Sample projects.

 Take a look at a few projects where I've played a leading content role. I've got plenty of other work I'm happy to share — from writing samples to "under the hood"  framework documents  — depending on your interests..

Challenge: Help Californians navigate the court system

I worked with the Judicial Branch's Digital Services Team to improve the court experience for Californians who must navigate the court system without a lawyer. Working with a team of civic technologists and attorneys, we redesigned the court's Self-Help Portal, the website that provides instructions for a number of types of court cases such as divorce, name change, small claims, and restraining orders. The key content challenge was taking a radical approach to plain language - transforming legal language and court procedure into steps that would be understood by any Californian, including the state's most vulnerable populations. This article discusses the project in more detail.

Challenge: Deliver timely, personalized healthcare recommendations

Castlight is a health navigation platform that allows employers to offer their employees a one-stop-shop healthcare hub. The platform can identify and predict what kinds of healthcare services and programs employees might need based on data analytics and machine learning. Then, Castlight reaches out to users proactively to guide them to the best care at the lowest price. This product was featured in a Wall Street Journal article.

I developed the content strategy and assets for this product, creating personalized content aimed at individuals who are likely on a particular health care journey, for example considering back surgery, at-risk for diabetes, or pregnant. Castlight users receive these recommendations via email and through in-app messages.

​The performance metrics for the emails - open rate, click-through-rate - consistently outperform industry benchmarks for healthcare communications and a study of employers shows increased rates of preventive care among employees who receive the messages.

Challenge: Design a content framework for a social fitness app 

Walk with Friends is a social fitness challenge embedded in the Castlight mobile app. Employers can offer a variety of different challenges to their employees to promote a culture of health and wellbeing at work. As players rack up steps by logging walks with friends, co-workers, or even pets, the game follows the journey of a creature named Ziggy, through a series of fantastic landscapes.

I worked closely with UX designers, the product manager, and an illustrator to define a repeatable content framework that could be used for this and any subsequent steps-based challenges, and I wrote a substantial portion of the UX copy and promotional content.

Challenge: Teach social skills to quirky kids through comedy

Flummox and Friends is an iPad-based video series for kids and families. The show is an off-beat comedy that helps kids on the autism spectrum navigate the social and emotional world. I'm the creator and executive producer. The FlummoxVision app has more than 40,000 downloads and has appeared in several "round up" reviews featuring apps for special needs kids.

Combining my creative talents and my experience as the parent of a child with autism, I created the concept for the show working with experts in the field of social and emotional learning and launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a pilot episode. I wrote, produced, and directed episodes of the show, including animated and live action segments. I then led the development of an iPad app that serves as the show’s distribution channel to viewers.

Challenge: Help consultants build expertise in record time

Consultants at the management consulting firm McKinsey and Company are renowned for being trusted advisors and strategists to the world’s top companies. Just-in-time learning is a crucial tool for helping consultants stay one step ahead of industry trends and innovative practices.

In my role as a Senior Strategist on the Technology-Enabled Learning team, I led a series of projects that used technology to deliver the right content at the right time to consultants at all levels in the Firm. For example:

• An interactive simulation allowed consultants and their healthcare clients to experience the dynamics of hospital operations and practice optimizing them using principles from Lean manufacturing.
• A series of explainer videos featuring Firm finance experts modeling how to use a variety of proprietary McKinsey analytic tools.
• Mobile-first “industry primers” to help consultants get up to speed quickly on the basics of an unfamiliar industry.
• A “mini-MBA” blended learning program that combined self-paced online learning with a classroom intensive that provided foundational business concepts to new consultants who did not come from a traditional MBA program.

Writing samples

Website content design and writing
Self-Help Guide to the California Courts for the Judicial Council of California
Name Change Wayfinder - interactive questionnaire to help those who want to legally change their name
A Guide to Small Claims Court in California - an easy-to-understand guide for navigating small claims court

Blog articles
Why sitting makes your knee pain worse for Castlight's Health Insider blog
Latest guidelines for treating back pain for Castlight's Health Insider blog

UX content
A variety of screens showing content in the context of the end user experience from the Castlight app
Excerpts of a style guide for Climate Corp illustrating core principles for UX content in the Fieldview app

Educational materials
Teachers' guide  (K-12) - Excerpts from a guide for teachers and therapists with specific activities and suggestions for using an episode of Flummox and Friends in the classroom

Video script 
Script for Castlight mobile app promotional video

​Personal essay
 "Seven Years Old" - a blog post from Hyperlexicon, my blog about being a parent of a special needs child

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