Your design could be center stage
You and your team have done all this hard work and you’re really proud of what you’ve made. Did you design a new product or solve a unique challenge? Have you ever considered entering it for the IxDAwards? Over the years, we’ve recognized hundreds of individuals, small and large companies, and even students on a variety of incredible projects. We’re always on the lookout for the latest and greatest and that might just be you!
Why submit for the Awards?
The goal of Interaction Week is to honor design quality and innovation, open conversations within the community, and continuously advance the practice of Interaction Design. The Awards is the crescendo of the week as it represents the work the design community believes embodies good design.
What’s unique about the Awards is that it’s by the people for the people — in other words, the members of the IxDA democratically shortlist entries with a rotating jury of practitioners from all over the world. This distributed process ensures that we truly recognize the best work that year. It’s like the ultimate shoutout from your peers!
Plus — it opens up opportunities and exposure when your project is an example of design excellence.
How do I begin?
If you’ve never submitted your work for an award and you don’t know where to start, it isn’t as daunting as you think, it’s only three steps:
1) Identify your category
You’ll have to decide where your project fits best. Choose wisely because once you do, you’ll have to write a short description explaining why your project best embodies its category theme.
Pro-tip: You can also submit your project into more than one category to improve your chances.
Categories for the Awards
- Optimizing :: Making daily activities more efficient
- Engaging :: Capturing attention, creating delight and delivering meaning
- Empowering :: Enabling people to go beyond their limits
- Expressing :: Encouraging self expression and/or creativity
- Connecting :: Facilitating communication between people and communities
- Disrupting :: Re-imagining completely an existing product or service by creating new behaviors, usages or markets
See past awards winners in each category. If you have questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to directly reach out at awards@ixda.org.
2) Tell us your story!
We want to know how this project came to life. We’ll need to see a short video and one high quality photo that represents your project idea. You’ll have to cover a few key questions:
- What opportunity was the project addressing?
- Who were you designing for?
- What was the impact?
- What was the project’s design process?
Myth: You need a high production video to submit for the awards.
If you have the capacity and budget to make a high production video, that’s great, but certainly not necessary. The most important thing we want to see is that you share the story behind your work. What was your journey? What did your users say? We’ve had many successful submissions shot on an iPhone (some of those which have gone on to win too!). Our jury will have a good eye for spotting quality design thinking, so don’t fret — what’s most important is the idea and how well it solves the problem.
3) Fill out the online entry form
Once you have your materials ready it’s time to go online and complete the entry form. We simply need basic information about you and your team. You’ll also need to identify your region to determine your fees. Of course, include your video, description, and image as well. We recommend that you begin your submission even if you don’t have your materials completely ready, as you will be able to update those assets for a certain window of time.
Pro-tip: Get in your submissions as soon as possible so you can save a little $$$. Fees go up closer to the deadline.
Here’s our Evaluation Criteria:
- Opportunity: What challenge or opportunity is the project addressing? Is the intent clear and well-founded?
- Audience: How well did the project team understand the people most impacted by the project — its intended audience — and design accordingly? In what contexts is this product or service at play?
- Impact: How well did the project deliver on its intended impact, against the challenge at hand (opportunity addressed), the audience (needs & behavior addressed), and the business (profit, cost, brand)?
- Craft: How well did the project team employ and convey their design process? How well did the final project demonstrate its elegance in language, functionality, and use, as it supports human interaction? How well does the final project demonstrate attention to detail, fit and finish, and how the chosen medium serves the purpose and goals of the design?
👀 We’ll keep our eyes peeled
We can’t wait to see your work and who knows, it just might be in the spotlight during Interaction Week in Seattle, WA. Check out past winners here for some inspiration. Best of luck!
❤️ Your IxDA Awards Committee
