Competition
Open
1w left
Open globally
World Usability Design Challenge 2026
World Usability Initiative (WUI) / World Usability Day, in collaboration with HCI International (HCII)
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Funding amount
🥇 Gold: US$1,250
🥈 Silver: US$1,000
🥉 Bronze: US$750
Deadline
September 18, 2026
Level
Other
What's covered
Global Recognition
Cash Award
About this opportunity
The World Usability Design Challenge 2026 invites designers and multidisciplinary teams to demonstrate how user research and usability evaluation directly influenced design decisions. This year's theme is “Designing a Sustainable Future with Ethical AI.” Projects can address areas such as climate change, healthcare, education and other domains, but must involve AI technologies and demonstrate meaningful human-centred design.
Requirements
- Submit a design project involving AI technology.
- Address the 2026 theme: Designing a Sustainable Future with Ethical AI.
- Demonstrate substantial user research.
- Demonstrate UX/usability evaluation with representative users.
- Show clearly how research findings influenced specific design decisions.
- Explain the ethical AI frameworks or principles used.
- Provide evidence of the relationship between:
- User research
- Evaluation
- Design decisions
- Project outcomes.
- Include a prototype of the proposed solution.
- The prototype may be:
- Clickable prototype
- Interactive mock-up
- Functional prototype
- Submit a report of up to 10,000 words, excluding tables and figures.
- Include short summaries of the research, evaluation and their impact.
- Applicants may use generative AI in preparing the submission, but must disclose its use and take responsibility for the accuracy and originality of the submission