(Vancouver, BC) – The Vancouver User Experience Group (VanUE) has announced that the 2018 Vancouver User Experience Awards (Vancouver UX Awards) are now open for entries. The fifth annual awards celebrate the incredible UX experiences developed in Vancouver. Free to enter, entries are submitted online at www.vancouveruxawards.com/submissions until Friday, September 28th, finalists announced on Wednesday, October 31st and winners celebrated at a gala event on Thursday, November 29th at The Imperial in Vancouver. Finalists are also invited to present at a “Demo Day” event on Wednesday, November 7th that features lightning talks from 10 award finalists and five award sponsors at the Microsoft Vancouver office.
“The Vancouver UX Awards is an opportunity for all who work in this industry,” says JP Holecka, VanUX Awards Organizing Team member and Founder and CEO, POWERSHiFTER, “From growing startups, freelance practitioners, agencies, to user-centric enterprises, all can showcase their work and get recognized by their peers for the incredible UX experiences they create every single day.”
2018 Vancouver UX Award Categories
UX for Work: This category celebrates any solution—intranets, business applications, or other systems—that provide great user experiences for people inside organizations of any size.
UX for Emerging Experiences: The future is no longer at a distance—wearables, voice experiences, internet of things, bots, virtual, augmented and mixed reality is already here. These devices and experiences are creating a new opportunity for user experience. This award category allows us to surface the emerging interactions and immersive experiences that our community is creating.
UX for Products: Digital products play an important role in our everyday lives. Whether to monitor our health, finances, or happiness, we increasingly rely on digital apps and services to make our lives easier to manage and to make intentional decisions about our behavior. This award honours the incredible Vancouver-based products whose digital experiences enrich and engage across a wide spectrum of domains.
UX for Good: Great user experiences are essential to improving the way non-profits work with their partners, communities, and stakeholders. This award recognizes charities, foundations, social campaigns, professional associations, and public-sector enterprises. Entrants should demonstrate how they’ve created a user experience that helps a non-profit organization achieve its goals and/or serve its members.
UX by Students: Up-and-coming practitioners are making huge contributions to innovation in this region’s UX community. This award celebrates the work done in courses, extra-curricular activities, or portfolio projects—provided the solutions were not designed for commercial purposes. To submit for this award, applicants must be registered at a B.C. post-secondary institution during the 2017-2018 academic year.
UX for Marketing: Websites, e-commerce, contests, and marketing-driven campaigns are successful when they create authentic and impactful user experiences for their audiences. This category requires that submissions are or were live during the past year (October 2017 to 2018) and include metrics that matter and can demonstrate their impact. No concepts will be accepted.
People's Choice: Using social media and the awards website, the Vancouver UX community will vote on the best experience from among the finalists, across all categories. Voting will occur in the weeks just before the awards gala event.
Best UX: Grand-prize category will be a juried selection from finalists across all categories (with the exception of UX by Students). The winner represents some of the best in user experience design the Lower Mainland has to offer.
All award submissions will be evaluated and scored by the judges on how they satisfy five criteria: elegance, clarity, innovation, impact, and emotion in the UX experiences created. Submissions are judged by a panel representing different sectors of the UX industry and with varying levels of experience.
The 2018 Vancouver UX Awards are only made possible with the support of a growing sponsor family including local organizations such as: OpenRoad Communications, POWERSHiFTER, Habanero Consulting Group, Finger Food, Domain7, RED Academy, SAP, Microsoft, TEKsystems Digital, Clio, Major Tom, BluePrint UX, Spatial research + design, BDC, Noravera, ThoughtFarmer and BrainStation.
About the Vancouver User Experience Group:
The Vancouver User Experience Group (VanUE) is a diverse community of practitioners and students who are passionate about building better experiences and advancing their skills. VanUE was founded in 2003 and has since grown to 2,400 members. Hosting monthly meet up events with speakers and professional development opportunities, the organization is managed by Vancouver UX Award sponsors OpenRoad Communications, POWERSHiFTER, and Habanero Consulting Group.
For more information on how to participate, from award submissions, gala attendance or event sponsorship, please visit the Van UX Awards website at www.vancouveruxawards.com. Follow the awards on Twitter: @VanUXAwards and on Instagram: @vanuxawards.com
