IxDAwards
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Now that the 13th Interaction Awards have come to conclusion with us celebrating the winners, it is time for another announcement.

Interaction Awards is run by IxDA. In August of 2024, IxDA’s legal entity incorporated in Oregon, US, will cease to exist, as will the board, together with all initiatives and events that were associated with and supported by the operational infrastructure of the legal entity. You can read the background of what led us here on the IxDA.org blog.

This sadly includes the Interaction Awards as well.  Interaction Awards at least in its current form is ending in August 2024.

We are eternally grateful for everyone who has submitted work to be evaluated, and perhaps recognized by the community. The Awards archive is a testament to the quality and wide-reaching span of interaction design and its practitioners.

Unlike so many other awards shows, The Interaction Awards have always been a community effort. Over the years thousands of peer reviewers have worked with us to select the works ready to be recognized. A massive thank you to all of you.

Since 2012, a total of 90 interaction design professionals and luminaries have donated their time for setting the bar each year by judging the work.

And finally, a way over hundred individual projects from corporations, universities and design firms and consultancies have been recognized for their excellence in Interaction Design across domains, channels, environments and cultures.

We are grateful for each and everyone of you. The dissolution of the organisation doesn’t dissolve the impact nor quality of the recognized work, or the community it was crafted in.

Thank you, and keep on doing the good work. It has been a honor.

‍Sami Niemelä, Board member, and 2023-24 Awards representative, on behalf of the IxDA board (Andi, Ana, & Pablo)

‍PS. Unfortunately we do not have 3D files of our physical, beloved trophy. In 2012 the trophy was sketched out as physical 2D drawings, and made by an artesan. These drawings are available here, as open source for anyone to use. In case you need a 2024 certificate, they are here and on certifier.io.

Best in Category: Connecting

Oli - Fostering Human Connections

Ireland (Concept / Student)

Oli utilizes touch and sound to facilitate offline gatherings. By creatively connecting people with one another and with their surroundings, Oli transforms mere interactions into profound shared experiences, transcending digital boundaries to foster new forms of connections between individuals and the space they inhabit.As more technologies are used to pull us away from time, our natural/social/built environments and interactions with each other, Oli takes a genuinely felt yet bold approach to do the opposite by encouraging more (re)connections between people rather than selfishly in through the technology. The entry also expressed the joy and thoroughness of thinking, iterative making and resulting positive outcomes with people out in the wild—a sublime example of interaction design worthy of an award!

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Best in Category: Disrupting

DentixBuddy

New York, United States (Concept / Student)

DentixBuddy represents an innovative approach to addressing complex challenges faced by dentists, particularly when treating young patients. 

DentixBuddy challenges conventions and introduces novel, gamified approaches to address the pain points in the dental industry. It leverages interaction design as a powerful tool to innovate the patient experience and advocate for a more human-centred approach in the dental industry, and by that, it fosters empathy and creates a net-positive disruption to the healthcare industry as a whole.

This app integrates VR and AR technologies to create a holistic and engaging experience for all stakeholders involved, including children and dental professionals. By utilizing immersive technology, DentixBudd enhances the dental visit, making it less intimidating for kids and more manageable for practitioners. This solution not only improves the efficiency and effectiveness of dental treatments but also significantly enhances patient comfort and cooperation. DentixBudd exemplifies how technology can transform traditional healthcare practices, making them more accessible and less daunting for younger patients.

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Best in Category: Empowering

Alba - A Period Detection Wipe for the Visually Impaired

Massachusetts, United States (Concept / Student)

The Alba Period Detection Wipe is a significant innovation designed with the unique needs of visually impaired women in mind, seamlessly blending technology with practical materials to enhance independence in managing menstrual health. It addresses a critical aspect of female health that often lacks attention, especially for those with visual impairments. 

Alba’s design process goes deep into addressing the uncomfortable issue of menstruation for visually impaired, by addressing the whole needs of persons who experience this through genuine explorations of suitable materiality and interactions in the form of chitosan-layered, biodegradable, disposable and affordable detection wipes which are discreet, sensorially reliable and safe. By offering a dignified and effective solution, this product not only facilitates easier management of menstrual cycles but also empowers women, promoting greater autonomy and confidence. It exemplifies a deep commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, reflecting a sensitive and thoughtful approach to women's healthcare needs. 

Alba deserves the empowerment award for supporting those women for whom menstruation discomfort should not feel unnecessarily compromised, undignified, unsafe or stigmatized.

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Best in Category: Engaging

Midas - Accessible Controller for Gamers Living with Muscular Dystrophy

London, United Kingdom (Concept / Student)

Midas is a worthy concept worth developing further, as it gives people more options to engage with the world around them as well as video games through our fingers. The customizability and personalization of finger interactions helps Midas stand out as a device, so people can adapt it to their needs and contexts.

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Best in Category: Expressing

BuildUX Persona Mapper - Better, Faster, More Actionable Personas

Delaware, United States (Production / Professional)

Personas are an often overlooked tool, and severely underperforming tool in designing better products, services and interactions fit for purpose and the target audience. BuildUX’s Persona Mapper raises the bar on producing personas that are uniform, useful and collaborative. The team behind Persona Mapper have identified deceivingly simple key ideas where traditional personas fail and designed their tool accordingly to address these challenges through clever use of GenAI. Persona Mapper enables these tools become living objects that are easily prioritized, collaborated on, and eventually aligned to the whole organization. BuildUX Persona Mapper deserves and award and perhaps larger success because it makes a crucial building block of interaction design — groups of humans we design for — accessible and effortless for a larger teams and organizations, and not just design teams.

