Astrid Dahl

Current

• Usability Analyst at User Insight

Past

• Design Intern at Fiserv
• User Experience Analyst at Accenture
• Graduate Assistant at English, Technical Communication, & Media Arts Department, Southern Polytechnic State University

• Office Automation Assistant at USAF
• Public Affairs Intern at HQ Operations and Sustainment Systems Group (formerly HQ Standard Systems Group)

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2 more...

Education

• Human Factors International
• Southern Polytechnic State University
• Troy University in Montgomery

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Recommended

5 people have recommended Astrid

Connections

103 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Astrid Dahl’s Summary

★ I like to help make things easier to use ★

Communications specialist with hands-on experience in user-centered analysis and design. Ability to liaise effectively with clients and development teams. Industry experience in telecom, pharmaceutical, and academia. Passionate about connecting people to technology, whether through interfaces, documentation, or training.

► Experience in heuristic evaluation, usability planning and testing, persona development and wireframing.

► Broad technical writing experience (user documentation, reports, online documentation).

► Experience in instructional systems design and development.

Particularly interested in usability testing, prototyping, and accessibility evaluation.

Astrid Dahl’s Specialties:

Usability and accessibility, information design, information architecture, technical writing and documentation, editing, HTML

Astrid Dahl’s Experience

• Usability Analyst

  User Insight

  (Privately Held; Market Research industry)

  May 2009 — Present (3 months)

  ► Analyzes and translates findings of user
  studies in support of determining actionable designs and/or solutions
  ► Additional duties and responsibilities include report writing and technology support

• Design Intern

  Fiserv

  (Public Company; FISV; Information Technology and Services industry)

  March 2009 — May 2009 (3 months)

  ► Created wireframes in Axure for a complex online bill pay system using various sources of information (including PDFs of outdated Visio wireframes, live Web pages, design documents from previous releases, and spoken information from on-site and remote subject-matter experts)
  ► Supported Quality Assurance and Development teams by creating detailed annotations about interactions and publishing complete specifications documents
  ► Logged usability testing sessions for online financial application prototypes

• User Experience Analyst

  Accenture

  (Information Technology and Services industry)

  May 2007 — February 2009 (1 year 10 months)

  CLIENT: Large pharmaceutical company
  ► As User Experience Lead, designed interfaces for a global, internal web-based application (a SharePoint-based workflow management tool with a portal look-and-feel)
  
  ► Gathered requirements & developed storyboards
  
  ► Created wireframes documenting layout & interaction
  
  CLIENT: Large telecommunications company
  ► As Usability Specialist, conducted up to 10 detailed heuristic evaluations per month of 3rd-party mobile content (e.g., ringtones, wallpapers, & games for cell phones) & existing & beta user interfaces for B2C Web sites, WAP sites, & IVR systems reaching approximately 3.5M users
  
  ► Used a proprietary scorecard approach to target & prioritize redesign efforts, to rate interfaces against those of competitors, & to benchmark the usability of interfaces over time
  
  ► Offered recommendations for increasing revenue, improving the overall customer experience, & reducing refunds for mobile content downloads & services

• Graduate Assistant

  English, Technical Communication, & Media Arts Department, Southern Polytechnic State University

  (Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

  March 2006 — April 2007 (1 year 2 months)

  Web site development & maintenance, copywriting/editing, technical writing

• Office Automation Assistant

  USAF

  (Government Agency; Military industry)

  November 2003 — April 2006 (2 years 6 months)

  Newsletter proofreading, Web site maintenance, editing, technical writing, employee training management, management of information security program

• Public Affairs Intern

  HQ Operations and Sustainment Systems Group (formerly HQ Standard Systems Group)

  (Defense & Space industry)

  April 2003 — October 2003 (7 months)

  Redesigned executive director’s monthly online newsletter & wrote press releases for the public affairs department of a 1,100-employee organization that provides & supports secure combat support information systems & networks for the Air Force & Department of Defense components.

Astrid Dahl’s Education

• Human Factors International

  Course completion , User-centered Analysis and Conceptual Design , 2009 — 2009

  Completed first course of Human Factor International's Certified Usability Analyst program.

• Southern Polytechnic State University

  MS , Information Design and Communication , 2005 — 2008

  ► Redesigned information architecture for an online furniture store (deliverables include wireframes)
  
  ► Collaboratively planned and completed a usability test on a university library Web site.
  
  ► Developed a user persona for a university freshman composition program Web site.
  
  ► Developed a university freshman composition program Web site according to client requirements, wireframes, & page mockups.
  
  ► Relevant coursework:
  • Information & document design
  • Technical writing & editing
  • Web site design
  • Information architecture
  • Usability testing
  • Graphic design
  • User documentation
  • Project management
  • Instructional systems design
  • Online instructional development
  • Online documentation
  • International technical communication
  • Video production

  Activities and Societies:

  TCOMmons

• Troy University in Montgomery

  BS , English (Professional/Technical Writing Emphasis), Minor: Web Development , 2000 — 2005

  ► Graduated Magna Cum Laude
  
  ► Wrote copy for university advertisement
  
  ► Relevant coursework in
  • Technical/professional writing & editing
  • Web site design & development
  • e-Commerce
  • Document design
  • Computer science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Human communication
  • Creative writing
  • Linguistics

  Activities and Societies:

  National Dean’s List, Troy State University Montgomery Alumni Association, (TSUMAA) Scholarship, Datatel Scholarship, Gamma Beta Phi (GBP) honor society, Alpha Sigma Lambda honor society

Additional Information

Astrid Dahl’s Interests:

communications & hi-tech, new media, Web accessibility, information architecture, documentation, usability, IT, editing, learning new tools, social computing

Astrid Dahl’s Groups:

Society for Technical Communication (STC), Usability Professionals Association (UPA), Computer-Human Interaction of Atlanta (CHI ATL), Catalyze, Atlanta IA

•    Usability Professionals' Association International (UPA-I)
•    Catalyze Community
•    Interaction Design Association
•    UsabilityMatters.Org
•    CHI*Atlanta
•    Information Architecture Institute (IAI)
•    Official Accenture Alumni Network
•    Southern Polytechnic State University Alumni
•    Troy State University Alumni
•    Mobile User Experience

Astrid Dahl’s Honors:

2008 World Usability Day Lead for Accenture's User Experience Community of Practice (CoP); Key Team Leader for 2006 Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) fundraiser (i.e., annual employee giving campaign for federal government employees); Gamma Beta Phi (GBP) Service Award; Magna cum laude

Astrid Dahl’s Contact Settings

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• job inquiries
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