Further information on entries and winners appears in the Winter issue of Communicator of the same year. Online issues of Communicator are available to ISTC members only after logging in.
UK Technical Communication Awards
The winners were announced at the TCUK online 2022 main event, a virtual conference hosted by the ISTC on Tuesday 27 September.
The entries were to a high standard with contributors from several countries and organisations large and small. Awards were presented as follows:
- One Overall Winner
- One Merit Award with Judges’ Commendation
- Seven Merit Awards.
Overall winner (Trophy Winner)
Oshadee Amarakoon, Mohamed Hassen, Iresha Hewavasam, Janith Jinadasa, Chamil Bandaranayake, Lars Christiansen, Pontus Wolke (Makeen Energy)
MAKEEN Product Programme Training Documents
Following acquisition of two companies, the Makeen Energy technical communication team had the task of producing sales training documents for the global sales teams for the 103 harmonised products now forming the new product range. The documents provide the necessary information for the sales team to promote the new products; these include illustrations to demonstrate certain functions and features to the customers. The documents combine technical training and sales information at a suitable level of detail for the target audience.
The template produced is an excellent example and the five published documents submitted are to a very high standard. The use of colour and shading in the illustrations is exceptional and the annotations are assigned expertly; language usage is appropriate and consistent.
Makeen Energy has submitted numerous entries over the years. Each year we provide them with feedback. This entry shows how, as a technical writing team, they have grown and developed. It is an excellent example of great technical specifications and excellent clear accompanying documentation; this entry is a worthy winner of the UKTC Awards 2022.
Merit Winners
Merit Award Winner (Judges’ Commendation)
3di Information Solutions
3di Internal Style Guide
A good style guide is invaluable to an organisation producing technical documentation. Often style guides are incomplete and inadequate; thus, they often fall into disuse or a source of contention. 3di considered their former style guide contained useful information but was presented inconsistently and the information was not always readily accessible. The new 3di internal style guide (this entry) was designed with the brief to be usable across all projects; to makes best use of available technology and to be readily updatable.
The judges were very impressed with the 3di internal style guide. It is comprehensive, and consistent (with explanation and good examples of usage). It also allows for (and expects) updates. There are no ‘grey areas and the supporting text gives the user a clear brief for implementation. Usage of the style guide is sure to promote efficiency and high quality documentation.
Merit Award Winners
3di Information Solutions
Apptio Help Center design process
This is a very impressive entry from 3di; everything was clear and logical; well thought out and implemented. Apptio had decided to outsource their technical writing to 3di (to modernise and improve the Help Center content). This entry is the design process that 3di implemented with Apptio to enable this improvement. Their key deliverables: to deliver a multi-stream roadmap; redesign the content structure; evolve the Help Center front-end and communicate the value to Apptio.
It was clear from the entry form that significant and meticulous work went into this. Expectations were well managed in the project. The judges were particularly impressed with the progress status and roadmap definition and delivery; this ensured that the process included keeping users up to date and managed their expectations. Everything about the entry was clear and very easy to follow.
Jack Hobson (BTL Group)
Surpass Help Site Developer Documentation
This entry is the complete re-write of the documentation extensive API of over 40 resources that enable our customers (awarding organisations) to integrate with Surpass, for example to automate scheduling an exam session in the Surpass Platform from a different system or displaying candidate’s exam results in another.
The judges found this to be an excellent entry. It clear from the entry form that the author has put a lot of work into this project. The research into this alone would have taken so much time. It is an ambitious project; very well executed. Much background work and attention to detail was needed and implemented to good effect.
Fantom Factory
Creative eLearning to explain data modelling with Project Haystack
The Fantom Factory works with The Project Haystack which delivers an open source data tagging standard to enable people, machines, and systems around the world to “understand” processed data. The entry is Fantom Factory’s official online eLearning course for Project Haystack. The methodology is difficult to learn so pace and content are very important.
The material is consistent in level and the course components are well constructed. The user is guided through the subject matter and can be confident of having the necessary information on completion. The material is consistent in level and the course components are well constructed. The user is guided through the subject matter and can be confident of having the necessary information on completion; an excellent example of elearning.
Laura Stevens and Richard Towers (Government Digital Service)
Incident reports on Inside GOV.UK
The entry is a new feature on the GOV.UK site providing reports on high profile, particularly interesting or high priority incidents. These can be internal or if it is deemed appropriate a public incident report blog post. The entrant described the requirements for the blog post to be accurate, clear, engaging and in the Inside GOV.UK tone of voice. An important part of the collaboration between the author and technical expert is establishing an accessible and factual explanation.
The entry is important as the theory behind it as it brings technical writing and the important reasons we need it to the forefront. By making these reports public, it is a way to show we are human and make mistakes but as technical writers we assess the issue and try and find a solution. The template for incident reporting is used consistently to good effect; comprehensive and informative; very successful in meeting the brief.
Lindsay Baer, Wayne O’Brien, Colton Cox (IBM)
IBM Z Security and Compliance Center Content Solution
The IBM Z Security and Compliance Center entry involved a team of around ten designers, product managers, researchers, engineers, and developers. There was significant background work with collaborative workshops and iterations to establish fully user needs.
The judges observed that ‘merging technical and marketing material is difficult to do’. This entry does it seamlessly. The overall layout was very clear and having the content in byte sizes and walking you though it step-by-step was really good. It definitely met its “not getting too technical too quickly” goal. A good feature is the provision of regular updates on products and new resources.
Nick Sharp, Florian Sperber, Elvira Nurmambetova (IBM)
IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center
IBM has launched the IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center, which serves as the digital front door to information for enterprise application, data, and process modernisation. The brief for the documentation was to guide clients through the modernisation process with relevant and timely information relating to their enterprise workload. The background to the entry recognised then existing issues of accessing the relevant information, including navigation, inconsistent messaging and the need to improve visual brand impact.
The team opted for a central digital platform that was dynamic, flexible, and provides a rich and interactive experience for clients all within 90 days to deliver and launch the solution. This is a very impressive entry. It is evident that the structure and content have been well thought through. The execution is very effective. The provision of material according to user type is implemented well. The inclusion of an interactive demo was inspired and really useful.
Pippa O’Driscoll (Government Digital Service Cabinet Office)
GOV.UK Sign In Technical Documentation
The brief for the technical documents team was to provide the documentation for the integrated sign in for the GOV.UK website with authentication and identity components to be delivered to beta partners at different times. This project was also the first government use of Document Driven Development; so, coding the documentation, instead of documenting the code. The approach was necessarily experimental and the new project presented a good opportunity.
The author has fulfilled the brief very effectively. The result is an impressive and consistent piece of work. The entry has certainly done justice to the GOV.UK site. The step-by-step approach was at exactly the right level. It allowed the user to know exactly where to go next after they finished a section. The quality shines through and promotes confidence in the integrity of the information.
Communicator Awards
The UK Technical Communication awards have a category for the ISTC Communicator Journal Article of the Year Award and Column of the Year Award, published between Autumn 2021 and Summer 2022. We asked our readers to vote on their favourite three articles and on their regular column of choice.
More details of the readers’ voting choices together with general comments on reading preferences were published in the Winter 2022 issue of Communicator. ISTC Members can access back copies of Communicator on the ISTC website.
Article of the Year
Warren Singer
‘Information Architecture: Taxonomies, Ontologies, and Metadata’
Column of the Year
Matthew Ellison
‘Importing word documents into Flare’