The Diana award is named after Diana Patterson, past President of SIGDOC for three terms. The award is given to an organization, institution, or business for their long-term contribution to the field of communication design. Since 2005, Diana awards have been given every other year.
Nominations for the Diana award are considered carefully by the SIGDOC Executive Board (elected and appointed members), and the final recipients are determined in a series of run-off votes. Winners are announced at the SIGDOC conference.
Since 1992, the Diana award has been given to the following organizations:
- 2018: The Center for Civic Design
- 2015: Women in Technical Communication
- 2011: SAP AG, LLC
- 2009: Apple, Inc.
- 2007: Laboratory for Usability Testing and Evaluation at the University of Washington
- 2005: The British Computer Society (BCS)
- 2004: The Society for Technical Communication (STC)
- 2003: IBM Corp.
- 2002: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- 2001: Information Mapping, Inc.
- 2000: MIT Press
- 1999: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- 1998: Netscape Communications Corp.
- 1997: Adobe Systems, Inc.
- 1996: Seybold Publications and Seybold Seminars
- 1995: Carnegie Mellon’s Communications Design Center
- 1994: Xerox PARC