The Blog

Raise a glass to the shortlist!

After several weeks of hard work by Peer Reviewers, the Awards team, and finally input from our esteemed 2021 Jury, we’re thrilled to share the 43 projects representing 21 countries that have been selected for inclusion into the 2021 Interaction Awards Shortlist!

Everyone who submitted projects contributed to the incredibly diverse body of work featured in our shortlist. Even if you didn’t make it this year, we deeply value the work you put into your submissions. We’re truly inspired by the overall quality and level of excellence seen throughout all submissions. Whether shortlisted or not, all entrants are warmly encouraged to make their great work the focus of talks, case studies or presentations at IxDA local groups and in classrooms around the world. Congratulations to all for being part of Interaction Design history!

Deep gratitude to our community volunteers. 
One of the many things that makes the Interaction Awards so special is the involvement of the community volunteers who help prepare a shortlist for the jury via intense peer review. Our gratitude also goes to the IxDA members who contributed their valuable time and stewardship to the peer review process.

Vote for your pick for the People’s Choice award! 
Enjoy a tour of the shortlisted projects below and vote for your favorite. Everyone who looks at the entries will walk away with a broader understanding of what interaction design is and how designers can improve peoples’ lives.

All shortlisted projects are eligible for the People’s Choice Award, and online voting is open now. People’s Choice voting will close on 4 February 2021, 23:59 EST. To vote, click on an entry below, and then click the big blue button at the top. You’ll be taken to a unique for that entry with a vote button at the top.

The entire community is invited to vote! The winner of the coveted People’s Choice Award will be recognized during the Interaction Awards ceremony that will be live-streamed for FREE to the world at 7 pm ET on the 5th of February 2020.

Connecting

Facilitating communication between people and communities

• Abridge: Helping People Stay on Top of Their Health
• Atlantis – A Sea Turtle Simulator
• Bukas: Material Messages for Filipino Migrant Workers and their Transnational Families
• Good Loop – Slowing down the spread of synthetic dis-/misinformation
• Microsoft Bing COVID Tracker
• PAVERS – AR reporting service for broken facilities to make safe sidewalks
• Planet Word, the world’s first interactive museum of language
• Sniffing out the Differences

Disrupting

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

• Animo – Rehabilitation Game for Young Stroke Patients
• Artemis 389 – Patient Transfer Equipment
• Basheer | Teaching computational thinking to novice-technology users
• Blue: Smart Assistant
• Bridge: A New Way to Participate in the Political Conversation
• The smart learning lamp
• Urinal Design to Cater Muslim Men Better do Istinja Ritual

Empowering

Empowering – Helping people to do things they otherwise couldn’t do

• Animo – Rehabilitation Game for Young Stroke Patients
• Basheer | Teaching computational thinking to novice-technology users
• Beep Beep! Intravenous infusion leak detector
• Blue: Smart Assistant
• Immersive Reader and Learning Tools in Microsoft Edge
• Kico – Hearing agency for hard-of-hearing people
• Lotus – Next generation NICU
• Pik Tek : Rhythmic instrument inspired by biomimicry and adapted to people with disabilities
• The smart learning lamp
• Traits – Sketching in video
• Woodland

Engaging

Engaging – Capturing attention, creating delight and delivering meaning

• Animo – Rehabilitation Game for Young Stroke Patients
• Atlantis – A Sea Turtle Simulator
• Blue: Smart Assistant
• Camino del Perezoso (Sloth Path)
• EF Study Buddy Smart Speaker
• Escape from Godot: Absurd, existentialist theater mashed up with escape room mechanics
• Public Math Postcards
• Rinnekoti: Empowering care with emotion
• Sniffing out the Differences
• The End of the Day
• The Pearl Divers. A musical pavement that brings to life an old emirati tradition
• This Great Plague, a DIY Immersive Experience
• Welcome Home – an at-home immersive story box

Expressing

Expressing –  Enabling self expression and/or creativity

• Basheer | Teaching computational thinking to novice-technology users
• Journio – Enabling students to express their emotions during this time of pandemic
• Paper Phone
• Pik Tek : Rhythmic instrument inspired by biomimicry and adapted to people with disabilities
• Planet Word, the world’s first interactive museum of language
• Samsung Galaxy A – #danceAwesome
• Soft Speakers: Interaction Design with Digitally-Embroidered Fabric Actuators
• The Pearl Divers. A musical pavement that brings to life an old emirati tradition
• Traits – Sketching in video
• Woodland

Optimizing

Optimizing – Making daily activities more efficient

• Abridge: Helping People Stay on Top of Their Health
• Agent Workspace – Redesigning the conversation interface for customer support agents
• Agents of Action: Rebuilding the Future
• ASR (Automatic simple respirator)
• Escaping the Strange Loop
• florio HAEMO the app and dashboard – developed to support people with haemophilia and their treating physicians
• Ibrida, the neighborhood bread beer
• LMS Descomplica – University Entrance Exams Platform
• M2 ICU Mobile Medical Intensive Care Unit
• The Pearl Divers. A musical pavement that brings to life an old emirati tradition
• Urinal Design to Cater Muslim Men Better do Istinja Ritual