Frequently Asked Questions

The competition takes place in three stages:

1. Call for Participation
Competition entries can be submitted twice a year for the Spring and the Autumn Awards: from September to November and March to May.

2. Nominations
All submissions are reviewed by the jury. A limited number of entries are admitted to compete for the Award titles in the next stage.

• All nominated entries participate in an extensive PR campaign, press communications, and in the running for the Public Choice Award. All nominees get long-term visibility in the online exhibition and yearbook.

3. Award Winners
Granting of the Gold Awards, UX Design Awards, and Special Mentions (for all categories) is
decided in a detailed evaluation process and jury session.

• All winners are highlighted in a winner announcement, press communications, and benefit from additional PR opportunities, such as bespoke campaigns and live online presentations.

Professional categories Product and Concept:
Total participation costs: € 2,570

• Submission fee: € 320
  The submission fee is due for each entry submitted to the competition.

• Nomination package: € 2,250
  The package fee is due for each entry that is nominated by the jury and enters the next competition stages. The fee includes: nomination title, judging for the Awards, global campaign for the Public Choice Award, extensive PR services, trophies at all stages, unlimited right of use for all awarded titles.

New Talent category:

• Submission fee: € 70
  The submission fee is due for each entry submitted to the competition.
  There are no further fees for upcoming designers.

No hidden or recurring costs. All prices are per submission excluding VAT. The following payment options are available: Visa, Master Card, Pay Pal or invoicing. For company members of the International Design Center Berlin the submission fee for one project is waived.

For the complete timeline please have a look at our dates page.

Professionals – businesses, design consultancies, R&D units – can enter recent projects in two competition categories:

• Product: open to products, services and experiential environments that are on the market or will be launched within a year of the entry date.
• Concept: open to start-up ideas, prototypes, explorations, research projects and showcases. We encourage bold statements about desirable brand experiences and new forays into potential product and service experiences.

Students, graduates and schools can enter bachelor’s or master’s projects in the New Talent category.

Solutions for all industries and application fields are accepted.

Submissions must include digital or electronic interfaces or functions. The market launch – or the start of the development process – must not date back more than two years at the time of submission.

The number of submissions is unlimited for professionals and universities. Students and graduates can submit one project per participant.

The UX Design Awards are given per category: Product, Concept and New Talent. For each competition the jury decides how many projects will be awarded.

Gold Award
By awarding the UX Design Award | Gold, the jury of experts from design, research and business can honor the best projects in each competition category.

Award
In each category, the jury presents the following titles to outstanding products, concepts, services and research projects: UX Design Award | Product, UX Design Award | Concept, and among emerging designers the UX Design Award | New Talent.

Public Choice Award
In addition, UX professionals and users worldwide vote online to select one UX Design Award | Public Choice among all nominees.

Special Mention
With a Special Mention, the jury can emphasize specific individual qualities of nominated projects.

Nomination
Among all valid submissions, the jury nominates a limited number of entries to participate in the competition. All projects receive the title UX Design Award | Nominated. They are promoted extensively and take part in the judging for the Awards and Special Mentions.

Download the full participation information and prices here.

View our terms & conditions here.

Lots of success for your participation in the UX Design Awards!

You can register a participant profile at any time. Competition entries can be compiled and submitted from September to November and March to May each year.

The number of submissions is unlimited for professionals and universities. Students and graduates can submit one project per participant.

The submission process is as follows:

• Set up a submission, enter public PR data and private project details for the jury. For additional details please download our full participant information.
• You can add a promotional film for PR.
• We highly recommend adding a short product explanation video: walk the judges through the core functions of your solution from a user's perspective, and briefly explain them (a low-tech video filmed with a cell phone is perfectly adequate).
• We highly recommend uploading a short PDF file that describes the user research methods and gives an overview of the design and development process.
• You can also link to a web-based software or demo application (optional).
• Once your entries are final, submit online and select your preferred payment method. Visa, Master Card and Pay Pal are available, as well as invoicing. Upon payment of the submission fees your entries will be admitted to the nomination stage.

Please note: you can save your projects at any time and continue working on them until the submission deadline.

Part I – PR content (used for the awards website, yearbook and PR communications)

Required information:

• Project name, company, designers.
• Project description (max. 500 characters incl. spaces).
• Company logo (EPS, SVG) and URLs (website, social media).
• Four product images (WxH min. 3000x2000 px, max.4000x3000 px, JPEG, RGB).

Optional information:

• Social media URLs and handles.
• Promotional product film (mp4 / m4v, max. 500 MB) View examples

If your entry is nominated you may provide additional PR content at a later date:

• Three questions for the project team. (max. 750 characters each, incl. spaces).
• Elevator pitch film: short, personal team / project intro (mp4 / m4v, social media video). View example

Part II: Information for the jury (not public)

Required information:

• Project Pitch: core idea behind your submission, why is it important? (max. 250 chars.)
• Users, Challenge, Context: main and secondary users, their challenges, the broader context of the use case. (max. 750 chars.)
• Purpose and Solution Approach: purpose, reason, solution, user empowerment. (max. 750 chars.)
• User-Centric Research and Design: research methods, design and development process, resources, integration of fidnings in solution. (max. 750 chars.)
• USP, Innovation, User Benefits: essence of solution, core benefits, innovative features, technologies implemented, user value. (max. 750 chars.)
• Outcome and Business Value: (assumed) business model, target market & group, feasibility, measurable outcomes. (max. 750 chars.)

