Kathleen Klein

I help my clients build their brands by crafting compelling content and delightful user experiences. I set and deliver on content strategies that serve customer and business goals. Writing projects include pithy marketing copy, online training and in-depth white papers. To improve the usefulness of web and mobile sites, I conduct user research and translate that understanding into user flows, wireframes and prototypes that help target customers accomplish their tasks easily.

As a freelance writer for this medical device manufacturer, I craft words that fit the need— blog articles on topics ranging from psychoacoustics to defibrillation energy, SEO-optimized web copy, user guides, clinical training, fact sheets, case studies, best practice papers, technical white papers, and marketing collateral.

My long-standing collaboration with this e-learning company includes conducting usability tests and expert reviews to improve the instructional design and usefulness of online training for healthcare professionals. I review learning modules during early design to improve content organization, labeling and navigation and to verify that content matches learning objectives. I help developers revise interactive exercises so learners master skills, not simply knowledge. I conduct usability studies with target users once a working prototype is developed.

As a contract UX architect for this interactive agency, I determine business goals and customer needs through interviews with target users and stakeholders. I devise paths through websites so people successfully complete transactions and find needed information. I explore new approaches using paper and interactive prototypes. Deliverables include wireframes, sitemaps and user flows to document design recommendations.

As a long-term consultant to this high-end stone supplier, I guided the management team to clarify key marketing messages and wrote copy reflecting brand messaging. Projects included web copy, email newsletters, a tradeshow poster and sales presentations. During a major website redesign, I revamped site navigation, created wireframes, developed a project schedule, collaborated with a designer/developer, wrote copy and managed the project to successful launch.

As a freelancer, I worked closely with a wide range of subject matter experts—medical device engineers, paramedics and clinical training managers--to write and edit accurate, compelling content. Products include FAQs, online training, implementation guides, sales-support tools and leave-behinds.

To improve the usability of new cloud computing services offered by Amazon Web Services, I conducted remote usability studies of clickable paper prototypes. This involved developing a usability study plan, writing a screener to recruit target participants, supervising recruitment, developing a test script, and conducting the test. I then analyzed findings, coded verbatims and presented recommendations to a team of developers and business stakeholders.

During a short-term project for the research arm of a large HMO, I conducted extensive interviews with stakeholders and target users to help management prioritize audiences and goals for the external website and intranet. I sketched templates and flows to improve usability and shorten paths to key content. To build a case for basing the intranet on time-saving tools for employees, I used ROI evidence and recommended steps to increase accountability and improve governance.

Over a series of contracts with the City of Seattle, I worked with agency stakeholders to clarify target audience(s), customer goals, site sponsor goals, desired outcomes and metrics for websites aimed at improving water quality. During a major revamp of the Seattle Public Utilities website, I audited and categorized content, improved labeling, and wrote web copy. Through workshops and coaching, I taught City of Seattle content owners to write action-oriented, easily scanned web copy.

As producer for onhealth.com (now WebMD), I managed an interactive health encyclopedia. This involved contracting with writers and medical reviewers, researching and editing medical articles, working with designers and programmers on interactives and writing requirements documents.

I aligned www.ghc.org with Group Health's communications strategy andhandled daily maintenance and long-term improvements for Group Health's corporate Web site, such as bringing online the directory of doctors.

On tight deadlines, I edited copy and wrote headlines for this daily Seattle newspaper.

I wrote and edited articles for a consumer health site on MSN, focused on pregnancy and early childhood development.

I handled media relations for issues ranging from animal research to Nobel Prize winners and served as spokesperson on 24-hour call for UW Health Sciences Center.