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Best in Category: Optimizing

mObywatel 2.0

Poland (Production / Professional)

mObywatel, the citizen mobile application and service from the Polish government, is a significant, ambitious and expansive project to deliver essential services more effectively to 38 million Polish citizens. It’s a fantastic example of what effective large-scale transformations and collaborations can achieve for the public in ways that challenge established conventions rife with bureaucracy and constraints. This project offers many lessons and perspectives for interaction design in ways that are entangled with many other systems of value, and serves as a worthy example for this year’s Optimizing award.

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Best in Concept

Midas - Accessible Controller for Gamers Living with Muscular Dystrophy

London, United Kingdom (Concept / Student)

Midas gives people more options to engage with the world around them as well as video games through our fingers. The customizability and personalization of finger interactions helps Midas stand out as a device, so people can adapt it to their needs and contexts.

Midas is awarded as Best Concept because of the effort and rigor that was put into Midas in context of the real world. As a concept, it offers a compelling, tangible, yet elegant augmentation allowing for more ways for people to enjoy interactive experiences. 

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Best in Student

Oli - Fostering Human Connections

Ireland (Concept / Student)

This year there have been a high volume of student entries, but Oli stands out because it goes beyond (far too common) individual-machine-interactions, and aims with clear focus for better people-to-people interaction—not through technology, but mediated between human beings. As a student effort, this work deserves an award because it stands out above others for its craft, generous interventionism, joyful inspiration and for exemplifying more desirable, compelling futures for us all.

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This year, the jury chose not to give out a separate Best in Show and Future voice awards. There are many awarded student entries which we feel represent the future of our field in excellent fashion. However, all awarded works represent the best of their respective caegories. Congratulations all!

2024 Interaction Awards Jury

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After hard work by our Peer Reviewers and thorough discussion by our 2024 jury, we’re proud to announce the 26 projects representing 10 countries that make up our 2024 Interaction Awards Finalists.

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‍Connecting

‍Arca: An inclusive, privacy-enhancing smart home camera for you and your extended household
‍Material Interactions Lab, University of Washington Seattle‍

Dual Screen Interpreter Mode on Pixel Fold
Google, USA‍

eCare
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Oli - Fostering Human Connections
National College of Art & Design, Ireland

‍Solo Sisters
School of Visual Arts, USA

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‍Disrupting‍

‍Amoeba: Integrated Solution for Sustainable Workspace
Pratt Institute, USA

DentixBuddy
New York University, USA

Radioactive Blueberries: A Glimpse into the Future of Fruit
Uniersity of California, Berkeley, USA

Upstyle
Harvard Innovation Labs, USA

‍VISO: Pioneering AR-HUD Display for Enhanced Driver Focus and Safety
ArtCenter College of Design, USA

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‍Empowering

‍Adæpt
ArtCenter College of Design, USA‍

Alba - A Period Detection Wipe for the Visually Impaired
Harvard University, USA‍

‍AR-based Multimodal Interactive Literacy Teaching Aid for Children with Dyslexia
Tongji University, China

IBAN Switch
‍N26, Germany

‍Ufocus Enhancing Classroom Learning with an Inclusive and Tailored Digital Interactive Experience
Politecnico Di Milano, Italy‍

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‍Engaging‍

FoldWorld
Parsons School of Design - The New School, USA

GreenFly
d SCHOOL, CAFA, China‍

Midas - Accessible Controller for Gamers Living with Muscular Dystrophy
Imperial College London, UK

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‍Expressing‍

BuildUX Persona Mapper - Better, Faster, More Actionable Personas
BuildUX, USA

“DrawTooth”—Smart Toothbrushes for Preschoolers
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

‍Lotza.io
Card79. USA

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‍Optimizing

‍IBM Cloud Infrastructure Visualizer
IBM, USA

mObywatel 2.0
Centralny Ośrodek Informatyki, Poland‍

Oracle Redwood Design System
Oracle, USA

dBocl: Taming the Chaos in Event Logistics
‍Dupla Studios, USA

Toucan
Zhuyuan He, USA

The Interaction Awards are all about celebrating excellence in design across the world. Our international jury is charged with selecting the finalists and winners in each of our six categories, but there is a single opportunity for you — as a member of our IxDA community — to select the People’s Choice Award. Voting is open through the 11 April!

This year there are 41 projects to choose from and they cover the gamut in scale — you’ll find student projects, independent concepts, agency work and enterprise solutions with global adoption. The project with the most votes wins and will be announced along with other winners at the Interaction Awards ceremony.

How to Vote

It’s simple and only takes a few minutes.

1. Review this year’s shortlist.
2. Find the project of your choice.
3. Vote! Click on the ‘Vote’ button at the top.
4. Share with friends, family, and colleagues! The more votes you get, the better your chances.

Voting Rules

1. All shortlisted projects are eligible for People’s Choice.
2. You may vote multiple times, but only once per day.
3. Voting officially ends at 11:59 pm (Pacific Standard Time) on 20 March.

