Shaley’s UX Writing and Content Design Portfolio

A Technical How-To Guide about IT Security

The Problem

Most faculty and staff at the university knew very little about computer security. The IT Security Office was tasked by the CIO to provide annual training with a printed how-to guide about how to avoid common risks.

The Solution

This project started as a PDF for printing and delivery to all faculty and staff at Cornell University. Before it was printed, it quickly morphed into a fully interactive PDF, as leadership decided to cut printing budgets during the 2008 recession. Download a copy of the original.

I would have never created the original as an interactive PDF, since PDFs are notoriously bad for accessibility, but printing was still very common back then. People expected it, so we intended to meet their expectations. When budgets were cut, we pivoted to the interactive PDF for a faster delivery. I transitioned all of the content into easy-to-search web pages shortly after, so that content could be kept up to date more easily and people wouldn’t have multiple old copies of a PDF causing confusion about what was current.

However, since it has the original writing, and those web pages are now fully updated by another writer, this stands as a historical example of my work that shows organization, flow, and how I make complex ideas easy to understand. (Personally, I believe I’ve gotten way better as a writer since then. So if you like this, you’ll definitely be happy with my work today.)

The booklet was accompanied by ongoing annual security training, including videos and presentations that I created.

Things to note:

• All content was written by me, in collaboration with IT Security Office engineers.
• I hired and managed a contract designer to create the cover and page design.
• Every chapter had an assigned color to make navigating chapters easier.
• Important points were called out in the sidebar.
• Most of the content is timeless and still used today (in the web page versions).

Download a copy of the original for a full look.

A Few Pages From Inside the Book