The Writing, Information, and Digital Experience (WIDE) Center at Michigan State University has been selected as the 2020 Diana Award recipient presented by the Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC). 

Named after Diana Patterson, past President of the SIGDOC for three terms, the Diana Award recognizes an organization, institution, or business for its long-term contribution to the field of communication design. Nominations are considered by the SIGDOC Executive Board.

“The Executive Committee unanimously agreed that WIDE fits this description perfectly, not only for its substantial contributions to the development of scholars in the fields of technical communication, user experience, and communication design (and more!), but also for its exemplification of a productive model for linking academia and industry through communications work, which is a core value of the SIGDOC,” said Daniel P. Richards, Chair of the SIGDOC.  

We are humbled and honored to be included among the organizations, businesses, and research centers that have been winners of the Diana Award.

BILL HART-DAVIDSON, PROFESSOR AND WIDE SENIOR RESEARCHER

WIDE focuses on researching and innovating experiences for emerging technologies in the Digital Humanities, including uses of social user experiences to solve social, cultural, and political problems; ways of constructing computational analytics for improving persuasive communication; and the need to create new forms of public engagement and democratic practice on a global scale. 

The center is committed to creating new knowledge focused on issues of digital experience, emphasizing social justice and human value within global and local contexts; positively impacting the world through its research and practices by advancing theories, methods, and artifacts that are both forward-thinking and practical; and preparing new generations of researchers and leaders who can conduct ethical research that is both nimble and inquisitive while leading fulfilling and satisfying lives as citizens of the world.

The Director of WIDE is Liza Potts, Associated Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University. Past, present, and affiliated Senior Researchers include Bill Hart-Davidson, Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies for the College of Arts & Letters; Jeff Grabill, Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology and Professor of Rhetoric and Professional Writing; Natasha Jones, Associate Professor; Ben Lauren, Assistant Professor; and Stuart Blythe, Associate Professor. 

Junior Researchers past and present include Larissa Babak, Lauren Brentnell, Suban Nur Cooley, Emily Dallaire, Victor del Hierro, Katie Dobruse, Jim Fredrickson, Dean Holden, Jessica Gibbons, Laura Gonzales, Bridget Hanchek, Beth Keller, Shannon Kelly, Dundee Lackey, Jacob Largen, Stephanie Mahnke, Jake McCarthy, Mike McLeod, Jared Milburn, Kaitlyn Nguyen, Minh-Tam Nguyen, Ryan Omizo, Stacey Pigg,  Jim Ridolfo, Martine Courant Rife, Eric Rodriguez, Donnie J. Sackey, Christine Scales, Rebekah Small, Trevon Smith, Rosa Tobin, Heather Noel Turner, Kelly Turner, Douglas Walls, Kalib Watson, Sue Webb, Teresa Williams, and Rebecca Zantzjer. 

We are most proud of all of the people affiliated with WIDE over the years, our students, our faculty and staff colleagues, and our research partners and participants. It is their great work in the world that is a credit to WIDE and its mission to do transformative work in the world.

BILL HART-DAVIDSON, PROFESSOR AND WIDE SENIOR RESEARCHER

“We are humbled and honored to be included among the organizations, businesses, and research centers that have been winners of the Diana Award,” Hart-Davidson said. “Being counted alongside Xerox Parc and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and included among centers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Washington goes beyond our wildest imaginations.

“We are most proud of all of the people affiliated with WIDE over the years, our students, our faculty and staff colleagues, and our research partners and participants. It is their great work in the world that is a credit to WIDE and its mission to do transformative work in the world.”

As the recipient of the Diana Award, WIDE is invited to send a representative from its organization to give a keynote address at the SIGDOC conference, which is scheduled for October 3 and 4, 2020, in Denton, Texas. WIDE also will be presented with the Diana Award at the SIGDOC conference. 

SIGDOC is one of 37 special interest groups under the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), an international organization with more than 100,000 active members across a wide variety of fields and disciplines. The SIGDOC’s role within the ACM community is to foreground the importance of communication (technical communication, user experience, risk communication, plain language, etc.) in computing contexts, often highlighting ethical, practical, and social implications of communication design decisions.