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Make your voice heard and vote today!

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After an intense sprint by our Community Peer Review Panel, we’re proud to share the 2024 Interaction Awards shortlist!

Everyone who submitted projects contributed to this diverse body of work. With submissions from more than 20 countries, this year’s shortlist of 41 projects includes first-time appearances from student teams all the way through to enterprise-level projects with global adoption.

CONNECTING:

Facilitating communication between people and communities

• Aalto University Design System, Taiste , Finland, In-house/Agency , Production
• Arca: An inclusive, privacy-enhancing smart home camera for you and your extended household, Material Interactions Lab, University of Washington Seattle, United States, Indie / Nonprofit, Concept
• Dual Screen Interpreter Mode on Pixel Fold, Google, United States, Enterprise (> 10,000 employees), Production
• eCare, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, Student, Concept
• Oli - Fostering Human Connections, National College of Art & Design, Ireland, Student, Concept
• Solo Sisters, School of Visual Arts, United States, Student, Concept
• Small Steps, National College of Art & Design , Ireland, Student, Concept
• VedaShala, IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), India, Student, Concept

DISRUPTING:

Capturing attention, creating delight, and delivering meaning

• Amoeba: Integrated Solution for Sustainable Workspace, Pratt Institute, Taiwan, Student, Concept
• DentixBuddy, New York University, United States, Student, Concept
• Radioactive Blueberries: A Glimpse into the Future of Fruit, University of California, Berkeley, United States, Student, Concept
• Ticketmaster: Beyond the Event Experience, FIT / Advertising & Digital Design , United States, Student, Concept
• Upstyle, Harvard Innovation Labs, United States, Indie / Nonprofit, Concept
• Verily Retinal Camera, Verily, United States, In-house/Agency , Production
• VISO: Pioneering AR-HUD Display for Enhanced Driver Focus and Safety, ArtCenter College of Design, United States, Student, Concept

EMPOWERING:

Enabling people to go beyond their limits

• Adæpt, ArtCenter College of Design, United States, Student, Concept
• Alba - A Period Detection Wipe for the Visually Impaired, Harvard University, United States, Student, Concept
• AR-based Multimodal Interactive Literacy Teaching Aid for Children with Dyslexia, Tongji University, China, Student, Concept
• DermaDiary, National College of Art and Design, Ireland, Student, Production
• EasyMed: Accessible Drug & Food Interaction Checker Empowered by AI, University of California San Diego, United States, Student, Concept
• IBAN Switch, N26, Germany, Enterprise (> 10,000 employees), Production
• Pleural, Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, United Kingdom, Student, Concept
• Serenity: The Quest to Find Harmony, National College of Art & Design Dublin, Ireland, Student, Production
• Bia, Imperial College London & Royal College of Art, United Kingdom, Student, Production
• Ufocus Enhancing Classroom Learning with an Inclusive and Tailored Digital Interactive Experience, Politecnico Di Milano, Italy, Student, Concept

ENGAGING:

Encouraging self-expression and/or creativity

• Climrades, Fold Labs, India, In-house/Agency , Production‍
• FoldWorld, Parsons School of Design - The New School, United States, Student, Concept‍
• GreenFly, d SCHOOL, CAFA, China, Student, Concept‍
• GeoOne - Geometry for everyone, PES University, India, Student, Concept
• HistARy - Immersive AR Tool, University of Cincinnati, United States, Student, Concept
• Midas - Accessible Controller for Gamers Living with Muscular Dystrophy, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, Student, Concept

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EXPRESSING:

Re-imagining completely an existing product or service by creating new behaviors, usages, or markets

• BuildUX Persona Mapper - Better, Faster, More Actionable Personas, BuildUX Inc., United States, In-house/Agency , Production
• ‍“DrawTooth”—Smart Toothbrushes for Preschoolers, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, Student, Concept‍
• Lotza.io, Card79, United States, In-house/Agency , Production

OPTIMIZING:

Making daily activities more efficient

• IBM Cloud Infrastructure Visualizer, IBM, United States, Enterprise (> 10,000 employees), Concept‍
• BILT: 3D Interactive Instructions, BILT Incorporated, United States, In-house/Agency , Production‍
• Oracle Redwood Design System, Oracle, United States, Enterprise (> 10,000 employees), Production‍
• Taming the Chaos in Event Logistics, Dupla Studios, United States, In-house/Agency , Production
• ‍mObywatel 2.0, Centralny Ośrodek Informatyki, Poland, In-house/Agency , Production
• ‍Toucan, Zhuyuan He, United States, Indie / Nonprofit, Production
• ‍Air Traffic Management: balancing demand with capacity while ensuring maximal order, timeliness, efficiency, and human safety, Academux, United States, Indie / Nonprofit, Concept

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This year’s Interaction Awards submissions cover 24 countries. With 216 projects to consider, that’s a 45% increase over last year. We wish you all good luck!

The top categories for this year's submissions are Empowering, Engaging, and Disrupting. Entries represent the cross-section of our industry: from agencies and in-house teams to independent and non-profit work. The top three countries submitting are the United States, China, and Great Britain. 

Next, our Peer Review process begins. Each submission receives at least two independent reviews. This process makes the Interaction Awards distinct from other programs: the voice of the global practitioner community is at the foundation of curating the winners.

