Bio: Jane R. Willson
Information Designer and President, WeThink, Inc.
 

Jane Willson specializes in designing and writing information products in a variety of media--from web-based distance learning sites to print-based brochures, newsletters, presentations and promotional collateral.

She draws from a rich background of scholarly and real-world experience in education, technology, instructional design, marketing, writing, and multi-media arts.

This eclectic background is the springboard for Jane's work, where she has spent the past two decades developing products that make complex information understandable for people in the computer, biotechnology, publishing, education, government, cellular telephone, and transportation industries. Jane has also written numerous technology-related articles that have been published in national trade journals.
 

The Career That Morphed

Jane has evolved from an educator to professional writer to marketing strategist to information designer with posts and projects in schools, universities, government agencies, publishing houses, and Fortune 500 companies.

Unwittingly she tackled her first information design product in 1977 when she designed and implemented an innovative self-paced interactive art curriculum for a new middle school in Halsey, Oregon. The project led her to an M.S. degree in the then new field of Instructional Technology at the University of Oregon. There, Jane pursued a cross-discipline curriculum. Her studies combined information product design with a focus on human learning, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how different cognitive styles affect individual learning.

In the next few years Jane produced eight successful traveling public information products for various Oregon governmental agencies. These products were used throughout the state by Oregon officials faced with having to explain the complex issues behind some of Oregon's hot local and state issues, including aging, metropolitan planning, community school resources and public transit.

In 1980, Jane had the opportunity to apply her information design and writing abilities to a new area: technology. Forethought Products, an Oregon-based industrial control computing hardware manufacturer, needed someone to explain their company vision and complex products to engineers and the press. Jane took the bait. Within a year her efforts paid off: the firm's products had appeared in all the major national computing trade journals, and Forethought's unit sales dramatically increased.

In 1982, Apple Computer, Inc. relocated Jane to California to join their creative editorial team as a senior writer, and her foray into technology became a path.
 

Highlights of the 80s

In the last decade, Jane was a lead start-up editor for three computer publications, including Ziff-Davis' first successful Apple computer-specific publication, A+ Magazine. She held key creative positions at Apple, Sun Microsystems, Ziff-Davis Publishing and Drake, Beam and Moran, a division of Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich. In these positions she developed and wrote numerous marketing and informational learning products.
 

A New Business for the 90s

In 1989, Jane launched her own business, Newmedia Design, changing the company name to WeThink, Inc. after incorporating in 1997. WeThink is focused on creating information products that explain a company or organization's complex ideas, concepts or products in clear ways to people who quickly need to learn about them.

WeThink is also committed to helping people leap tall learning curves, with ease and grace. To accomplish this, Jane taps into WeThink's time-tested two-point learning formula. First, that any learning tools we create must be completely relevant to the intended learners' needs. Second, that the learning program should offer people an engaging, if not entertaining, learning experience.

To review some of WeThink's key projects and clients in the 90s, visit WeThink's Portfolio section on this site.
 

Education

Jane holds an M.S. degree in Instructional Design, and a B.A. degree in Speech and Drama.

In the 70s, Jane also graduated from "Operation Fair Chance," an innovative California credential program that addressed the complex needs of at-risk inner-city students. The program challenged participants to rethink traditional teaching strategies, with the goal of building innovative programs that fueled students' excitement to learn, while addressing their individual academic needs.