There are 24 categories in this year’s Design for Experience awards program, and submissions are welcome from any company, team, group, or individual that’s doing exceptional work in experience-related fields. If you’re not sure which category is the best fit for you, just let us know and a DfE representative will follow up with you to discuss the possibilities.
As you’re preparing your application, remember that in accordance with the philosophy of the awards program, one of the most important criteria for judging will be how well your example can teach other practitioners and help them become better at their work.
Dates and Fees
The application window is currently open, and the deadline for submissions is December 15. We will be evaluating applications continuously during the application window and beyond to determine a list of semi-finalists. If our judges have any questions or your application is selected as a semi-finalist, we will contact you to ask follow-up questions anytime until December 21. A list of finalist applications will be determined and further evaluated until January 17, and winners will be announced on January 22.
The fee for a single application is $175, which will be charged when the application is submitted. Student discounts and other special considerations are available; contact us for more information and assistance.
Submitting an Application
The application process is done online through a form on this site. You'll need to complete a one-time account registration to access the form, and that will allow you to save partially completed applications and/or submit multiple applications under the same account.
While it is possible to create your application entirely in the form, we recommend that you prepare your answers separately in a document you can easily edit and save, and then paste your answers into the form when you’re ready. To help facilitate the process of applying for a Design for Experience award, we’ve created Word document downloads for each category that contain the category description and all of the application questions. The documents are editable so you can use them to prepare your application question responses before pasting them into the actual application form. Visit our Downloads area to find these useful documents.
Multiple Applications
We welcome you to submit as many applications as you’d like. Each application is for one project, product, service, company, organization, etc. in one category. You can submit the same thing for multiple categories and/or submit multiple things for the same category, but each will be a separate application.
Responding to Questions
You are free to decide how long to make your responses to the questions on the application—there are no word limits or minimums—and all of the questions are optional. The application questions are designed to be simple and open-ended, allowing you to respond however you see fit.
As well, we invite you to provide whatever information and materials you already have readily available instead of creating new content for the application. You are of course welcome to specially tailor your responses to this award application, but write-ups and materials prepared for other purposes are perfectly acceptable if they can help us understand the important aspects of your product, project, service, solution, team, etc.
Think of this application as a means of introducing us to your product, service, company, team, etc., and as the beginning of a conversation. If your application passes initial screening and will be considered as part of the semi-final round of judging, the DfE representative assigned to you will work with you to add greater detail to your application to improve its chances of reaching the final round.
Supporting Files and Media
You are not required to submit videos, presentations, images, or other media to accompany your application. Nevertheless, it will often be helpful for you to provide screenshots, images, deliverables, case studies, documents, and other such supporting materials to support your application. The award application form includes a place where you can provide web addresses for any files that you’d like to have accompany your application.
Because of file size and storage capacity limitations, we are unable to accept uploads directly from the application form. Instead, we ask that you upload materials to your company’s web server or to a file sharing service such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or other similar services. If you need to assign access privileges to a specific email address, please use awardapps@designforexperience.com. You can list up to 25 links on the award application, and you can also package multiple files into a ZIP file.
Application Contents
The application consists of a simple, one-page, web-based form that's divided into three brief sections:
- Applicant Information: the name of the entity or individual submitting the application, and contact info for the person responsible for the application.
- Application Information: two questions to help us understand how to handle your application. This is where you’ll indicate which category you’re applying for, but if you're uncertain which category is the best fit for you, just choose the "Unsure / Help Me Decide" option. You'll still be able to complete the application, and a DfE representative will follow up with you to discuss the possibilities.
- Questions: three general questions about the company, product, service, organization, team, etc., that’s the subject of the application.
After completing this page, you’ll proceed to the payment page, and then the application will be submitted.
