2010 WriteMark |
Friday 3 September 2010 |
New Zealand Plain English Awards |
|
ACC
Winner: Best Plain English Website — Public Sector / Non-Government Organisation (NGO)
Christine Murray and Julie Fairfield from ACC, with MC Kevin Milne
Media release
AWARD-WINNING TURNAROUND FOR ACC WEBSITE
ACC is proud to have transformed its website from one of the worst in the public sector into a Plain English award-winner, said Chief Executive Dr Jan White.
“Last year our website was so bad it was nominated in the Brain Strain section. This year we’ve turned it around and won best website. We also picked up the award for the Best Sentence Transformation, turning a real whopper into something people could understand.
“Good plain English isn’t just aesthetically pleasing: it’s essential for our clients to understand the services we provide. I imagine nothing could be more frustrating for people dealing with injuries or accidents than having to wade through incomprehensible gobbledegook.”
After consulting with key users, ACC spent nine months working on its website. Among other improvements, the number of pages was halved from 14-thousand to 7-thousand, bureaucratic jargon was replaced with plain English, and the search function was made more effective.
“We launched the site early on a Sunday morning,” said website manager Christine Murray. “The first positive response came in two hours later, and we’ve been getting them ever since.
“The website has also been praised by the Human Rights Commission for including information in the Samoan language.”
ACC’s award-winning website can be found at www.acc.co.nz.
Sponsors
We would like to thank the following sponsors for their support in 2010.
