Working as a college co-op in the Technical Publications department at Harris in the summer/winter of 1995, I was the user-interface/visual designer aspect of a "skunk works" development team working to create the industry's first multimedia Computer Based Training for military man pack radios. The concept was to provide an efficient method for field communications personnel to get up to speed on their equipment before going into training or combat situations. CBT reduced the need for real demo radios, and extensive downtime to train new operators.

The user requirements for the interface ran the gamut of expertise. Soldiers with a 6th grade reading level had to be able to learn from the online training, while skilled service personnel had to navigate the technical manual. The product is sold in any of 5+ different languages in the markets that Harris serves. The product features full motion video explanations, animated demonstrations, and "hands-on" instruction where users operate a virtual representation of the real radio. The product also integrates an SGML technical manual for further reference. In 1995, developing a product with all of these capabilities for 486/66  PC's was a daunting and frustrating task.

All of these factors led to a simple, straightforward user-interface design that presents the radio or equipment being trained in a large space that dominates the user's attention while presenting him/her with text instruction along the bottom and navigation along the right. Macromedia Director was used for all of the animation and multimedia aspects of the project. The team worked closely with the technical writers and graphic artists to extract text from Interleaf systems into SGML tagged text for use in the in the Integrated Technical Manual.

After creating the actual Computer Based training interface I was then asked to develop a marketing overview of the product on CD-ROM for use in mailers and at trade shows. The multimedia demo integrated 3 Demos of CBT offerings with a marketing presentation meant to inform the customer of the advantages of this type of training.