List of Categories and Their Questions
Below is a list of each of the 24 categories. Click on a category name to view a description of the category and its application questions. We ask roughly the same three questions for each category, although the wording of the questions is tailored to the category. As a reminder, you are free to decide how long to make your responses to the questions—there are no word limits or minimums—and all of the questions are optional. The application questions are designed to be simple and open-ended, allowing you to respond however you see fit.
Academic Program
Too few academic programs exist that provide a direct onramp into experience-oriented professions. This award recognizes academic programs in both traditional and non-traditional settings that do the best job of preparing students with the right information, skills, soft skills, and experience to contribute valuably to experience-driven projects.
1. Please tell us about your academic program generally and help us understand what makes it noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your academic program (your website, articles featuring your program, public praise and accolades, etc.)?
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Accessibility
Digital technologies have evolved to a point where making technological experiences increasingly accessible to people with physical and sensory impairments and those with needs for special modes of interaction is a real and exciting possibility. However, accessibility remains under-adopted as a hard-and-fast requirement for products and services, and rampant fragmentation threatens progress toward universality of accessible experiences. This award recognizes companies, teams, individuals, products, and services that are shining examples of how accessibility can be embraced to create experiential value for users and customers as well as economic value for the creators of the experience.
1. Please tell us about how you focused on accessibility and/or how you improved the successfulness of a product, service, experience, etc., through attention to accessibility.
2. Where should we look for more information about your approach to accessibility and/or your product, service, experience, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Adoption of Experience Strategy
Companies that provide exceptional experiences in their products and services understand that user and customer experience are high-level strategic values, not just low-level tactical practices. This award recognizes companies that have thoroughly and effectively embraced experience-orientation as a strategy, and where success in so doing is evident in executive leadership, design and engineering teams, and the rest of the staff who have the ability to influence user and customer experiences.
1. Please tell us about your company’s adoption of experience strategy generally and help us understand what makes your story noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your adoption of experience strategy and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Bottom Line Impact
User-centricity and attention to the quality of user experiences are usually not ends in and of themselves, but are rather the means to another end: driving business success. Put differently, it’s the business goals and economic interests of businesses that fuel user-oriented strategies and fund the creation of experience-driven technologies. This award recognizes new or redesigned products, services, and other experiences that made a major difference on the business’ bottom line through the application of experience strategy and/or creation of high-quality experiences.
1. Please tell us about how your product, service, focus on user experience, etc. influenced the financial prosperity of the business, and help us understand what makes your story noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about how your work affected the company’s bottom line and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Bridging Digital and Physical Experiences
As microchips have become cheaper and smaller, and as technological convergence has continued to progress, more and more experiences with physical objects and environments have integral digital components. As well, it’s become increasingly possible to design digital systems that can be interacted with by way of physical devices far different from the traditional mouse, keyboard, or touchscreen. This award recognizes compelling examples of bridging the digital and physical realms to create valuable new experiences.
1. Please tell us about how you bridged digital and physical and/or how you improved the successfulness of a product, service, experience, etc., through bridging digital and physical elements.
2. Where should we look for more information about your approach to bridging digital and physical and/or your product, service, experience, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Bringing Order to Big Data
The rate at which data is created and collected never ceases to increase, and the awesome volume of data that currently exists is a theoretical treasure trove for understanding the past and present and for predicting the future. To unlock the value of “big data,” new ways of connecting, interpreting and visualizing massive data sets must be designed. This award recognizes compelling examples of how the design of digital visualizations, interfaces, interaction models, and other user experience solutions have advanced understanding of complex questions.
1. Please tell us what you did to bring order to big data and what effects your solution had, and help us understand what makes this solution noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about how you brought order to big data and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Complete Customer Experience
Seen from the inside, companies can be messy, complex, and dependent on fragmented technological systems. But when seen from the outside, companies with successful customer experience (CX) strategies appear cohesive, comprehensible, and unified, and customers can interact with the company through a well-coordinated ecosystem of products and touchpoints. This award recognizes companies that offer a consistent, cohesive customer experience that maintains a sense of brand, delivers value and rewarding experiences, and is tightly interconnected and easy to navigate.
