Design Challenge

Design Challenge 2022: User-Soaked Design

The Design Challenge is now open to entries.

Submissions will be due on or before September 20, 2022.

The 2022 Design Challenge (DC) has been refocused to support the World Usability Initiative (WUI) goal to secure recognition of the value of user focus in design work. As a first objective, WUI seeks UN recognition through including World Usability Day (WUD) in its calendar. Beyond this, WUI aims to inform policy at the highest international levels. The WUI DC supports this aim through its potential to bring examples of best practice to the attention of international policy makers and to develop a strong public understanding of the benefits of user focused design practices.

We are now inviting submissions to the WUI 2022 Design Challenge. A focus on users in design is primarily supported through research into target usage contexts and evaluation of designs in use. For 2022, we seek submissions to the WUI DC that showcase excellent user-focused design for a general audience. Submitted Design Challenge entries will present evidence of user research and evaluation that have had a clear valuable impact on interaction, product and/or service design recommendations and decisions. Such evidence should let the general public (including UN decision makers) ‘get it’ by demonstrating connections between research, evaluation, and worthwhile design outcomes.

Winners will be announced on World Usability Day, November 10, 2022. The WUI DC is in collaboration with the HCI International (HCII) conference, which sponsors three awards (Gold $1250, Silver $1000, and Bronze $750). The Gold, Silver, and Bronze recipients of the WUI DC Awards winners will be cordially invited, with complimentary registration, to present their innovative, impactful design work in a special session during the 2023 HCI International Conference. Award Winners and Honourable Mentions will be recorded here, along with previous winners and mentions from 2020 and 2021 (see below).

For 2022, entries will be tightly argued and well evidenced reports that provide details of user research and evaluations with compelling evidence of how this demonstrably improved both product and process value. Entries can address the WUD 2022 theme, Our Health (https://worldusabilityday.org/2022-theme-our-health/) but this is not a requirement. Winning entries will clearly demonstrate how a combination of contextual user research and evaluation of quality in use have significantly contributed to the (improved) success a digital product or service. The goal is to promote the value of user focus and how this complements other design activities such as aesthetics, product strategy, software quality or performance engineering.

The judges for 2022 are:

Gilbert Cockton (Jury Chair, UK): Emeritus Professor of Design (Northumbria University) and Computer Science (University of Sunderland).

Bill Albert (USA): Global Head of UX at Mach49.

Ahmad AlHuwwari (Jordan): UX/UI Manager at Orange.

Romi Dey (India): Lead Product Designer with Lowe’s.

Hussein Gaber (Egypt): Head of product design and UX Consultant at Tremoloo.

Sharon McDonald (UK): Professor of HCI and a Chartered Psychologist at the University of Sunderland.

Stavroula Ntoa (Greece): postdoctoral researcher at the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory of the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (ICS-FORTH), in Crete.

Eunice Sari (Indonesia/Australia): CEO and Co-Founder of UX Indonesia, the first insight-driven UX Research, Training, and Consulting Company based in Indonesia since 2002, and co-founder of Customer Experience Insight Pty Ltd (Australia).

Brian K Smith (USA): Associate Dean of Research in the School of Education and Human Development at Boston College, formerly Dean at Rhode Island School of Design and Drexel University (Computer Science).

The judging criteria will be applied to the information provided in each entry. They are:

Quality of contextual/user research
Quality of UX/outcomes evaluation
Explicitness of connections between user-focused work and design decisions
Quality of evidence for connections between user-focused work, design decisions, and outcomes.

Criteria will be evidenced by a submitted report of up to 10,000 words (excluding tables and figures) with links to video or other internet content as appropriate. We expect to see the following when assessing submissions:

Quality of Contextual/User Research

What research was carried out and when in relation to the overall development process? Why was it carried out? What methodology was followed? How was this appropriate given available resources and project goals? What were the key discoveries and insights?

