Nominate
April 30 (Deadline for Nominations)
Complete this short form to nominate a product/system.
We welcome people to nominate their own products/systems as well as those of others. Award candidates do NOT have to be a member of HFES or of the PDTG. All individuals and/or teams are invited to participate.
Prepare a "Submission File" (see below) and send it to adam@ucdaward.com.
Submission File (including Judging Criteria)
Applications should be submitted as a single PDF file and labeled with the product name (e.g., <Product Name>.pdf). The contents of the PDF file should be organized as follows:
Name of Product
URL of Video File (optional): If you have videos of the product, please include link(s) here.
Product Description: Clearly explain the product’s form and operation, with pictures, storyboards, etc.
Targeted Users: Describe the characteristics of the targeted users and how they were different than excluded users.
External Considerations: What external constraints and/or requirements were imposed upon the development of the product or process?
Judging Criteria: Please write a separate description for each of the six criteria that explains how the product or system meets that criterion. The criteria are divided between issues of design and issues of methodology used to develop and evaluate the design.
Functional Obviousness - Upon first impression does the design speak to the user in a way that makes the product appealing and apparently easy to use?
Ease of Operation - How easy is it to learn and actually do tasks in various applicable usage modes such as set up, normal usage, failure recovery, maintainability, portability, storability that occur during ownership?
Creativity/Innovation - How is this product unique compared to similar products? How does usability and styling take advantage of product technology?
Concept Development - How was new user input created or past user data applied to influence the product or system concept?
Design - How was user data generated or used for specifying design parameters or making design decisions?
Evaluation - What was done to assess usability of the product design and the need for improvement? This could include iterative assessments made during the design process or feedback obtained in the market that could be used for subsequent versions of the product. Be specific concerning testing methodology.
July (Q&A Period)
Receive questions and requests for additional information from the panel of judges. You'll have until the end of July to respond to each question/request.
August (Selection)
The panel of judges meets in August to select the winner(s). Applicants will learn whether they have won the award on August 31.
October, November, December (Award Ceremony)
The winner(s) will be invited to speak at a special award ceremony on a date/time that is convenient for them. This award ceremony will be hosted by the HFES PDTG and will take place virtually over Zoom.