1. Please tell us about your company’s customer experience, and help us understand what makes your story noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your company's customer experience and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Consumer Product
Increasingly, consumer products are being designed with user needs and usability in mind. This is indicative of the growing awareness and interest in the practices of user-centered design. This award recognizes consumer products that create or enable excellent experiences for their users, and whose design was strongly influenced by user-centered research and design practices.
1. Please tell us about your consumer product, and help us understand what makes your product noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your company's customer experience and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Cross Platform Experience
Users are increasingly interacting with products and services through growing diversity of platforms: installed software, mobile applications, web applications, smart TVs, etc. Each platform has unique strengths, weaknesses, constraints, uses, and modes of interaction. This award recognizes product and service experiences that span multiple platforms, make the best use of the strengths of each, create an overall experience that’s greater than the sum of its parts, let users move easily and naturally between platforms, and potentially offer capabilities that couldn’t have been achieved without the interconnection of platforms.
1. Please tell us about your cross-platform and/or how you improved the successfulness of a product, service, experience, etc., through unifying an experience across platforms.
2. Where should we look for more information about your cross-platform experience? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Effective Agency Team
Great experiences originate the minds and combined efforts of effective experience-oriented teams. When a company invests in the design and creation of an experience-driven product or service, the effectiveness of the team is the most influential variable in the reduction of risk and improvement of upside potential. This award recognizes agencies, or specific teams within larger agencies, that consistently design or create effective or exemplary digital experiences on behalf of their clients.
1. Please tell us about your team generally and what makes it successful, and help us understand what makes this team noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about this team and, where applicable, any artifacts or products of its success? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Effective In-House Team
Great experiences originate the minds and combined efforts of effective experience-oriented teams. When a company invests in the design and creation of an experience-driven product or service, the effectiveness of the team is the most influential variable in the reduction of risk and improvement of upside potential. This award recognizes experience-oriented product teams, UX business units, project groups, or any other kind of in-house team that consistently designs or creates effective or exemplary digital experiences for their company.
1. Please tell us about your team generally and what makes it successful, and help us understand what makes this team noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about this team and, where applicable, any artifacts or products of its success? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Experience for Children
Children can be sophisticated users of technology, and with newer methods of interaction such as touch and gestures, digital systems are accessible to an even younger set of potential users. Every age bracket of children has different specific needs for content, navigation, interactions, and other aspects of product experiences. This award recognizes digital products for children that deliver excellent value, engagement, and ease of use for their users.
1. Please tell us about your experience for children, and help us understand what makes it noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your experience for children and, if possible, how can we obtain or access a demonstration? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, coupon code, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Experience that Makes a Difference
Technology has incredible potential to make a positive impact in people’s lives, whether on an individual level or in addressing societal or global concerns such as hunger, security, peace, the environment, and so on. This award recognizes digital products, systems, and other experience design initiatives that have contributed meaningful improvements to people’s lives, to society, and/or to the world and where the quality of the product or system’s user experience is essential to its success.
1. Please tell us about the difference-making experience generally and how it’s caused positive outcomes, and help us understand what makes this example noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about this experience and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Foresight of User Needs
This quote from Henry Ford is very familiar to user-centered practitioners: “If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse.’” Sometimes the next step forward in technology requires looking beyond what people say they want to find an entirely new way to give them what they really need. This award recognizes digital products and experiences that were prescient anticipations of true user needs, and that led instead of followed their users to new ways of thinking about and addressing a problem or opportunity.
1. Please tell us about the how you foresaw user needs and put that into effect in a product, service, experience, etc., and help us understand what makes your story noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your foresight of user needs and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Innovative Technique or Tool
More than any other aspect of user-centered practice, there’s striking consistency in the user research and design techniques employed by practitioners and companies. Still, there are opportunities for existing techniques to be improved upon, or for altogether new ones to be devised. Similarly, there's a certain amount of uniformity to the design tools available to experience designers, such as those used to create wireframes and prototypes. Here, too, there is room for improvement and innovation. This award recognizes new or improved research techniques, design techniques, and design tools that have the strongest potential to affect the quality and success of the design of experiences.