Quality of Evaluation of UX and Usage Outcomes

What evaluation was carried out and when in relation to the overall development process? Why was it carried out? What methodology was followed? How was this appropriate given available resources and project goals? What were the key discoveries and insights?

A process diagram for the project can be used to indicate when research and evaluation were carried out.

Explicit connections between user-focused work and design decisions

What were the implications of research discoveries and insights and evaluation results for the envisaged/current design? How did (re)design decisions relate to these discoveries, insights, and results? What were these decisions?

Appropriate design representations (e.g., wireframes, workflows, conceptual models) can provide necessary detail on (re)design decisions.

Quality of evidence for connections between user-focused work, design decisions, and outcomes.

We do not expect all connections to be explicit, insights or results. For implicit connections, various forms of creative leap are expected and legitimate, but they must be argued to depend on discoveries, insights, and results. For explicit connections, we expect to see clear rationales for how discoveries, insights, and evaluation results directed (re)design decisions.

Winning entries will not be merely user-focused or user-centered but user-soaked, because they are saturated with transformative understandings of who is using a digital artefact, how and why they are using it, and how they benefit.

Submission Deadline: September 20, 2022

Results Announced: November 10, 2022 World Usability Day

Design Challenge 2021 winners are listed below.

Gold
$1,250

Silver
$1,000

Bronze
$750

Submit

Enter Competition

Once you’ve completed your project.

World with 2020 Design Challenge mark in the center.

We recommend you prepare your work in a document first so if it easy to edit and preview before you submit. Once you’ve reviewed the checklist, come back here to submit your entry all at one time.

Submission Checklist

Public Link to your Prototype
8—12 Designed Screens of your solution that demonstrate the core value.
Description
500 words or less explaining your entry, describing your process, and backing up your solution with research.
Information About Yourself
This includes your name, email, 120 word or less bio, and avatar.
Your Topic
Know which problem topic or topics your submission addresses.

Submit Your Entry

Winners 2021

Gold

2021 Winner

etoy

By Design Team: Dia Shanti, Nazzal, Hala Abu Al-Failat, and Yaser Nazzal

The App

etoy is not just an app; etoy is a community that makes a difference. etoy is an innovative facilitator that connects like-minded people in local areas to swap, give away, or even sell preloved (used) toys – all in a friendly environment. Say YES to bringing happiness to other kids. A simple act that will teach your child the value of his belongings and how to be responsible for them (and uncluttered your home!). etoy also helps in cutting down on the current plastic use and resulting waste across our planet.

How it Works

etoy also helps in cutting down on the current plastic use and resulting waste across our planet. Main features You can exchange toys in three simple ways:

Swap: Discard an unwanted toy for a preloved one (and love it again!).
Give away: Gift toys to those in need.
Sell: Unwanted toys can still earn you money.

For every transaction, etoy will reward you with points that will turn in the future into gifts to reward you for participating in building a clean and healthy environment. Ideation As part of the problem we’re thinking about is these questions, how many toys do your children have? And how many of them do your children play with?! Children get lots of toys on birthdays or other occasions; therefore, we have a pyramid of toys that may be duplicated, or not suit our children, remaining a little part of them that children play with! Knowing that about 40 million toys are discarded every year, which leads to waste, pollution, and climate change; all this made us think of a solution. We had to keep pace with the era of digitization by creating etoy app to solve all the previous problems in a fast and easy way. Why etoy: The joy that you see in the child’s eyes when you hand him your preloved toy brings happiness to your heart, teaches your child to give, share, and make new friends. It also teaches your child responsibility, choice, sacrifice, and planning. With etoy, your home will be minimal and you will save money. As for society, it reduces the use of plastic that is harmful to the environment and reduces waste. Results • Save money By swapping, giving, or selling the preloved toys through etoy app with another kid, parents will save a lot of money instead of purchasing new toys.

