Here is some more detail about the awards…

Indianapolis, IN USA – The Horizon Interactive Awards, a leading international interactive media awards competition, announced the 2009 award winners to highlight this year’s “best of the best” in interactive media production.
The eighth annual, international competition saw just over 2000 entries from 32 countries around world including: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Oman, New Zealand, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Turkey, and nearly all 50 of the United States of America. An international panel of judges, consisting of industry professionals with diverse backgrounds, as well as an end user panel evaluated 19 different categories ranging from online advertising to video games. The 2009 winning entries showcase the industry’s best interactive media solutions including web sites, CDs and DVDs, online ads, video and more.
“The 2009 competition was an all new level for the competition,” said Mike Sauce – Founder of the Horizon Interactive Awards.”  The overall quality of entries was far and away the best we have ever had and judging was very competitive. Year after year, we are amazed at the level of creativity and overall technical excellence of the entries that are recognized by the competition. They truly are the best of the best!“
The Horizon Interactive Awards holds the annual competition in early spring of each year with the winners being announced in May. For more information visit the Horizon Interactive Awards at horizoninteractiveawards.com.

About the Horizon Interactive Awards

In its 8th year, the Horizon Interactive Awards was created to recognize excellence in interactive media production worldwide. Since 2001, the competition has received many thousands of entries from countries around the world and nearly all-50 US States.  Each year, those entries are narrowed down to the best of the best to be recognized and promoted on and international stage for their excellence. The judging process involves a Horizon Interactive Awards advisory panel, end user panel and a worldwide panel of judges consisting of industry professionals. Winning entries are dubbed the “best of the best” in the interactive media industry.

For more information, visit horizoninteractiveawards.com.

UnNatural Experiments

Paul Annett is an excellent designer from Clearleft, a well known design studio from the UK best known for Silverback App (resize the window and watch the vines). Annett’s presentation showcased numerous brilliant ideas within website design. Annett showcased sites that all had something different and brilliant, from quality and crazy design choices to small easter eggs that made people smile when they found them. These things allowed companies sites to be exposed quickly and more widespread because people love original ideas. Annett made me realize that I should strive for that clever brilliant idea in my design. Instead of creating just a simple and clean site (which i love), but also incorporating something new and brilliant.

Being a UX Team of One

One of the most valuable presentations I attended was Leah Buley’s (Adaptive Path) on “Being a UX Team of One.” At first I did not realize how this panel applied to me and my current position here at Brightline. Although I have a creative director/project manager above me and a development team around me, I tend to design and program throughout the entire production process. Leah gave an overview of her previous job and how she was the sole designer, information architect, coder, tester, etc.  Leah gave numerous tips on how to brainstorm, and get past the wall that all designers experience. How you can form an ad-hoc team to brainstorm and gather more ideas from, whether they are designers or not. Lastly, she told us how some of the best projects are designed from the ground up using the best ideas. Although most of her tips pertained to small one person operations they can be applied to larger environments as well.

Leah’s presentation opened my eyes to numerous techniques I could use to gather feedback and grow as a designer in our small, but specialized team here at Brightline. I recommend checking out her slides available online here, because almost anyone can apply her techniques to become a stronger designer/developer.

Beyond these two presentations I learned a great deal from Jason Santa Maria, Samantha Warren, Ian Coyle,and Gary Vaynerchuk. Topics such as the need for art direction in online content, web typography, CSS3, wireframing, and why I need to “hustle my face off” to become successful.

I met a lot of designers and even some of my design heroes i’ve looked up to for inspiration and to model myself after. To me they are heroes/celebrities but most of all they were approachable and excited to hear about a young designer with web standards in mind. Whether it’s a structured panel with some of the best in the field, or at 3AM in an Ihop after an open bar, you can learn so much from other designers. I remember hearing someone say how SXSWi refreshes them to go back into the real world, and it definitely did for me. It made me excited about design, the possibilities, and ways i could grow as a designer. I know that I am completely sold on SXSWi and will be attending it for as long as I can, I suggest everyone else do the same.

The National Guard Relief mission is a custom designed interactive multi-player networked touch screen application, designed to educate and inform prospective recruits and the general public about the National Guard’s domestic efforts.  This interactive game is housed inside of a “Mobile Command Center” which is a custom fabricated tour bus retrofitted with advanced computer and audio/visual technology.

The National Guard Relief mission is a custom designed interactive multi-player networked touch screen application, designed to educate and inform prospective recruits and the general public about the National Guard’s domestic efforts.  This interactive game is housed inside of a “Mobile Command Center” which is a custom fabricated tour bus retrofitted with advanced computer and audio/visual technology.