With 12 years of experience in government communications as an employee and contractor, including 5 as the coordinator of the main Government of Alberta website, I have gathered a wealth of experience in making online government information accessible for citizens.
Alberta Advanced Education
I developed usable, plain-language web content and user walkthroughs for internal and external websites to help users quickly and easily find information and complete key tasks. Other work included
- aligning content across different websites to improve user experience
- reviewing existing content
- creating new content
- modifying information architecture
- partnering with another content strategist as part of a content strategy and refresh project
- conducting a website audit
- developing user journey maps
- spearheading a review of over 900 PDF documents to remove outdated content and improve relevancy of search results, resulting in a 13% decrease in PDF files across two sites
- developing a digital document management strategy to ensure these PDFs are regularly reviewed to keep content and search results relevant
- creating internal documentation and user guides to help staff do their jobs
Work samples
Before and after
I worked with subject matter experts and colleagues in another ministry to expand and clarify the content of the occupations page of tradesecrets.alberta.ca, including the differences between designated and regulated occupations, which was a point of confusion.
Alberta.ca content migration
I worked with another contract writer to write and edit several pages of content for the Apprenticeship and Industry Training section of alberta.ca.
User documentation
I created walkthroughs for new functions on MyTradesecrets, a portal for apprentices to manage their applications and program information.
- Consent for awards and scholarships
- Confirming your eligibility for awards
- Providing documents through MyTradesecrets
Alberta Public Affairs Bureau (alberta.ca)
I was responsible for maintaining and updating the content of alberta.ca, including
- selecting news to feature on the home page
- repurposing print content for the web
- updating emergency information during large-scale natural disasters (forest fires, flooding)
- creating microcontent
- curating useful content from across government
I also built the Government of Alberta’s first online public consultation registry, working from research completed by a colleague. My work included
- developing a template for consultations included in the registry
- working with our web developer to build the registry in our custom CMS, and later rebuilding it in RedDot
- liaising with contacts in other government departments for content for the registry
- adding and updating content as required
- creating and managing the schedule for posting and archiving consultations
The following examples of my work are available courtesy of the wonderful Wayback Machine.
Home page feature stories and news focus items
Feature stories were generally news releases repurposed for the web. In some cases, information from several news releases was incorporated into a single feature story.
- Post-secondary review results announced
- Provincial strategy aims to prevent strokes and improve treatment
- Alberta welcomes the 2004 Arctic Winter Games
- Before and after flooding
- Current fire hazard restrictions
News focus items collected several related feature stories in one place to help Albertans track more complex issues.
Microcopy
In addition to feature stories, I also wrote the microcopy for each story and for the spotlight section of the Government of Alberta home page.