Company Info

A Bit Better is the creator and publisher of Screen Beans® clip art, and sells the line of exclusively on its own web store.  The company was founded by Cathleen Belleville in 1995 and since 1997 has been a partnership between Cathy and Dennis Austin.

A Bit Better Corporation also provides consulting helping companies to communicate and create products with maximum impact.

Areas of Expertise

Presentation Development and Design

- PowerPoint presentation development and content assistance
- Presentation template design
- "Make it look nice" work for important presentations

Information Design

- Document, template, default designs for impact and ease of use
- On-line information presentation
- Making graphical user interfaces that work for users

Designing for Usability

- Identifying user requirements, priorities, and functional models
- User interface design and UI audits
- Evaluating ease versus power trade-offs
- Product research, tactical and strategic planning

Maximizing Market Impact

- Tuning product design for maximum feature impact
- Developing and honing product positioning and messaging
- Competitive analysis and product recommendations
- Maximizing visual appeal of product

Clients (references available upon request)

Network Appliance, Inc.: presentation consulting

DigitalThink Inc.: presentation consulting

Publishing Power: custom software development

KLA-Tencor: software development consulting

Sun Microsystems: StarOffice software demonstration development; template development; clip art licensing

Microsoft Corporation: template development; clip art licensing

Adobe Systems: product demonstration development

Lotus Development Corporation: template development

Brio Technology: user interface design and consulting for database analysis products

Our People

Cathleen W. Belleville, Big Wig, Founder, and Partner: Prior to founding A Bit Better Corp., Ms. Belleville managed product planning for the Graphics Business Unit of Microsoft Corporation, where for six years she helped Microsoft PowerPoint become the best selling graphics application in the world. Ms. Belleville has appeared on numerous television and radio programs. 

BIO: Cathleen Belleville

Dennis Austin, CNO (Chief Nerd Officer) and Partner: Prior to joining A Bit Better Corp, for twelve long years, Mr. Austin managed the development of PowerPoint at Microsoft Corporation. He designed the original, PowerPoint 1.0, at Forethought, Inc. before it was purchased by the big MS.  In the years before PowerPoint, Mr. Austin developed software in many different categories from compilers to user interface toolkits. 

BIO: Dennis Austin

Edgar, Fax Catcher: In addition to his strenuous duties at the fax machine, Edgar must do something, we're just not sure what it is.   

Board of Unpaid Advisors

Dr. Robert Belleville, Board of Unpaid Advisors: Dr. Belleville, inventor of the AppleTalk Network and the world's most accurate pendulum clock, provides the kind of advice that money can't (and therefore doesn't ) buy. 

Jan Austin, Board of Unpaid Advisors: A licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor, Ms. Austin provides psychological support and the kind of advice that Miss Manners, Martha Stewart, and Dear Abby cannot begin to match.