UIC-AHS-IT Info Guides
In my professional life, the second half of 2024 included a large project for the IT Dept of the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago. I was hired specifically for this project as a contract employee because of my background with AV systems and graphic design. So I really got to use a broad variety of skills and experience to bring it together. This article is about that entire project and process.
The end product was a series of user guides for each of the thirty-eight different audio-visual technology systems located within their facilities. These ranged from small conference rooms to large lecture halls. There were multiple varieties of control interfaces and multiple eras of technology involved.
↑ SLIDE – Interfaces ↑
A basic rundown of the process…
- Survey/audit all of the 38 different room layouts and equipment
- Create design drafts
- Feedback stages for design and content
- Final print and production
So many steps and now my feet hurt…
Plan, plan and plan again…
AHS is spread out across five different buildings with three on one campus and the remaining two on another. To keep documentation consistent, I made some quick and easy templates in Microsoft Teams planner that were used to document everything in each room. I also used it for scheduling my time since I needed to coordinate with the different departments for room access.
↑ SLIDE – ROOM NUMBERS ↑
Rinse and repeat… a lot
I made documentation simple by taking a lot of photos first and then using copies of the pre-built MS Planner templates. These were just checklists within tasks, but they worked perfectly for making sure each room was throughly documented.
↑ SLIDE – MS Planner ↑
Over 1500 photos were collected which became an Adobe Lightroom catalog where I could reference and review everything when back at my computer, as well as polishing those images that were destined for the user guides.
↑ SLIDE – MISC EQUIPMENT/SOFTWARE ↑
Excel-lent Words.docx Inspire Organization
The equipment inventory was managed in a shared Excel spreadsheet with links to multiple shared Word documents for each building. I worked directly with a co-worker to put everything together where it continues to be used by staff.
↑ SLIDE – Excel/Word ↑
Would you please just get it together…
This is where all of the content was combined together in conjunction with a few existing college brochures as a design drafting point. We ended up going in completely different directions after that but you gotta start somewhere.
↑ SLIDE – Drafts ↑
So very graphic, yet stylish…
After the review process, it was all about creating graphics and then doing a series of layouts. Every room was different yet we still needed to have consistency across every document. Each room would have its own single sheet, double-sided placard. InDesign chapters, sections and numbering to organize each layout set. Those were used as variables on parent pages to maintain accuracy with all of the different room identifiers.
↑ SLIDE – GRAPHICS ↑
And of course the different types of InDesign styles (objects, characters, paragraphs, tables) kept consistency across all 38 guides…
↑ SLIDE – STYLES ↑
Ready for launch…
In the end we had a collection of documents that gave end users all of the primary instructions needed to get up and running if they weren’t familiar with these systems.
↑ SLIDE – FINISHED GUIDES ↑
It’s going to be a photo finish…
To wrap everything up, all of the photos were placed into organized and categorized folders. Those actually became very helpful right away as a thorough collection to recall room details without needing to always travel to spaces that were in different buildings or a few miles away on a different campus.
↑ SLIDE – MARKETING IMAGES ↑
Conclusion vs. Concussion
I really enjoyed working on campus again and was so grateful to be able to plan a multi-step project and see it through to completion. The final work was well-received and will optimally be used over the next few years.
This was also my first step back into the work world following the rotten year of 2023. It contained a brain surgery, complications, and then a leaking skull surgery (no joke). I lost half of my vision and needed several months of recovery from the entire ordeal. So it was empowering to then be working with some great people and in an environment which included a focus on disabilities and accessibility. This job was a huge part of my new upswing of continual progress. Although a short blip in time, it will always be a significant blip to me.