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| ACM Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) | |
|---|---|
| Name | ACM Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) |
| Formation | 1970s |
| Type | Special interest group |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Leader title | Chair |
| Parent organization | Association for Computing Machinery |
ACM Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) ACM Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) is a professional group within the Association for Computing Machinery that focuses on the design, production, and evaluation of technical communication, interaction design, and user assistance. SIGDOC connects researchers, practitioners, and educators from organizations such as IBM, Microsoft, Google, Apple Inc., and Adobe Inc., while engaging with academic institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.
SIGDOC emerged during a period of growing interest in computing and communication alongside organizations such as International Business Machines Corporation, Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, and Hewlett-Packard. Early contributors included members affiliated with University of California, Berkeley, University of Washington, Cornell University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The group has evolved through interactions with conferences like CHI (conference), SIGGRAPH, Usability Week, and events sponsored by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and European Association for Signal Processing. Notable historical collaborations connected SIGDOC with initiatives at National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Department of Defense, Society for Technical Communication, and International Organization for Standardization working groups.
SIGDOC's mission aligns with the aims of the Association for Computing Machinery and parallels the focus of organizations such as IEEE Computer Society, ACM Special Interest Group on Human–Computer Interaction, ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering, ACM Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval, and ACM Special Interest Group on Accessibility and Aging. The scope covers intersections with fields represented by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Cognitive Science Society, Society for Technical Communication, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers members. SIGDOC treats topics relevant to practitioners from Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, Salesforce, Amazon (company), and startups in hubs like Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Research Triangle Park.
Membership draws professionals from academia, industry, and government, including staff from National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, European Commission, and United Nations agencies. Organizational structure follows models used by Association for Computing Machinery SIGs and includes elected officers, program committees, and working groups akin to structures at American Psychological Association, Modern Language Association, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association, and International Council on Systems Engineering. Regional chapters and student chapters mirror similar networks at IEEE Student Branch, ACM Student Chapter, Society for Technical Communication Student Chapters, and university-affiliated groups at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Toronto, and University of Melbourne.
SIGDOC organizes and sponsors recurring conferences and events comparable to ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, ACM SIGCOMM Conference, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, and Interaction Design Association gatherings. Annual and biennial events have been held in cities including New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Berlin, Tokyo, and Sydney. SIGDOC collaborates on workshops, panels, and tutorials with organizers from CHI, Information Architecture Institute, User Experience Professionals Association, International Technical Communication Conference, and World Usability Congress.
SIGDOC disseminates research and practice through proceedings and publications comparable to outlets like Communications of the ACM, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Journal of Usability Studies, and Technical Communication Quarterly. The organization presents awards similar to recognitions from Association for Computing Machinery, Society for Technical Communication, CHI Lifetime Service Award, and ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award to honor outstanding contributions in design, pedagogy, and scholarship. SIGDOC proceedings and extended abstracts are indexed alongside works from ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Web of Science.
SIGDOC engages in educational outreach, professional development, and standards participation, paralleling efforts by World Wide Web Consortium, International Organization for Standardization, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and American National Standards Institute. Activities include webinars, mentoring programs, curriculum discussions with institutions such as Pratt Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, Indiana University Bloomington, and collaborations with industry partners like LinkedIn, Atlassian, Dropbox, and GitHub. SIGDOC supports special interest workshops that interface with communities from Open Source Initiative, Creative Commons, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and regional user groups.
SIGDOC has influenced practices in information architecture, technical communication, and user assistance that echo in products from Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), iOS, Adobe Acrobat, and enterprise platforms at SAP SE and Oracle Corporation. Research and standards activity associated with SIGDOC has informed guidelines and policies at World Wide Web Consortium, International Organization for Standardization, European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and governmental agencies such as National Institute of Standards and Technology and Food and Drug Administration. Through conferences and publications, SIGDOC has intersected with scholarship from MIT Press, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Springer Nature, shaping pedagogy at universities including University of Michigan, Purdue University, Pennsylvania State University, and Virginia Tech.