Our shortlist will be announced on 4 January 2024. Watch this space for news!

Once we have the shortlist, entries move on to the second judging phase. A diverse and accomplished international jury selects our Finalists and Winners, with special recognition — Best Student, Best Concept, Best in Show, and Future Voice awards. Our People’s Choice Awards is selected through public voting from the 2024 Shortlist.

Our winners will be revealed on 27 April 2024, on World Design Day. 

Did you miss getting in under the wire yesterday as our Regular deadline closed? Well, we have some good news. You can still enter during the Interaction Awards’ Late Entry period — from now through 19 November 2023. So you have two more weeks to complete your submission.

The entry platform will close and go offline on Sunday, 19 November at 11:59 p.m. in San Francisco. You will need to fully complete your submission before we turn off the lights.

We understand that these few days can make a world of difference… Go for it, get it done!

We would love to have you on board and for your project to have a chance at recognition by the IxDA community. Already there are submissions from more than 20 countries and we want to include yours on that list. Your work deserves consideration.

We know with our global reach it can be hard to figure out what that means for you in your local time.  So we’ve created this cheat sheet to make sure you don’t miss the cutoff.

Check your submission cutoff:

• San Francisco – 19 November 2023 at 11:59 pm
• New York  – 20 November 2023 at 2:59 am
• London – 20 November 2023 at 7:59 am
• Berlin – 20 November 2023 at 8:59 am
• Johannesburg – 20 November 2023 at 8:59 am  
• Moscow – 20 November 2023 at 9:59 am
• Mumbai – 20 November 2023 at 12:29 pm
• Hong Kong – 20 November 2023 at 2:59 pm
• Tokyo – 20 November 2023 3:59 pm
• Sydney – 20 November 2023 4:59 pm
  

Is your time zone not listed?

Use this handy link to find exactly what Pacific time it is right now based on your local time zone.

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Have any last minutes questions?

Check out our Help section for FAQs or ask us something new at awards@ixda.org

Submission is open to all professional and student designers worldwide. Both concept work and/or production work can be submitted for consideration.

Everyone loves a little more time! We’ve extended our Early Bird deadline for the 2024 Interaction Awards. Now you have an additional two weeks to submit your best work from the past two years.

Need some inspiration? Check out Carbon Insights: Empowering consumers to make more sustainable decisions, our 2023 People’s Choice winner. You can see all the 2023 winning projects here.

Enter by 15 September for your best rate

Our goal is to make Awards entry fees as accessible as possible. Fees are tiered according to your geography and professional status. Students enter for free during the Early Bird period.

Why enter

The Interaction Awards create a showcase for the community, but they also deliver tangible benefits to those whose work is recognized — they can be an early career springboard and a great learning experience.

Partner with us

Help us make this year’s Interaction Awards memorable. We've expanded the opportunities to support the Interaction Awards. In addition to our Presenting Partner level, you can choose from Event Partner, Program Partner, and Community Partner levels. All levels offer visibility with our 150,000 community members and local groups worldwide.

The 2024 Interaction Awards Call for Entries is open. We’re excited to add to our ever-growing library showcasing best-in-class Interaction Design examples. This is your cue to gather your best examples of excellence in interaction design from the past two years.

For inspiration, check out our 2023 Best in Show, Little Signals. You can see all the 2023 winning projects here.

Enter today for Early Bird rates

Our goal is to make Awards entry fees as accessible as possible. Fees are tiered according to your geography and professional status. Students enter for free during the Early Bird period.

Why enter

The Interaction Awards create a showcase for the community, but they also deliver tangible benefits to those whose work is recognized. We think the Frontend team sums it up best: 

Get involved

If you’d like to support the Awards this year, here are a few ways you can help:

Help us spread the word

Two of our goals for 2024 are to increase the global reach of the Awards program and expand the diversity of submissions from outside Europe and North America. If you’re interested in joining our communications and marketing efforts, get in touch.

Partner with us

Help us make this year’s Interaction Awards memorable. We've expanded the opportunities to support the Interaction Awards. In addition to our Presenting Partner level, you can choose from Event Partner, Program Partner, and Community Partner levels. All levels offer visibility with our 150,000 community members and local groups worldwide.

IxDA is a community of doers and makers, so if you’ve followed previous Awards cycles and thought to yourself, “I’d love to help make the Awards program even better,” this is your chance to step into a leadership role.

About the Interaction Awards

Founded in 2010 and first presented in 2012, the annual Interaction Awards celebrate design thought leadership and innovation around the globe. Each year, Award recipients comprise a showcase demonstrating how interaction design impacts and improves human lives.

Why the Interaction Awards matter

Interaction design is about people: how people interact with each other, and how people interact with the world around them. The Interaction Awards celebrate the work done by interaction designers every day, to create meaningful relationships between people and the products and services that they use. The Awards recognize and promote outstanding works across domains, platforms, and cultures, highlighting interaction design from around the world.

Through the work celebrated by the Interaction Awards, IxDA is building a learning library of interaction design case studies and advancing our mission to demonstrate how interaction design can be applied to improve our human condition.

The Awards Chair role

To be successful, you’ll need to be comfortable leading with charismatic authority. Your team will be recruited from the IxDA community and are 100% volunteers.

