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, during odd-numbered years.
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:
- 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