1. Please tell us about your innovative technique or tool generally and how it leads to positive outcomes, and help us understand what makes this innovation noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about this innovative technique or tool and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Interaction Design Innovation
With the growing diversity of devices, platforms, interface hardware, and product requirements, there’s a near-infinite range of interaction design challenges to design solutions for. Very often, the need for familiarity and intuitiveness trumps whatever desire interaction designers might have to create unique or innovative interactions. Sometimes, however, unique combinations of requirements, constraints, user needs, and other factors demand that wholly new interactions be devised or familiar ones be substantially redesigned. This award recognizes specific, designed interactions that thoughtfully and necessarily innovate or depart from convention to contribute significantly to the quality, ease of use, engagement, and/or effectiveness of the overall product or solution.
1. Please tell us about your interaction design innovation and how it’s improved the successfulness of a product, service, experience, etc.
2. Where should we look for more information about this interaction design innovation and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Interactive Component of an Advertising Campaign
The line between the realm of advertising and those of software and Internet has gotten very blurry, and nearly every major advertising campaign has significant online and/or interactive components. However, many of these interactive components reflect the needs of the business and its hopes for how customers might behave much more than they do actual customer needs and desires. This award recognizes interactive components to advertising campaigns that deliver real value, engagement, and/or utility to customers while creatively complementing the other facets of the campaign.
1. Please tell us about the interactive component generally and how it has affected the broader campaign, and help us understand what makes this example noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about this interactive component and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Mobile Solution or Application
The ubiquity of mobile devices and mobile-platform computing in developed and developing countries has led to an astonishing diversity and number of mobile applications and solutions. The quality and usefulness of these is very inconsistent, though, and many applications and solutions are created without sufficient regard to the needs of users and the opportunities inherent to the mobile platforms. This award recognizes mobile applications and solutions that work with the unique device capabilities, contexts of use, and modes of use of mobile devices to expose new and valuable capabilities to users by way of exceptionally well-designed experiences.
1. Please tell us about your mobile solution or application, and help us understand what makes it noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your mobile solution or application and, if possible, how can we obtain or access a demonstration? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, coupon code, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Promoting Empathy for Users
While designing a product, service, or other experience, project team members have to make decisions with the best interests of users in mind. Very few of these decisions can be made in consultation with actual users, so it falls to the team to attempt to see the world from the users’ point of view and make informed decisions on their behalf. This award recognizes companies, project/product groups, and other groups that most successfully promote a well-informed empathy for users among team members that leads to greater success in their work.
1. Please tell us about how you promoted empathy for users and/or how you improved the successfulness of a product, service, experience, etc., through attention to user empathy.
2. Where should we look for more information about your promotion of empathy for users and any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Public Sector Experience
Political, budgetary, security, and compliance realities typically cause the quality and usefulness of technology systems built for public sector entities to lag far behind that of the private sector. Nevertheless, there are extraordinary opportunities to use user-centered practices to effect positive changes in governments and societies. This award recognizes digital solutions, applications, services, and other experiences created by or for public-sector entities that have made noteworthy use of user-centered practices to create solutions that significantly advance the work of those entities and deliver real value to citizens.
1. Please tell us about your public sector experience, and help us understand what makes it noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your public sector experience and, if possible, how can we obtain or access a demonstration? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, coupon code, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Strategy to Execution
Most new digital products and experiences are created by businesses in pursuit of commercial interests. While meeting user needs may be a key goal in the development of these experiences, the realization of business goals remains the principal driver. But the means by which technology can be used to achieve a specific business goal isn’t always obvious, or the obvious solution might not be the best one. This award recognizes digital solutions, applications, services, and other experiences that represent the most creative and effective translation of a business strategy or goal into a technology solution.
