Who's inspired you?
As members of the same profession, we tend to understand what we’re talking about inside our human factors echo chamber but communicating about human factors to the outside world can be much more difficult. The broad value of our profession, the ways in which our work can help particular groups, or even the recommendations we're making in our reports can be hard to get across to those without background knowledge of human factors
If you know someone (an individual or a group/organisation) who is particularly good at communicating their message, nominate them for this award. Some of our recent winners have used animations to effectively communicate safety messages to a disparate audience, such as the general public, media and policy makers. Others have used videos to improve the communication of project results, such as easily understandable language for non-specialists and video summaries in the presentation of written reports. Where you see innovation leading to clarity – let’s get it recognised!
Criteria
- This award is for an individual or group that has successfully promoted human factors and ergonomics to new audiences.
- The award is given for sustained activity which communicates the value of ergonomics/human factors to an external audience.
- The communication may be a book or other print or digital publication, video, social media presence or the attainment of a significant media profile.
- A programme of activity, such as a website or blog, as well as a one off activity, such as report or article, is eligible for consideration.
- Evidence of the value of the communication, such as number of hits/reads, external comments/reviews is required as part of the submission.
- Peer-reviewed journal/conference papers are not eligible for this award.
- Textbooks or standards may be eligible, but a nomination should clearly demonstrate innovation in communication.
- Assessment will take into account quality and structure of content, quality of writing, use of sources and originality of the focus.
- Access must be given to the original communication, in addition to a short description of the communication and its goal, along with evidence of the value/impact/quality of the publication.
2023 winner
Congratulations to Gareth Lock who has won our Outstanding Communications Award 2023 for his work on human factors in scuba diving! He focused his efforts on human behaviour and team development, areas traditionally overlooked but critical for safety. Well done, Gareth!
Origins of the award
This was formerly the Richard Clive Holman Award.
Richard was born in 1954, and graduated in ergonomics from Loughborough University of Technology in 1975. He started his career at the Human Factors Department within British Aerospace (BAe) at Filton, Bristol. After six years at BAe, he joined the Ministry of Defence Admiralty Research Establishment at Portsdown (subsequently part of the Defence Research Agency), working particularly on human computer interaction problems and the integration of human factors in system design. He was leader of the Human Factors Section within the Maritime Command System Division of DRA for two years until his untimely death in 1992. This prize was first awarded in his memory.
Roll of honour
2022 Ron McLeod
2021 Human Factors 101 (Martin Anderson) & the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch
2020 Canary Designs
2019 Thomas Jun, Roger Haslam & Patrick Waterson
2018 Design for Real People Action Group
2016-7 Not awarded
2015 Charlotte Davies
2014 Roberta Symeonides