SUBMISSION DATES

2017 submissions open May 25 2017 and end July 31 2017

EARLY BIRD : May 25-June 15 2017

REGULAR : June 16-July 15 2017

LATE : July 16-July 25 2017

ULTRA-LATE : July 26-July 31 2017

ALL SUBMISSIONS end 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time. Submit early to get the most votes and save money!

2017 Public Crowdvoting

PUBLIC CROWDVOTING will run for just over 1 month from July 25- August 31 2017 and determines the three crowdvote-related awards.

Entering a Submission- Overview

A UX Awards entry should highlight the user experience of a digital project you were involved in, and should highlight the project, the UX process and the outcome.

The UX Awards feature expert judging and crowdvoting for professional and student entries for any digital, software or interactive product or service from the past two years. The focus should be on user centered design process and outcomes for interactive product design.

Any digital product or service with an input / output interface or set of interactions is applicable: mobile or tablet apps, chatbots, AR, VR, service design ecosystems, chatbots, audio/voice interfaces, robots, websites, ecommerce, software, operating systems, intranets, digital campaigns and social media (when they are interactive in nature), kiosks, interactive TV, interactive displays, games, physical products with a digital component, wearables, installations, IoT, dashboards, unreleased prototypes, student projects, or UX strategy, testing and research case studies.

The UX Awards do NOT judge: pure physical product/ industrial design with no digital element, print documents, physical signage, pure hardware and electronics components, non-digital advertising or digital ad campaigns with no interactivity/ experience component, movies, video or TV without interactive components, or any other non-digital/ technology-based media.

The 2017 UX Awards theme is “The Future of UX”. This means we will prioritize for consideration submissions which are forward-thinking in their product, impact, processes or thinking– alongside welcoming and showcasing best-in-class examples of today’s current best practices, environments and outcomes.

Anyone can submit and win a UX Award – companies large and small, agencies, groups, individuals, and students- from anywhere in the world. For submissions of company, organization or client projects, you must have obtained advance permission to submit and publicly showcase the project.

How to Submit

The submission process is done entirely online

Each submission entry consists of two parts:

1. A brief online form

2. A UX project case study in the format of a video, single website page link, PDF, OR a Keynote/slides/Powerpoint document that is exported to PDF for submission (video preferred). Two URL links will not be accepted- you must choose one format to describe the entry (a web page could include multiple things within it). This case study is a narrative that describes the project and highlights its user experience components, process and outcome. This asset must be posted at a publicly accessible web URL

You must submit both the form and the case study link in entirety at once online. You cannot update your submission once complete. Read the guidelines below so you are ready to submit when you start the process

Submissions: 1. The Online Form

Fill out the form in its entirety. The form link will become available on this page when submissions open.
Please note that:

The case study pitch document /video must be ready to submit and already posted to the web at time of form submission;

Edits on submitted entries are not possible. The form must be completed and submitted in one browser session.

Multiple submissions per project are not permitted.

A submission can submitted to multiple categories (without additional cost). Categories for submission are currently: Mobile/ Tablet, Large Format Display/ Kiosk/Installation, Physical Consumer Product/Wearable, Ecommerce, Interactive TV/ Video/ Film, Website, Enterprise/ Business Software, Multi‐Channel/ Service Design, Software, Strategy/ Concept, Student, VR/ AR, Audio/ Voice, Games, Social, Government, Transportation, Industrial Systems, Other. The UX Awards does not award a winner for each category each year; we only award the best submissions across all categories.

We recommend downloading and reviewing the form questions in advance — CLICK HERE to download.

Submissions: 2. The Project Case Study

Overview

The case study will ideally showcase the project AND your UX process and best practices. The ideal submission will reference the problem being solved, context, audience, research, concepts and prototyping, design, testing, iterations and performance as well as showcase the final product, features, adoption and impact. Submissions can also be entered for pure concept projects or pure strategy, research, interaction design or testing without a final launched product.

Document Format & Hosting

Please create your UX project case study as a video, web page, PDF or presentation (submitted as a PDF) and post the case study online at a single, publicly available URL prior to filling out the form. The form will ask for  this web URL at time of submission.

The case study must be accessible on the web at the URL you specify by both the judges and the UX community for crowdvoting. It is linked to from the website for all public submissions.

If you do NOT want your case study to be publicly accessible from the website, you can specify this when submitting, but then the project will not be eligible for the public crowdvoting awards – only for the judged awards (it will still need to be accessible by the judges).

Only one case study document is allowed per project or awards submission

Acceptable file Formats: Video, PDF, single web page, or Slides/Powerpoint/Keynote that is submitted as a PDF. Video is strongly encouraged, but not required.

Size: PDF documents cannot be larger than 20MB, and must not be longer than 20 pages or slides. Videos must be no longer than 3 minutes and preferably are 2 minutes. Web case studies should be in a single page scrollable format

At the beginning or end of your entry, ensure your case study includes these four elements: 1. Project submission title; 2. Individual/company/organization, and client name(s), as relevant; 3. The live project web URL (IF your project is currently live on the web. We understand that not all projects submitted for evaluation will be web-based, or currently live); and 4. Web URL– where this case study lives.

