DigiPath Production Software
Completed: June 1998
The DocuTech line of production printers created the digital production publishing industry in the early 1990’s and became a billion dollar business for Xerox Corporation. The original DocuTech’s black-and-white touch screen, mouse and keyboard user-interface were attached to the printer. I became part of a design team that created replacement DocuTech pre-press software on a standard platform detached from the printer.
We created a user interface that leveraged many DocuTech workflows, while taking advantage of faster Windows NT PCs running 16 bit color screens. The reduced number of interface layers and streamlined workflow increased operator productivity on job setup tasks by 40% as proven in usability studies. In my visual interface design role I worked directly in the development tool, Visual Basic, to create screens and storyboards for usability testing. I was responsible for the design of over 150 icons and layouts for over 60 UI dialogs. The design team was “embedded” with the software engineering group to build and test design tweaks within the development environment. This approach produced a product in a little over a year.
After completing the software design, I also designed and coded a beta customer website that was used to solicit feedback about the upcoming release of the product.