1. Please tell us about how you drove from strategy to execution and what positive outcomes resulted, and help us understand what makes your story noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about how you drove from strategy to execution and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Union of Design and Engineering
Whereas traditionally the efforts of designers and engineers were housed in separate organizational silos and interacted at a distance by throwing designs and deliverables “over the wall,” now the two practice areas are frequently more intensively collaborative and integrated. Closer collaboration between design and engineering generally results in more practicable designs, better designed implementations, lessened risk, and improved success in projects. This award recognizes companies, teams, project/product groups, and other assemblages of designers and engineers that are shining examples of cross-disciplinary collaboration in the achievement of success in creating digital solutions.
1. Please tell us about how you’ve united design and engineering and what positive outcomes have resulted, and help us understand what makes your example noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your union of design and engineering and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Work Environment for Digital Practitioners – Agency
The job marketplace for experience-oriented practitioners is extremely competitive, and employee tenure in the field is remarkably short on average. Talented job-seekers have lots of options, giving them the ability to choose the work environment where they feel they’ll be happiest and most successful. To attract, retain, and motivate the talent necessary to build exceptional digital experiences, companies must focus and innovate on the environment they offer digital practitioners. This isn’t as simple as providing free snack or fancy offices; experience-oriented practitioners are generally happiest where they feel they’re best supported in being effective and are surrounded by people and opportunities that inspire them. This award recognizes agencies that have created outstanding work environments for experience-oriented practitioners that enable them to be productive and happy, and ensures low turnover and strong retention.
1. Please tell us about your work environment for digital practitioners and how it’s contributed to positive outcomes, and help us understand what makes your example noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your work environment for digital practitioners and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Work Environment for Digital Practitioners – In-House
The job marketplace for experience-oriented practitioners is extremely competitive, and employee tenure in the field is remarkably short on average. Talented job-seekers have lots of options, giving them the ability to choose the work environment where they feel they’ll be happiest and most successful. To attract, retain, and motivate the talent necessary to build exceptional digital experiences, companies must focus and innovate on the environment they offer digital practitioners. This isn’t as simple as providing free snack or fancy offices; experience-oriented practitioners are generally happiest where they feel they’re best supported in being effective and are surrounded by people and opportunities that inspire them. This award recognizes in-house groups that have created outstanding work environments for experience-oriented practitioners that enable them to be productive and happy, and ensures low turnover and strong retention.
1. Please tell us about your work environment for digital practitioners and how it’s contributed to positive outcomes, and help us understand what makes your example noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your work environment for digital practitioners and, where applicable, any related products, services, experiences, etc.? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Unsure of which category is best for you? We’ll help you choose.
Even if you're not sure which category to choose, you’ll still be able to complete an application. Just answer the general questions listed below, and a DfE representative will follow up with you to discuss the possibilities. Once you've settled on a choice, your DfE representative will work with you to add more category-specific detail to your application.
1. Please tell us about your company/product/service/organization/team/practice/etc. generally and help us understand what makes it noteworthy or exceptional.
2. Where should we look for more information about your company/product/service/organization/team/practice/etc. and, where applicable, how can we obtain or access a demonstration of it? If a username/password, special instructions, a serial number, a coupon code, or anything else is required for us to be able to access something, please also provide that here.
3. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?
Links to Supplemental Files and Materials
If you have any files or materials that you think would help us better understand and evaluate your application, there’s a spot at the bottom of the form where you can list up to 25 links. You can also bundle multiple files together in a ZIP file and submit them as one link. If any of the links you list require passwords or other access instructions, there’s a field where you can provide that information.
Because of file size and storage capacity limitations, we are unable to accept uploads from the application form. Instead, please upload materials to your company’s web server or to a file sharing service such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or other such services. If you need to assign access privileges to a specific email address, please use awardapps@designforexperience.com.