Key accountabilities in this role are:

Leadership and strategic development

• Establish the vision and direction of the Awards for the current cycle that evolves the program in service of IxDA’s strategic objectives
• Identify and solicit strategic partnerships to advance awareness of the Awards
• Develop and implement a communications and outreach plan to promote the Awards’ and solicit entries for the current cycle
• Identify and select a jury chair and invite the international jury panel
• Form and steward a peer review panel from the IxDA community
• Facilitate and manage the peer review and jury process
• Develop and deliver the 2024 Interaction Awards ceremony

Project management

• Recruit and manage a diverse, global team of volunteers to execute all aspects of the Awards program, including a co-chair and workstream leads
• Manage the project budget in collaboration with the IxDA Executive Director
• Manage sponsorship recognition and fulfillment throughout the Awards cycle
• Manage the fulfillment program for all levels of Awards recognition
• Participate in the vendor selection process to produce the Awards ceremony
• Document the Awards cycle work, handoff assets to the next cycle’s team

The Awards Chair is a servant leadership opportunity, accountable to the IxDA community through our Executive Director and Board of Directors.

Key dates

• 29 May: Open Call for Candidates
• 30 Jun: Close Call for Candidates
• 17 Jul: Onboard new lead

Apply to lead

Do you see yourself as the next Interaction Awards Chair? Tell us a little about yourself, your involvement in IxDA, and your experience with the development or delivery of an Awards program.

Submit your application by 30 June 2023.

Starting with a shortlist created by our Community Peer Review Panel, and then narrowed down by our international jury to category finalists and, ultimately, these winners, this year’s Interaction Awards represent a unique snapshot of the state of Interaction Design.  

The winners emerged from 68 short-listed projects including first-time appearances from student teams all the way through to enterprise-level projects with global adoption. With projects from Australia, India, China, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the global potential of Interaction Design is apparent.

The domains covered hint at areas of focus from the last two years — empowering users to manage data, make sustainable decisions, increase accessibility, and the role that AI may play across several sectors. 

2023 Interaction Awards Winners

Best in Category: Connecting

Jammies: Musical Instruments designed for People Living With Dementia

Imperial College London, United Kingdom (Concept / Student)

Jammies are a set of musical instruments designed to improve the quality of life for people living with mild to moderate Dementia by empowering them to reminisce, improvise and jam along to music that is of personal value to them without assuming any prior musical ability or knowledge. 

Best in Category: Disrupting

Connected AEDs and the Future of Emergency Response

NewDealDesign, United States (Production / Professional)

The Avive Connect AED™ sets a new standard for what should be expected of an AED— direct yet approachable experience during treatment, seamless transfer of valuable incident data to 911, EMS, and medical professionals at the right time, and automated remote monitoring to ensure your fleet of devices is ready to save a life.

Best in Category: Empowering

Engaging men for better family health outcomes

Dalberg, India (Production / Professional)

Engaging men in family planning and nutrition programming provides an opportunity to move towards better health and gender outcomes. To meet this goal, we designed two innovative programs in rural Bihar, India, using Human-centered Design (HCD) research, co-creation and prototype testing, grounded in behavioral science approaches.

Best in Category: Engaging

Little Signals

Google LLC, United States (Concept / Professional)

Little Signals, a series of interaction experiments, explores new behaviors for technology in our daily lives. The objects in the series signal for attention with different sensorial cues like a waft of air, a soft shadow, or an ambient sound. Additionally, their simple movements and controls bring them to life and make them responsive to changing surroundings and needs.

Best in Category: Expressing

Mood Board Search – Enabling AI-powered Creative Expression

Nord Projects, United Kingdom (Concept / Professional)

Advances in computer vision and natural language AI continue to unlock new ways to explore the billions of images across our devices, websites, and the public domain. However, it remains difficult to express subjective concepts, such as visual tones (‘vibrant’) or moods (‘eclectic’) to current systems, where visual interpretation is shaped by culture and community and is personal to the individual.

‍Best in Category: Optimizing

Annalise Enterprise

Annalise-AI Pty Ltd, Australia (Production / Professional)

Medical imaging (radiology) has long been a critical diagnostic tool, playing an ever-growing role in establishing which treatment approach best serves each patient. 

The ongoing growth in the sheer number of medical images challenges radiologists and healthcare providers to read more scans during each workday, all while maintaining the accuracy, quality, and completeness of their results. The result? Well-resourced medical systems face significant imaging backlogs. Under-resourced systems with low clinician-to-patient ratios may miss opportunities for early disease detection. 

‍Best Student‍

DOLL-SITTER

Hunan University, China (Concept / Student)

DOLL-SITTER is a toy set of pop-up smart books and application for sex education for children aged 5-8, using dolls that play the role of body organs and children played as their protectors. Through the interaction of dolls and smart pop-up books, children can learn about sex education, establish life scenes, and discuss with their parents the sex education issues in the “difficult to speak” life. 

‍Best Concept

Little Signals

Google LLC, United States (Concept / Professional)

Little Signals, a series of interaction experiments, explores new behaviors for technology in our daily lives. The objects in the series signal for attention with different sensorial cues like a waft of air, a soft shadow, or an ambient sound. Additionally, their simple movements and controls bring them to life and make them responsive to changing surroundings and needs.