Optional information (We highly recommend adding more context about your project for the jury):

• Explanation film: present the workflow and key features from a user perspective. Showcase your solution‘s key features and why it makes a difference (60-90 sec., low-tech video).
• R&D: upload a PDF outlining user research and the design and development process (short and factual, max 10 pages).
• Demo: provide web access to a software product or demo version if applicable.
• Social and Planetary Values: social impact, sustainability principles. (max. 750 chars.)

Invoices for the participation fees can be downloaded in your participant profile. The available payment options are: Visa, Master Card, Pay Pal, SEPA (Germany only) or bank transfer.

Invoices are due within 7 working days of the billing date.

You can change billing details or add an additional invoice recipient in your participant profile. Update your profile details and then contact us by email to receive an updated invoice.

Among all valid submissions, the jury will select a number of Nominees that will be admitted to the competition for the Awards. Congratulations if the jury nominates your entry!

• Each nominated entry will take part in the crucial next judging rounds for the run-up to the Awards, and will benefit from extensive PR services. For professional entries a nomination fee will be due upon acceptance of the nomination.

• In subsequent judging rounds, the jury will choose the Award winners and special mentions in each competition category.

• In addition, all Nominees will compete for the Public Choice Award, chosen in a global public online vote.

All winners will be pronounced in a Virtual Winner Announcement. This marks the highlight of each Award season, and at the same time the beginning of the next call for entries.

Each entry is evaluated in a multi-stage procedure:

• First, the jury decides which projects are nominated to compete in the Awards.
• In the second stage, teams of judges subject all nominated entries to a detailed criteria review, and shortlist finalists to enter the jury session.
• In the final jury session all judges choose the Gold Award and Award winners, as well as the recipients of special mentions.

The UX Design Awards are judged by the following criteria: Relevance, Empowerment, Innovation, Outcome & Business Value, Holistic Thinking & User-centric Approach, Design & Experience Quality.

Learn more about our criteria here.

Actually we have something better. Here are four handy tips from our judges to make your submission shine:

1. Keep to the point when answering the questions in the entry form. Offer insights and facts, not claims.

2. Create a compelling narrative in your responses:

- Lay out the user's challenge and their real-world context: explain their situation in their field.
- Describe how you pinpointed the problem and the research base behind it.
- Explain the decisions you made based on your findings and the reasoning behind them.
- Show how these insights and choices influenced your solution's design.
- Mention decisions related to responsibility and considerations of potential ripple effects.
- Provide insights into how technologies were implemented to achieve set goals.
- Explain the feasibility and the business angle.

3. If entering work with images that include languages other than English, it is helpful to provide translations.

4. Enable the jury to understand your research base and the ensuing design and development process by uploading a short and factual PDF (max. 10 pages). Notes:

- When submitting a solution for a highly specialized field, outline the use case and processes involved, and include some background information on the technology used.
- When submitting a redesign, include information on the previous version, explain the core improvements and substantiate them.

See the entire Jury Digest conversation for more input from previous jurors.

For further questions, please contact us by email or schedule a quick call.

Nomination is the first award stage. After all submissions are reviewed by the jury a limited number of entries are admitted to compete for the Award titles in the detailed evaluation stage.

All nominated entries participate in an extensive PR campaign, press communications, and in the running for the Public Choice Award. Nominees benefit from long-term visibility in the online exhibition and yearbook.

By PR data we are referring to the public parts of your submission which will be communicated on our website and in the PR campaign.

After being nominated you can respond to our “Three questions for the project team” and upload an “elevator pitch” video for promotion on social media. This is an opportunity to generate additional PR on your project page in the virtual exhibition (example) and through our social media channels.

In the weeks following the nomination your nomination certificate and plaque (for professionals only) will be sent out to you by post.

The yearbook comes out once a year in Autumn and is sent to all professionals via post in October. An online version is also available online in conjuction with this.

The PR campaign entails promotion of your nominated project in all media channels of the UX Design Awards, including LinkedIn, Instagram and our newsletter.

The public choice voting takes place on our website during the same time period as the PR campaign. The project with the most amount of votes at the end of the allotted time period wins the award title UX Design Award | Public Choice.

For reasons of fairness, our terms and conditions prohibit voting within and by your own company, but there is nothing to stop you from motivating friends, customers and partners to take part. We wish you success!

By virtual exhibition we are referring to a dedicated webpage presenting all of the nominees of a competition.

The winners will be announced in our virtual Winner Announcement in early March (for the Spring Awards) and in early September ( for the Autumn Awards). All participants will receive an invitation via email.