UXPA 2017 Student Design Competition

UXPA 2017 Student Design Competition

Chair: Diane McKerlie (competition2017@uxpa.org)

Important dates

  • Submission deadline: 5 May 2017 5PM Eastern – EXTENDED
  • Invitations issued to participate: 8 May 2017
  • Registration deadline: 12 May 2017 5PM Eastern
  • Mandatory on site sessions: Mon 5 June 9AM to 10:30AM, Tue 6 June 1:30PM to 5:30PM, and Wed 7 June 4:30PM to 6:00PM

Competition format

Before the conference:

  • Student teams submit a 1 page proposal: “Why is our team worthy to participate?”
  • Jurors select and invite 10 teams to participate (see selection criteria)
  • Invited teams register for the on-site Student Design Competition (although there is no cost to register for the competition, students must register for the conference at the student rate)

At the conference:

  • Invited teams attend 3 sessions: Introduction (Monday), Pitch (Tuesday), Final Presentation (Wednesday)
  • Between sessions, teams iterate on their designs and prepare their pitches and final presentations
  • At the Pitch, teams present to their peers, are scored by the jury, and eliminated
  • At the Final Presentation, 4 finalist teams present to conference attendees and are scored by the jury
  • Before the Closing Plenary, the finalist teams are recognized and a winner is announced

Note that all members of each team must attend all scheduled sessions. The Student Design Competition begins on Mon 5 June at 9AM (a day before the main conference start date).

Why Participate?

Back by popular demand, the Student Design Competition at UXPA 2017 promises to be challenging, rewarding, and fun! It is run as an on-site competition among 10 student teams who work through the iterative design process and convince a jury of the user experience merits of their design solutions. Take part and…

  • Join the fun, camaraderie, and friendly competition
  • Learn from UX professionals as the competition unfolds
  • Take center stage to communicate your design problem, process, and solution
  • Network and get noticed by UX professionals and academics
  • Inspire everyone to step outside of our comfort zones; show us how multidiscipline teams from different places, with different ideas, solve design problems

Student Team Requirements

Teams must have at least 2 but not more than 4 members. All members of a team must be registered students in a full-time or part-time undergraduate or graduate program at the time of submission OR have graduated within the past year. In the case of recent graduates, include a copy or picture of your degree showing the date of graduation. You may participate on a student team if you graduated within the past year.

In addition to being multidisciplinary, teams are strongly encouraged to be multi-institutional and multinational.

Submissions must include proof of student status for each member of the team, which is a letter signed by your academic supervisor that verifies:

  • Name of the university
  • Name of the academic degree program (including undergraduate or graduate)
  • Full-time student status (at least 50% of your work week is spent on the academic program)

Submission Requirements

Submissions must be received by the submission deadline. A student cannot be part of multiple teams. Each team may submit only one package. Email a single PDF document containing the following information to competition2017@UXPA.org:

  • Full name, university, country, and email contact information for each team member
  • One page (300 words maximum) response to: “Why is our team worthy to participate?”
  • Proof of student status for each team member (signed letter or copy of degree as described above)

Selection criteria

Ten teams are invited to register based on the quality of a 1 page submission that addresses the question:

“Why is our team worthy to participate?”

A jury will evaluate submissions and must be convinced that teams have, and understand the importance of, the following qualities:

  • Our team is multidisciplinary
  • Our team understands design processes
  • Our team has the capability to communicate design
  • The best design solutions are…

Although not required, teams that are multi-institutional and multinational are encouraged.