, an Electronic Recordkeeping Tool. Its primary role is to keep track of the flow of information between people inside and outside of an organisation. This tracking process is called "records management". The exciting thing about TRIM Captura (for me anyway), is that it captures more than just transactional information. The search tools built into TRIM Captura enable you to mine the data in the records and examine the collected wisdom of the organisation.

As a technical communicator TOWER expects me to write, design and organise (simple really).

• Write technical documents, specifications, software manuals, web site copy, advertising copy, specifications and customer databases.
• Design, Website layouts, business processes, advertising graphics and online help.
• Organise Listservers, communication flows, customer responses, web committees, quotes and my time.

Communications and information design

One of the things I enjoy most about my work is the fact I have to use a combination of words and pictures to communicate complex ideas in the simplest possible way. In my exploration of this subject I have come across a series of books that have influenced the way I think about visual and written communication. The books listed below are a good read for anyone interested in the visual aspects of communication.

Visual Language by Robert E Horn MacroVU Press, Bainbridge Island, Washington, 1998.

Information architects: the design of understanding, edited by Richard Saul Wurman, Graphis Press, 1996.

The visual display of quantitative information, Edward Tufte, Graphics Press, 1983

Envisioning information, Edward Tufte, Graphics Press, 1990

Visual explanations, Edward Tufte, Graphics Press, 1997