2004 PCD Awards

We're down to the final day to accept submissions for the 2004 Performance Centered Design Awards! Here's your chance to gain recognition for yourself, your organization, your solution or tool, and your business sponsor. The PCD Awards will showcase innovation that best represents performance-centered design (PCD) in two general categories - PCD Solutions and Extraordinary PCD Tools, and two states of deployment - in-production solutions/tools (operational, deployed to real users, or marketed and sold to real customers) and concept solutions/tools (FUNCTIONING proofs-of-concept, design prototypes and products that are not yet in production but have measurable PCD value).

This year EPSScentral is accepting applications for judging. To qualify, you must have at least five (5) years of aggregate experience in one or more of the fields that comprise PCD, and you must have completed at least three (3) PCD projects or contributed to the development of at least three (3) releases of one or more PCD development tools. You cannot judge and submit an entry to the PCD Awards. Click here to review the application.

Details of the PCD Solutions and Extraordinary PCD Tools categories:

(1) PCD Solutions are designed for clients, organizations, for internal use, as student projects, prototypes, and the like. These include:

(a) Traditional EPSS - external or extrinsic "EPSS" solutions with designs rooted primarily in learning or reference;

(b) Performance-centered workflow solutions - any PCD solution with a focus on directly supporting business processes (aka workflow);

(c) PCD makeovers - solutions that replace existing user interfaces with ones that exhibit attribute and behaviors of performance-centered systems;

(d) Embedded/ intrinsic PCD solutions - performer-centered solutions that are strictly embedded in the task context and focus on task completion - not learning - without breaking the task context or flow;

(e) PCD featuring innovative technology - any performance-centered solution that features technology other than just a user interface to enable or enhance performance; and

(f) Other distinguishing categories that may be assigned, depending on the PCD value of the entry. So do not worry if your proposed entry does not seem to fit the listed subcategories.

(2) Extraordinary PCD Tools for developing performance-centered systems and functions:

(a) Comprehensive web-based portals or content/learning/knowledge management systems that include features and functions specifically designed to create and support performance-centered systems for performers (end-users).

(b) Specialty performance support tools that address one or more elements of the PCD lifecyle, including but not limited to:

Process/workflow modeling and/or simulation

User experience, interface development/generation, usability

Content, information, knowledge engineering

Real-time assembly of performance objects

(c) Other distinguishing categories of PCD tools that may be assigned, depending on the PCD value of the entry.

Details of the state-of-deployment categories:

(1) In-production PCD Solutions and Tools are those that have been deployed to real performers (end-users) in corporate, government, or academic environments to solve specific performance problems. For such entries you must be able to articulate statistics, studies, or strong anecdotal evidence of differences between the state of performance before your PCD Solution or Tools were implemented/applied and after being placed in production/deployment.

(2) Concept PCD Solutions and Tools are those that have been designed and developed to address specific organizational performance needs, but have not been generally deployed . Examples are WORKING prototypes, proofs-of-concept, or WORKING releases of solutions/tools that are not yet ready/certified for general availability/distribution. For such entries you must be able to articulate the compelling performance needs that motivated development, the intended audience and circumstances of potential deployment, and the performance differences that you expect to measure, observe, and document following deployment. All Concept PCD Solutions must be working systems that exhibit most of the capabilties intended for deployment. No mockups or low-fidelity renderings will be accepted.

PCD AWARD SAMPLES

The PCD Awards have been given since 1997. Previous award recipients may be viewed here. 2004 recipients will have opportunities to attend one or more conferences in the Fall to receive awards in person. Locations for 2004 will be announced on or before the submission deadline.

DATES and DEADLINES:

Submission deadline has been extended to midnight 15 June 2004, Eastern US Time (GMT-5).

AWARD ANNOUNCEMENTS

Awards will be announced on or before 1 August 2004 in a formal press release.

Award-winning entries will be featured on www.epsscentral.info in perpetuity, and at several PCD-related conferences throughout the Fall of 2004 (locations to be announced).

Entry fee: Corporate and government entries: US$395. Student entries: US $225 for full or part time students whose entries are not in any way connected to corporate or government sponsored initiatives (e.g., graduate class projects, thesis/dissertation material, or post-graduate projects). Student projects that are affiliated with formal contracts between organizations and educational institutions that specify work-for-hire must be submitted in the corporate or government categories. All non-refundable entry fees must be accompanied with a check in the appropriate amount payable to EPSScentral LLC or payment can be made via PayPal directly to the EPSScentral LLC account. Entry fees must be received by the submission deadline along with entries and publication release forms.

SUBMISSIONS & EVALUATION:

You are responsible for the costs of preparing your entry.

You are required to prepare a publishable HTML, XML or PDFentry. To download an HTML entry template, click on the item that best categorizes you submission. Your submission must comply with the HTML template format, even if you use XML or PDF files.

Entry Forms	PCD Solution	PCD Tool
In Production	In-Prod, Solution	In-Prod, Tool
Concept	Concept, Solution	Concept, Tool

You must sign and date a publication release form, which must be FAXed or postmarked by the deadline. If FAXed, the original must be received by EPSScentral before awards can be finalized.

You must supplement the above with a URL, CD, DVD, memory card, or video tape of the live experience so that judges can experience your offering in as concrete a manner as possible.

Electronically conveyed items must be less than 5MB and zipped to be accepted as an e-mail attachment. Otherwise send physical media or supply FTP instructions prior to the deadline.

If you submit your entry electronically, then you must FAX a verification form (click here) to EPSScentral at 703.658.2253 no later than midnight, June 15, 2004 Eastern US time, with your signature, verifying that your electronic submissions, including payment, were deployed before the deadline. All mailed submissions must be USPS postmarked or include an equivalent time/date stamp for FedEx, UPS, Airborne, etc. before midnight June 1, 2004.

ELIGIBILITY

The PCD Awards are open to businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals engage in PCD. Vendors are welcome to submit their work but are strongly encouraged to do so in partnership with their clients.

JUDGES

Interested in being a PCD Awards judge? Click here for an application.

MAILING ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSIONS:

PCD Awards 2004

c/o EPSScentral LLC

6909 Pacific Lane

Annandale, VA 22003