View Prototype

Silver

2021 Winner

Music Tongue

By Team MusicTongue:
CHIA-HSU HUANG , CHENG-CHUN PENG ,TSAI-XIAN SHAO ,YI-FEI WANG ,MIN-YUE QIAN,KO-CHIU WU,KUEI-RU CHOU
from National Taipei University of Technology and Taipei Medical University, Taiwan

The App

MusicTongue is an oral-training exergame designed for middle-aged and elderly people. Through the process of training exercise with music, people of different ages can use their favorite music rhythm to perform oral exercise, enhance the motivation of healthy middle-aged people to perform oral exercise and improve tongue mobility through enjoyment.

How it Works

Problem Mouth function gradually deteriorates with aging, affecting swallowing and speaking functions. This can reduce eating and social skills and affect quality of life. According to expert interviews with speech therapists and caregivers, most healthy older adults are unaware of oral exercise; patients who have experienced but recovered from swallowing difficulties report a lack of feedback on past training exercises, a feeling of boredom, and a tendency to give up on training if not supervised. [2] Design Process A total of five experts in the fields of nursing, speech therapy, internal design,and image recognition were interviewed for this study. The experts in nursing and speech therapy developed the training movements used in the game, which were based on the oral training exercises in the “Dysphagia Care Manual” of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan, and included five tongue movements from A1 to A4; the training period was 8 weeks, with at least 3 days of training a week, and a total of 70 movements in a day, divided into three sessions before meals. In the opinion of the academic of aids design, when designing games for the elderly, the game themes can be taken from their life experiences and leisure hobbies, so that the training games can achieve the motivation to play. In the part of game theme design, 13 people aged 55~75 years old participated in the game design, and through many interviews and prototype tests, we summarized the interesting game themes from the users’ hobbies and understood how to improve the interface through the usability tests. [2] Technical approach In this study, Tensorflow Lite was used for oral image recognition, and the training data set was collected from 10 sample photos of tongue training gestures from 55 to 75 years old. A total of 60 photos of each gesture were taken manually, 300 photos of each of the six gestures, and 4800 photos of the five gestures were taken for deep learning training. When playing the game, the video recognition module will determine whether the player’s current movement matches the criteria in the training model and if it is above 75%, it is correct. [4] Demo Results Players select a song from the song selection screen, and the game will generate training levels according to the rhythm of the song. When the icon reaches the orange sensing area, the player has to perform the specified training action to the camera and score points if he/she does it correctly. In the main screen of the game (Figure 2.4), a chart will show the player’s daily training performance with the values of “a. Accuracy” and “Reaction time”, so that players can see their progress from the values and encourage continuous exercise training.

View Prototype

Bronze

2021 Winner

Play with Me

By Designer: Atefeh Jamilpour

Problem statement

I used to work out in the park and enjoy the sound of children’s laughter, but since the pandemic, children can no longer go to parks in Iran. Children need to play with each other. After reading more about the impact of pandemics on children, I understood that children’s depression and anxiety rates may have doubled. The lack of peer interaction in children can cause a variety of problems.

Problem statement: I asked myself: How can we turn their boring time into an entertaining and enjoyable time for children by empowering them to interact in creative and safe ways at their convenience.

Challenge: Although children can use the many applications for virtual gathering, these applications are not designed for children. Many of these applications do not allow parents to contribute to a safe environment for their children.

Solution

Process

User Research: I conducted a survey both in Farsi and English about how parents define their children’s relation with technology. 25 people, including Iranians and parents from English-speaking countries, participated. Key insights: The majority (80%) of children have daily access to the internet that is mainly for recreation time. Playing games, watching videos, and listening to music are the top activities that help children develop their skills. Children spend time playing with their friends; thus, they can boost their skills through group activities. Children with different learning styles may sometimes need tutors for better learning.