Key Elements to Cover

The case study is the place to make the project come to life and show us why the project deserves a UX Award. The suggested format is as a narrative case study covering both the final project outcome/ product and also UX process and best practices. You should ensure to cover: 

Project purpose, problem, context, and description;

Target audience(s);

Description of user experience process, methodology and approaches, including usability methods, testing, research and any user input that was incorporated;

Business, organizational, or audience/ user goals and challenges, and how these were addressed (as relevant to the project);

Any project metrics that show the extent of user adoption or project success, if applicable (note sources and dates);

Notable, unusual or innovative user experience or digital interaction features and components;

How the project relates to the current state or future of UX;

Artefacts like screenshots of the project are always helpful, as are UX process documents, such as concepts, sketches, test results, designs and wireframes or prototypes (these are not required, but recommended); and

Why this project delivers an exceptional user experience and merits a UX Award.

General Evaluation Criteria in Judged Awards

17 winning projects will be chosen by our expert judging panel.

The levels include: Grand, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Honorable, and Student. Each judge will individually apply his/her own evaluation criteria; these will be shared with the audience at the event. The evaluation process incorporates each judge’s independent rank of each submission and collective consensus to determine the winners.

Some criteria that will definitely be taken into consideration:

The project must have demonstrably solved a user challenge or problem, with a clearly articulated audience;

The project should describe an elegant, usable solution, and this user-centric problem-solution format must be clearly articulated in the case study;

The theme for 2017 is the Future of UX. This means innovation, creativity, strategic solutions, trend-setting, societal or technical impact, and future-oriented, forward thinking are highly valued;

Demonstrating use of best UX practices and processes is highly valued, including explicit mention and demonstration of user research, testing and progressive design iterations; and

The case study and form responses must be error-free, easy to follow, and must adhere to our rules and guidelines for submission.

You can get further insight into what constitutes a winning submission by looking at prior years’ award-winning submissions. Any further questions? Email submissions@UxAwards.org.

Crowdvoting Awards

The public selects the 3 Crowdvote Awards through online voting.

The general public selects the People’s Choice, Most Popular and Top Rated Awards. Anyone can vote for all entries on the UX Awards website that were marked as being eligible for public posting at the time of submission. All voters must register with a valid email at the time of voting and may vote for as many entries as they like. No voters may vote for the same entry twice.

Votes are noted and tallied using a public 5-star rating system under each entry. Sharing on social media is encouraged, and early entrants have the benefit of more time to receive more votes.

2017 Costs to Enter

STUDENT: Student submission from any country: $50 USD EARLY; $65 REGULAR; $80 LATE; $100 ULTRA-LATE

INDIVIDUAL/ SMALL/ NONPROFIT/ GLOBAL: Submission from an individual, a business/ organization under 20 people, a nonprofit or government entity, OR from a country OUTSIDE of Europe, UK or North America: $125 USD EARLY; $175 REGULAR; $225 LATE; $275 ULTRA-LATE

MEDIUM COMPANY: Submission from an organization that is more than 20 people but under 2,000 people and based in Europe, UK or North America: $225 USD EARLY; $275 REGULAR; $325 LATE; $375 ULTRA-LATE

LARGE COMPANY: Submission from an organization that is more than 2,000 people and based in Europe, UK or North America: $325 USD EARLY; $375 REGULAR; $425 LATE; $475 ULTRA-LATE

DEFINITION OF DATE RANGES: EARLY : May 25-June 15 2017; REGULAR : June 16-July 15 2017; LATE : July 16-July 25 2017; ULTRA-LATE : July 26-July 31 2017. ALL SUBMISSIONS end 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time. Submit early to save money and get the most votes!

WHY DO WE CHARGE?: We get this question a lot! Unfortunately, awards operations costs are extensive and run year-round, and span processing, reviewing, vetting, posting, promoting and hosting the submissions. Submissions fees help cover ongoing operations and pay for the trophies and prizes. We try to make the submissions levels as equitable as possible by offering low-cost early submission levels and heavy discounts for students, individuals and smaller organizations. Our pricing is comparable to most awards in the industry. We also do not charge for entry into multiple categories.

Requirements for Finalists

Finalists will be notified by email six weeks prior to the event. All contacted Finalists will have won an award- they just won’t know which Award or level until the Awards event. For any Finalist to accept and win an Award, the Finalist must

A. Buy at least one Summit event ticket and attend the evening Awards event or send a designated representative to attend the event and accept the Award on stage (you will be given a discount as a Finalist, but it’s still cheaper to buy tickets early), and

B. Submit a video of the submission case study, with text transcriptions. The video must be no more than 3 minutes in length (2 minutes optimal), and will need to be submitted no later than 10 days prior to the event- meaning just 10 days after being notified you are a finalist (If you submitted a video for your case study as part of your initial submission, we can use that. This is only necessary if you submitted a case study in another format).

WE LOOK FORWARD TO RECEIVING YOUR SUBMISSIONS!