‍People’s Choice

Carbon Insights: Empowering consumers to make more sustainable decisions

Rabobank, Netherlands (Production / Professional)

Carbon Insights helps people to learn about the CO2 impact of their purchases based on payment data and a personal profile. In addition, we give educational tips on how to lower your carbon footprint. By applying the lean startup method, we were able to accelerate innovation and be the first Dutch bank to make this available within the consumer banking app.

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Best in Show

Little Signals

Google LLC, United States  (Concept / Professional)

Little Signals, a series of interaction experiments, explores new behaviors for technology in our daily lives. The objects in the series signal for attention with different sensorial cues like a waft of air, a soft shadow, or an ambient sound. Additionally, their simple movements and controls bring them to life and make them responsive to changing surroundings and needs.

Our jury's comments in selecting Little Signals for this recognition:

'It’s exceptionally well executed and embodies the essence of interaction design.'

'Little Signals is also modular enough to be applied to a myriad of use scenarios.'

Congratulations to all of our 2023 honorees. We appreciate the work of our peer reviewers and international jury, who volunteered their time in reviewing submissions and selecting this year's winners.

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The 2024 Interaction Awards will open for submissions in July.

We planned to announce our Interaction Awards winners today, but our jury needs a little more time to make this year’s final selections.

The team is busy evaluating this year’s finalists and considering feedback from the community to confirm our decisions. The good news is that People’s Choice voting remains open through 18 May, so you have more time to participate in selecting this year’s honoree in the only category chosen by you – the community!  

Our new publication date is 19 May. Watch this space for news!

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Raise a glass to our Finalists!

After hard work by our Peer Reviewers and thorough discussion by our 2023 jury, we’re proud to announce the 24 projects representing 10 countries that make up our 2023 Interaction Awards Finalists.

Our jury selected these submissions from a pool of 68 projects from more than 20 countries for recognition.

Connecting

Facilitating communication between people and communities

• The Colour of Resilience
• Everwhite
• DOLL-SITTER
• Oasis
• Jammies: Musical Instruments designed for People Living With Dementia

Disrupting

Re-imagining existing systems via new behaviors, usages, or markets

• Connected AEDs and the future of Emergency Response
• Carbon Insights: Empowering consumers to make more sustainable decisions
• IBM Watson Orchestrate
• CBDCs for SDGs
• FiDO / enhancing trust between driver and AI system in semi-autonomous vehicles

Empowering

Helping people to do things they otherwise couldn’t do

• Engaging men for better family health outcomes
• Equimetrics V-PRO – Smarter Equine Monitoring
• TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch

Engaging

Capturing attention, creating delight, and delivering meaning

• Alta Quanto: Design for disaster preparedness
• HSBC Accessibility Hub
• Heal Tutu–A family interactive product that educates about emergency prevention
• Little Signals

Expressing

Enabling self-expression and/or creativity

• Making Material You
• Mood Board Search – Enabling AI-powered Creative Expression
• PIIQ

Optimizing

Making daily activities more efficient

• Whome: Finding new homes for pre-loved items
• GardenSpace with Eden
• The Sound of Safety – Philips 2021 alarm sounds
• Annalise Enterprise

Join us on 6 May

We’ll celebrate our winners on 6 May with an online announcement. Don’t forget to cast your vote for the People’s Choice Award too!

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Sami is a strategic designer, consultant, and creative leader working at the intersection of systems, foresight, and design. His talent lies in the combination of fast conceptual thinking and visualization turning ambiguous problems to clear solutions and systems while remaining grounded in clear business drivers.

Sami has been working on interaction design since 1997 and founded his first company already in 2001. Before founding Nordkapp in 2007 he worked at Nokia Design’s global Insight & Innovation team between Helsinki, London, and Los Angeles.

During his career, Sami has worked with clients such as Google, ING Group, Kone, Nokia, Microsoft,  Oura, Beddit (exited to Apple), Umbra (exited to Amazon), Swappie, and City of Helsinki.

Sami’s work has earned several patents and 40-ish awards in national and international competitions, along with several highly esteemed jury duties in Finland and abroad. He also has over a decade’s worth of teaching experience at the Aalto University School of Business and over 100 lectures and talks worldwide.

Currently, he serves as a director on IxDA’s global board of directors.

Linkedin | Twitter

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Dali is Head of UX for Google Trust and Safety, where she leads a global and cross-disciplinary team to craft end-to-end experiences that promote digital safety.

She brings deep expertise of user-centric design by conducting research across 10+ countries, creating impactful foundational design programs, and being an educator, in particular supporting the growth of UX in Latin America.

She has collaborated and partnered with companies such as TomTom, Boeing, Toyota, Ford, and Intel to design experiences for a wide range of products including airplanes, autonomous vehicles, VR, and phones.

Dali holds a doctoral degree in user-system interaction from the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and a master’s degree in human factors and systems from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, USA.

Linkedin | Twitter

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Agustian is a co-founder & partner at Sixty Two, an independent design and strategy studio based in South East Asia.

He holds a degree in Management & Organizational studies from Simon Fraser University and Human Resources Management from Kwantlen University.