The design process: I designed Play With Me, a video-call-based activity app that provides a virtual environment for children ages 6-11. They can also attend tutor-based classes that are offered through the app. Parents can create accounts for their children using their names, ages, and gender. Then, parents can define children’s areas of interest and screen time (Trust). They need to verify their mobile numbers to create a safe environment and receive notifications about children’s activities. Creating an account is only required once, afterwards, children can use the app with a username and password. Children can add their friends and tutors by themselves. Lastly, both parents and kids can create and schedule new events, however, when kids create an event, a permission request will be sent to their parents. Once their parents approve the request, the event will be scheduled.(Ethics) Scheduling new events helps children to be more creative and take more responsibility while socializing. Tutors should submit their personal information and attach their CVs to, verify their experience and credentials.(Integrity)

View Prototype

Honorable Mentions

Project Live

By Designer: Omar Awaideh

Flo

By Design Team: Laleh Amany and Maryam Ladoni

Vasool

By Designer: Vamshi Krishna Beeravelly

inFINyte

By Design Team: Kailash Manjhi, Adaikalaraj M, Subhankar Paul, Tanaya Bose, Tulika Saikia, Rashmi Rajan, Shravan Tiwari and Anindya Bhanja Chowdhury

Dr. Gut

By Designer: Sumesh Dugar

Winners 2020

1st Place

2020 Winner

Teachers Assistant BOT (TAB)

By Jennifer Morehead from USA

Observation

I am going back to school and I have a son in the third grade. I notice that both my son and I struggle to stay focused in our classes. In addition, I can see the teachers struggle to encourage regular feedback and dialogue. Often my son is in breakout rooms with no teacher guidance and it is unproductive without someone to guide them. As an adult, I am more capable of personal responsibility, but a group of eight-year-olds struggle with this.

Research

I performed surveys of both students and educators. 42% of 21 learners site distractions as their number one struggle with remote learning. A common suggestion from the students was for teachers to vary the class content from lectures to participatory groups and discussions. 63% of 14 educators found that keeping their students engaged or focused during class was their biggest struggle. They also found small groups and breakout rooms helpful.

Concept

TAB, the Teachers Assistant Bot, is an AI bot for virtual learning. Bots have become increasingly more integrated into our workflows from chat assistants to server moderators. Voice recognition has also made significant advances as noted with Alexa and Siri. I would like to propose a bot to aid teachers who are currently spread thin in the virtual learning space. I imagine a bot with a variety of short gamified lessons that could moderate and engage a small group of elementary school students. This could allow the teacher to jump from room to room while the bot ensures the kids are focused and engaged in the topic. The prototype has many audio / transition dependencies so in the event that and audio does not trigger, I created a video walkthrough.

View Prototype

2nd Place

2020 Second Prize

Walk and Talk

By Zington Xperience from Sweden

Isabella Koniakowski, Johnny Geokhaji, Marcus Liljeqvist, Ylva Boske, Per Grewin, and Tommy Marshall

View Prototype

3rd Place

2020 Third Prize

COVID Seen

By Omar Mismar from Jordan

View Prototype

Honorable Mentions

MOVE

By Team TAPP: Hannah Landau, Virginia Pollock, Sadhana Ramaseshadri, and Nell Steinmetz from University of Michigan, USA

Dually Noted

By Team BackHome Diesel from Canada

Arshia Gharai, Hanfang Cao, Hariharan Srinivasan, Mackenzie Frew, Parsa Berenjimonfared, and Ryan Wong

Free2Go2

By SUX from Portugal
(Syndicate for User Experience)

Helping Hands

By Chandler Hall from USA

Vinay

By Webbies from India

Abhishek Mitra, Biswajit Adhikary, Madhav P. Mansuriya, Shweta Nandi, Sonit Paul and Sumesh Dugar

2021 Review Committee

Judged by an expert review committee and based on scores 1-5 in each of the following categories:

Originality
Visual / Interaction Design
Impact / Awe or Inspiration
Effectiveness
Research
Detail, Degree of Difficulty