We win again! by Craig Lordan

Level: All Works with: All Updated: 03-Jan-2000

Editor's note: The ongoing Notes.net Exposed article series provides you with a behind-the-scenes look at the Notes.net web site. This time, we're pleased to share some exciting news about our webzine, Iris Today.

The Notes.net team is happy to announce we have won another award from the Society for Technical Communication (STC)!

The Boston chapter of the STC holds an annual competition that evaluates the quality of the writing and the overall presentation of various types of technical communication, including printed publications, technical art, and electronic documentation.

We entered our R5 Special Edition of Iris Today in the 1999 Electronic Documentation competition, and we're especially proud to say we won an Excellence award.

Last year, we announced that Notes.net won two Merit awards in the 1998 competition. Read our Notes.net Exposed article And the winners are... to find out more about the 1998 awards.

What is the STC?
According the STC national web site, the organization is the largest professional organization serving the technical communication profession.

The organization has over 20,000 members that include writers, editors, illustrators, printers, publishers, human factors and usability specialists, educators, students, engineers, and scientists employed in a variety of technological fields.

It publishes the magazine Intercom and the quarterly journal Technical Communication. Each year members and non-members can attend the STC's technical communication conference at different cities across the United States and Canada (recent cities include Toronto, Anaheim, Cincinnati, and Orlando).

The Society, through its more than 100 regional chapters, also offers programs and workshops where professional technical communicators can meet and learn from one another.

About the Electronic Documentation competition
We entered the R5 Special Edition of Iris Today in the Electronic Documentation competition. Electronic documentation entries are judged with respect to their successful choice of design, medium, methods, and skill in achieving their communication goals.

The Boston Chapter gives awards for four different levels of achievement. They are, in ascending order:

• DTC (Distinguished Technical Communication)
• Excellence
• Merit
• Honorable Mention

We are also privy to the anonymous comments by the judges. Some of the judges' comments about Iris Today were:

• "Page layout, text, graphics are clean and inviting. Design elements -- buttons, titlebar -- attractive and their coordinated look pulls the page of disparate articles together."
• "Information at the beginning of the each article -- leading to topics within the article and to related information is helpful both to users looking for a specific piece of information and those who want to follow a thread of information."
• "The writing style is casual, as befitting a magazine, and still clear and informative."
• "Typically good webzine. Easy to navigate and this issue well-focused."
• "I thought the site was well-executed, overall, with easy access to articles, and to other areas of the site."

What do you think?
While we're very proud of our achievements, the real validation for our efforts is the feedback we get from our readers. We continue to get valuable comments and suggestions about Iris Today, and we'd like to take this opportunity to solicit even more.

How are we doing? What do you like or don't like? What articles would you like to see next? Let us know by sending us a message at ideas@notes.net or by clicking the "What do think about this article?" link below (or on any Iris Today article) and filling out a feedback form. Thanks!