With a deep curiosity for innovation & technology, Agustian ventured into design and multimedia development early in his career. He has worked with leading private companies, non-governmental organizations, and government institutions in Canada & South East Asia, such as The World Bank, World Resources Institute, Indonesia Ministry of the State Secretariat, Grab, the University of British Columbia & Best Buy Canada, to name a few.

Agustian now focuses on leading Sixty Two in crafting positive and impactful experiences in South East Asia and the betterment of its community through Project Lima. Together with his partners, he is committed to increasing credibility and recognition for the region.

Linkedin

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The Interaction Awards are all about celebrating excellence in design across the world. Our international jury is charged with selecting the finalists and winners in each of our six categories, but there is a single opportunity for you — as a member of our IxDA community — to select the People’s Choice Award. Voting is open through the 5 May!

This year there are 68 projects from 14 countries to choose from and they cover the gamut in scale — you’ll find student projects, independent concepts, agency work and enterprise solutions with global adoption. The project with the most votes wins and will be announced along with other winners at the Interaction Awards ceremony in New York on 6 May.

How to Vote

It’s simple and only takes a few minutes.

1. Review this year’s shortlist.
2. Find the project of your choice.
3. Vote! Click on the ‘Vote’ button at the top.
4. Share with friends, family, and colleagues! The more votes you get, the better your chances.

Voting Rules

1. All shortlisted projects are eligible for People’s Choice.
2. You may vote multiple times, but only once per day.
3. Voting officially ends at 11:59 pm (Pacific Standard Time) on 5 May.

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Make your voice heard and vote today!

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After an intense sprint by our Community Peer Review Panel, we’re proud to share the 2023 Interaction Awards shortlist!

Everyone who submitted projects contributed to this diverse body of work. With submissions from more than 20 countries, this year’s shortlist of 68 projects includes first-time appearances from student teams all the way through to enterprise-level projects with global adoption. Introduced in 2021, the indie/non-profit category represented almost 10% of the 2023 submissions.

The domains covered by this year’s list hint at areas of focus from the last two years — empowering users to manage data, make sustainable decisions, increase accessibility, and the role that AI may play across several sectors. The audiences these projects aim to help and empower range from the young to old, from the social to the introverted, and from the comfortable to those who need comfort.

CONNECTING:

Facilitating communication between people and communities

• Beppi, National College of Art and Design, Ireland, Student, Concept
• DOLL-SITTER, Hunan University, China,  Student,  Concept
• Talktrack: Interactive recordings in Miro, Miro, Germany,  In-house/Agency, Production
• Orlando International Airport: Terminal C, Gentilhomme, Canada, In-house/Agency, Production
• Halo – The Power to See Sound, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, Student, Concept
• Oasis,  KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, Student, Concept
• Everwhite, Hongik University, Korea, Student, Concept
• The Colour of Resilience, Made by Many, United Kingdom,  In-house/Agency, Production
• Campfire – Let’s build remote stories together, School of Visual Arts, United States, Student, Concept
• Ai.Sell, School of Visual Arts, United States, Student, Concept
• PlantC App, Yanming Chen, United States, In-house/Agency, Concept

DISRUPTING:

Capturing attention, creating delight, and delivering meaning

• CBDCs for SDGs, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway, Student, Concept
• Connected AEDs and the future of Emergency Response, NewDealDesign, United States, In-house/Agency, Production
• HP Flow 2.0, HP Inc., United States, Enterprise, Production
• IBM Watson Orchestrate, IBM, United States, Enterprise, Production
• Carbon Insights: Empowering consumers to make more sustainable decisions,  Rabobank, Netherlands, Enterprise, Production
• The digital as technique, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway, Student, Concept
• FiDO / enhancing trust between driver and AI system in semi-autonomous vehicles, Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden, Student, Concept
• Orbit — An Easier, Cheaper, & Greener Way of Parenting, Carnegie Mellon University, United States, Student, Concept
• Cisco Meraki and DesignMap Envision the Future of Network Management, Cisco Meraki & DesignMap, United States, In-house/Agency, Production
• Farewell Smartphone — Extend the service life of smartphones, HSLU Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland, Student, Concept
• How does the Roomba really feel about dog shit?!, Chris Butler, United States, Indie/Nonprofit, Concept
• The Me In Me, New York University, United States, Student, Concept

EMPOWERING:

Enabling people to go beyond their limits

• Equimetrics V-PRO – Smarter Equine Monitoring, Frontend.com, Ireland, In-house/Agency, Production
• GoHome, The One Academy Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Student, Concept
• Engaging men for better family health outcomes, Dalberg, India, In-house/Agency, Production
• SlowMo – a digitally supported therapy service for people with distressing psychosis, Special Projects, United Kingdom, In-house/Agency, Concept
• Jammies: Musical Instruments designed for People Living With Dementia, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, Student, Concept
• KARE MCM, Inition Inc., Korea, In-house/Agency, Production
• Kheti — Full Stack Credit Solution for Small Farmers, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India, Student, Concept
• TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch, THING Lab, ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, United States, Student, Concept
• PrivateHood – Protecting Users’ Online Privacy on Social Media, School of Visual Arts, United States, Student, Concept
• Koi- empowering kids with diabetes, Umeå University, Sweden, Student, Concept
• Starbucks Pro Design System, Tactile, United States, In-house/Agency, Production
• Teng Hok Gong AR, The One Academy, Malaysia, Student, Concept

