The brief
The Sunshine Coast Sports Awards recognise athletes, teams, coaches, clubs, officials, volunteers and events across the Sunshine Coast and Noosa, backed by both councils’ grants programs.
An awards program is a deceptively awkward thing to build. It is quiet for most of the year, then everything happens at once, and it has two completely different audiences using the same system: the public nominating someone they admire, and a judging panel that must not be influenced by any of it.
What it had to do
Make nominating easy for people who will do it once. A nominator is usually a parent, a club secretary or a teammate. They will use this site a single time, under deadline, probably on a phone. Thirteen categories are laid out plainly with the criteria for each, so someone can find the right one without reading the lot.
Keep the judging separate. Nominations are assessed by an independent panel of experienced sports administrators from the councils and sporting bodies. Judging sits behind a sign-in, apart from the public side, so the two never bleed into each other.
Know what time of year it is. Between windows the site says nominations are closed rather than presenting a form that goes nowhere, and points people at the categories to plan for next year instead.
Built to stay out of the way
The awards run on an annual cycle, so the work is not the launch, it is being dependable a year later when the window opens again with a new committee and last year’s content still intact.