PTCS is Nancy Riccio, an award-winning technical writer / editor with over 25 years of diverse experience. Nancy is proficient with state-of-the-art documentation tools and excels at transforming complex information into usable, effective content.
About PTCS
Experience, analytical skills, and a deep respect for the user experience
To learn more about PTCS capabilities, check out our Projects page.
Before transitioning into technical writing and editing, Nancy spent 14 years working as a hydrogeologist. She especially enjoys — and adds value to — projects that allow her to use this domain knowledge.
In addition to freelancing under PTCS, Nancy spent almost 4 years working for software companies as part of Agile development teams. She has also held long-term, contract positions in the medical device manufacturing industry and research institutions. Between 2002 and 2017, Nancy also ran Plateau MediaWorks, LLC, a web design company, where she designed, built, and crafted content for custom websites.
PTCS is based in Tucson, Arizona, but works with clients all over the U.S.
Education
- 1998: Technical Writing & Editing Certificate, University of Washington
- 1986: B.S. Applied Geology / Hydrogeology, Northern Arizona University
Awards
- Award for best innovation project for usability testing (at HBK / ReliaSoft)
- Award of Excellence from the Society for Technical Communication for work on the Coconino County Comprehensive Plan
Software
| Help authoring | Flare, RoboHelp, Oxygen, Paligo, Help Studio + Document X! |
| Content management | WordPress, Confluence, Joomla, SharePoint, Zendesk, Wiki |
| Desktop publishing | FrameMaker, InDesign |
| Graphics / web authoring | Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Expression Web, Snagit |
| API documentation | Swagger IO, Redoc |
| Agile management | Azure DevOps, Rally, Jira |
| Source-control | Git, EDM, Team Foundation Server |
| UI/UX prototyping | Axure RP |
| Video | Camtasia |
| eLearning systems | Rise 360 |
| Other | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio; Acrobat; VS Code; Notepad++ |
Operating systems: Windows 7, 10; Mac OSX; some Linux
Coding languages: HTML, CSS, Markdown; understands database / programming concepts well enough to communicate with team members