Monthly Archives: November 2011

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User Manual

Straight out of college I was hired as a Technical Writer. That means I wrote technical things in a non-technical way, or at least as non-technical as I could. My primary purpose, even beyond creating drawings and manuals, was to communicate to an audience. I had to connect with whoever was going to pick up my creation and, very quickly, establish what this document was about and who should be using it.

This particular project was very complicated. I made the decision to split the assembly and usage portions, which I hadn’t done previously. Our intention was to have installers assemble the unit. Then, of course, the owner would have to operate it. These are two very different audiences.

To complicate things even further, this unit was going to Europe, and had to be translated to nine different languages; English, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese. This manual explains how the unit works from an operator standpoint.

See it here… (it’s a large file)

User Manual

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Assembly Manual

Straight out of college I was hired as a Technical Writer. That means I wrote technical things in a non-technical way, or at least as non-technical as I could. My primary purpose, even beyond creating drawings and manuals, was to communicate to an audience. I had to connect with whoever was going to pick up my creation and, very quickly, establish what this document was about and who should be using it.

This particular project was very complicated. I made the decision to split the assembly and usage portions, which I hadn’t done previously. Our intention was to have installers assemble the unit. Then, of course, the owner would have to operate it. These are two very different audiences.

This assembly manual had to be simple enough to follow, but since it was going to be used by professional installers, I could speak in technical terms. See it here…

assembly-manual-medium
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My trip into Drupal Land

So I see this word, Drupal, popping up all over recently. I’ve known about Drupal for a while now, but haven’t heard much about it. I knew it was another Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla! or WordPress (which this site is built in), but that was it.

I have used Joomla! for years on many sites. WordPress is a little newer for me, but I have also used it for years and on many sites. So now I’m seeing more and more talk of this Drupal thing and figured I should learn more.

It turns out, Drupal is one of the most popular CMS’s out there. It’s powerful and easy to use. I’ve spent some time learning the terminology and structure. Now I am building my own site with it.

So far it’s pretty cool. I’m building a new site now that may turn into something big. Check out my progress HERE.

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Retractable Banners

Here is a banner I made for a trade show. I really like these as signage because they are 7 feet tall when open, but slip into the base like a window shade when not in use. Pop it into the case and throw it over your shoulder for ultimate portability.

We produced a number of these for trade shows because they were cost effective and really stood out.

Retractable banner backRetractable banner front
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Just Learned Flash

I took a few hours this weekend to learn Flash. All of it. It was pretty easy. Now I’m an expert… well, not really… but I did manage to crank out a little animation.

It’s nothing to write home about, but I did just start this weekend. Soon I’ll be developing interactive sites with robots and space aliens or something fun like that.

See what I did… Click here.

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Simple Flash Animation

This is my first try at a real Flash animation. I have done many other “Flash” animations, but this one is the first using Adobe Flash.

Stay tuned for my next project! Maybe building robots or piloting a spacecraft to Jupiter…

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It’s coming along nicely

There has been a flurry of activity lately as I update my site. I’ve added many new features, not the least of which is the updated look of the site.

I wanted a more friendly and inviting facade to better reflect my personality. Some of my favorite things are robots and dinosaurs. Take a look at this picture. This is my desk. OK, I’m not normally this disorganized (maybe). But I’m never far from something that makes me smile.

My desk
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Line drawings

Occasionally you need to convey a form in the least amount of lines. I like this minimalist style. The varying line weights portray movement and shape without the added complexity of shading.

face looking up face looking down hand pulling or grasping   finger pointing
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TanningBedStore.com

TanningBedStore.com

TanningBedStore.com was created to sell parts for tanning beds manufactured by ETS Tan and JK Products. Building on the “Parts Finder” from Tanning-Bed-Store.com, TanningBedParts.com features full shopping cart functionality.

This store was created using X-Cart. The template started out as one of the standard X-Cart templates, but was heavily modified to reflect the JK Products brand.

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Tanning-Bed-Parts.com

Tanning-Bed-Parts.com

Tanning-Bed-Parts.com was a long-time project for me… 14 years to be exact. It was born as an alternative to printed service manuals. The site contains PDF versions of all the user manuals I created, schematic wiring diagrams from the Engineering Department and parts lists for each of the tanning beds ETS manufactured. Customers could come to the site, find their particular unit and find service parts and supporting documentation.

Over the years, tanning-bed-parts.com went through many changes, but the most significant change occurred in the Spring of 2010. Up until then it was entirely HTML based, around 500 pages worth. In 2010 I took all that information and created a database driven site in Joomla! CMS with the VirtueMart shopping cart module supplying the backbone of the parts finder. The shopping cart was never employed to sell parts (company policy), but it provided the necessary capabilities to present the parts lists.

Click Here to see the site!