ENGAGING:

Encouraging self-expression and/or creativity

• Smart Baseball Stadium UX/UI, INITION Inc., Korea, In-house/Agency, Production
• Artium — Immersive, Extended Reality in Art Museums, Carnegie Mellon University, United States, Student, Concept
• Heal Tutu—A family interactive product that educates about emergency prevention, Hunan University, China, Student, Concept
• Little Signals, Google LLC, United States, Enterprise, Concept
• Sculpture of the Other Side, George Brown College, Canada, Student, Concept
• Alta Quanto: Design for disaster preparedness, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, Student, Concept
• Decreasing data demand – materialising online behavior for a sustainable digital future, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands, Student, Concept
• Giving a Voice to Puppeted Walk-Around Characters, Beaudry Interactive, LLC, United States, In-house/Agency, Production
• HSBC Accessibility Hub, HSBC, United Kingdom, Enterprise, Production
• NVISION: A Carnegie Museum of Natural History Experience, Carnegie Mellon University, United States, Student, Concept
• XUESHI, Hunan University, China, Student, Concept
• Halo – The Power to See Sound, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States,  Student, Concept

EXPRESSING:

Re-imagining completely an existing product or service by creating new behaviors, usages, or markets

• Mood Board Search – Enabling AI-powered Creative Expression, Nord Projects, United Kingdom, In-house/Agency, Production
• PIIQ, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, India, Student, Concept
• Ling: Providing equity learning sources and emotional support for Chinese international students, United States, Indie / Nonprofit, Concept
• Future Supa: Interactive Speculative Design, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, Student, Production
• Data Epics Studio Tilt, Design Research Studio at University of Washington, United States, Indie / Nonprofit, Concept
• Braided Lamp, Parsons School of Design, United States, Student, Concept
• Card79 / Kintsugi Upgrades, Card79, United States, In-house/Agency, Concept
• Making Material You, Google, United States, Enterprise, Production
• Speculation about future of the healthcare for parenthood, Halmstad University, Sweden, Student, Concept

OPTIMIZING:

Making daily activities more efficient

• Ollie | Smart Voice Assistant for Pittsburgh Regional Transit, Carnegie Mellon University, United States Student, Concept
• IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps, IBM, United States, Enterprise, Production
• Augment AI Assistant, Augment AI Corp., United States, Enterprise Production
• GardenSpace with Eden, University of Cincinnati, United States, Student, Concept
• Google Assistant on the Pixel Watch, Google, United States, Enterprise, Production
• Kitchen Display System (KDS), Compass Digital, Canada, In-house/Agency Production
• Annalise Enterprise, Annalise-AI Pty Ltd, Australia, In-house/Agency Production
• The Sound of Safety – Philips 2021 alarm sounds, Philips, Netherlands, In-house/Agency Production
• Farewell Smartphone – Extend the service life of smartphones, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland, Student, Concept
• ADT +, ADT, United States, Enterprise,  Production
• Whome: Finding new homes for pre-loved items, Indiana University Bloomington, United States, Student, Concept
• FiDO / enhancing trust between driver and AI system in semi-autonomous vehicles, Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden, Student, Concept

The 2023 finalists will be announced at Interaction 23 in Zürich, Switzerland.  People’s Choice voting opens on Monday, 13 February.

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Carien is Digital Product Design Lead at Neurozone ®, an organization on a mission to see human beings build their collective resilience and reach their greatest potential. She works with experienced neuroscientists who have developed a dynamic, analytical model of resilience based on real-world data, neurology, and the latest in neuroscientific research. It allows them to assess individuals and teams and reveal which aspects of their lives they might pay attention to, to see the greatest impact on their resilience. Carien strives to make this user journey as engaging as possible.

Having spent many years as a UX Designer, Researcher, and CX Consultant in several industries and contexts, including antenna design (Carien’s roots are in Electronic and Microwave Engineering), marketing, banking and investment, e-commerce, healthcare, back-office enterprise software, and mining, she has had the opportunity to work with talented product professionals and to experiment with a number of different product design methods – from JTBD to Design Thinking, to Human-Centred Design. She feels privileged to have spent many, many hours observing diverse people interacting with a variety of digital products.

Recently, she has become concerned about the harm – present and potential future, intended and unintended – being done by technology. She wants to see kindness prioritized in product design: not only towards end-users and their communities but also within the product design community. She is a mother of two small children and sees the potential of digital to shape a kinder, stronger, more resourceful generation.

Twitter | Linkedin

The 2023 Interaction Awards jury is composed of six international representatives led by our jury Chair, Cynthia Savard Saucier. Watch this space as we introduce them individually over the next two weeks.

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The newest member of our 2023 Awards jury is Buzz Usborne from Australia.

Buzz is a product designer and design coach, currently Principal Designer at Buildkite, a remote-first software company. Previously he’s led teams at Help Scout, Atlassian, Campaign Monitor, Skype, and a handful of design agencies, including his own startup.

Originally from the UK, Buzz was a competitive sailor before turning to design — and today lives by the coast in rural New South Wales with his lovely wife and two young boys.

Linkedin | Twitter

The 2023 Interaction Awards jury is composed of six international representatives led by our jury Chair, Cynthia Savard Saucier. Watch this space as we introduce them individually over the next weeks.