The Blog

Deep love and gratitude

As we said in our first blog post, co-chairing the Awards is, and has been, a labor of love for both of us for the last year. We wrap up the year now, humbled, optimistic, enthusiastic, and extremely grateful.

We are so grateful for…

… our dedicated 25 Awards team volunteers, 60 Peer Reviewers, ceremony hosts and presenters, and everyone who gave time and effort to make the 2021 Awards program a stupendous success.

… our Jury Chair May-Li Khoe and the amazing Jury she curated Catt Small, Andrés Burbano, Dara Oke, Una Lee, Ari Melenciano, and Andrea Mignoloand. This group took on the very tough job of judging and selecting the finalists and winners.

… our exclusive sponsor, Amazon Design whose generosity supported the entire Awards year including the first ever globally live-streamed Awards ceremony.

… Brenda Sanderson, our IxDA Executive Director, who we have now named “Encylopedia Brendica”. Without her guidance, knowledge, and assistance, we would have been lost.

… and every one of you who submitted work for consideration. Your work is what pushes our craft to evolve, and we can’t do any of this without you

A new high for the Awards

This incredible community made the 2021 Interaction Award cycle a year of firsts and high benchmarks. We launched a new podcast, Distinguished Design, to provide space for deeper conversations with the winners about their process, the work, and the impact the work is having on the people for whom it’s designed. We updated the submission fee structure to be more inclusive and equitable for indie design studios and non-profits. We offered submission content in multiple languages and accepted submissions in ANY language. We removed video requirements as well so that more teams could enter their work.

Thanks to the team’s intensified efforts towards better diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging, this year marks the highest number of submissions ever for the Awards: 351 submissions from 39 different countries – some of which participated in the Awards for the very first time – with 13 countries represented in the final winners circle!

Diversity Survey

And we want to go further. We understand that diversity isn’t just about skin color or nationality. We want to ensure that the best work in the world is recognized no matter where it comes from or who created it. With that in mind, we want to better understand our current state of diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging. That’s why we’ve sent out a survey to all 351 of the 2021 Awards entrants, and plan to publish the results. The goal is to give the IxDA board and the 2022 co-chairs data on what diversity is already present amongst submitters, to address the question of what diversity means for our community, and shed light on areas to improve.

The 2022 Awards cycle is about to begin

The new Awards Co-Chairs have been selected! We can’t wait for you to hear from this powerhouse duo and for them to share their vision with you. We are confident that they will make the next year’s Awards program even better!

Check back here soon to discover who the 2022 Awards co-chairs will be!