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Who We Are

At User Assistance Group, our mission is to create high quality, user-centered documentation and training for our clients. We believe that documentation and training can directly and positively impact the bottom line for your company.

Our Values are:

• Focus on the User
• Innovate
• Set High Quality Standards
• Build Knowledge
• Create Value for the Client

Our Founder and Principal Consultant

User Assistance Group was founded by Rob Houser, our principal consultant. Rob has worked as a technical writer, help author, instructional designer, and trainer for over 18 years. His research focuses on the study of users and the design of user assistance. Rob creates user assistance that is integrated with the product, blending documentation, training, and user interface design to create the optimal user experience.

Some of Rob's past projects include:

• Developing web-based training for the rollout of a new self-service HR/Payroll system for Neenah Paper (won Award of Excellence in the STC Atlanta online competition)

• Creating the web site for ActivityPath (won Best of Show in the STC Atlanta online competition)

• Converting classroom training materials to web-based training for Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals

• Designing and writing embedded user assistance for the Bank of America online bill pay web site

• Writing HR/payroll-based online help topics for Ceridian Employer Services.

• Developing online help for Trimont Real Estate Advisors.

• Developing API documentation and show me demos for Ipswitch Corporation.

• Designing and developing web-based training for MediaBin.

• Co-authoring the official training materials for Madcap Flare.

Rob is a long-time Adobe Certified Instructor for RoboHelp and Captivate. He has taught students around the country to use these two influential tools. He is also a Certified Instructor for Madcap Flare, a recent but full-featured, XML-based help authoring tool. Rob teaches his own workshops such as Instructional Design for eLearning Developers, Learning More About Users Through User Site Visits, and Designing User Assistance for Small Spaces.

Rob holds a Master of Technical and Scientific Communication degree from Miami of Ohio. He is a Certified Performance Technologist through ISPI. He also teaches online help, information design, and web design at Southern Polytechnic State University as an adjunct professor. Rob is a frequent presenter at conferences around the world, especially the WritersUA conference and STC Annual Conference.

In 2005, Rob was named an Associate Fellow of STC. He is a past president of the STC Atlanta Chapter and a former member of the board of directors of the Society for Technical Communication. He is also a member of ASTD and the ASTD Atlanta Chapter.