Interactive Design in the Grown in California competition

Hello,
 
I recently received an announcement in the mail inviting me to participate
in the California AIGA "Grown in California" Design Competition. However,
there are a few curious things about this competition that I was curious to
hear opinions about. 
 
First of all, there is an interactive design entry category which is defined
as follows:
 
"Eligible entires include websites or web animations, cd-roms, computer
games for any platform, kiosks and other electronic exhibit systems, and
software interfaces for mobile devices and networked appliances. Also
eligible are designed experiences executed in real time/space for the
purposes outlined above."
 
Now, I find a couple things bizarre about this description.To start, I am
not sure what "designed experiences executed in real/time space" means? Does
this mean that I can send them a video of me designing a user interface in
real time? That would be fascinating. Nothing more exciting then watching
someone prototype stuff on their computer. Got me stumped. 
 
Also, I find it curious that this competition allows for "software
interfaces for mobile devices and networked appliances" but seems to
specifically exclude desktop applications.  Does this mean that desktop
application design is dead and boring and no longer even a consideration for
an interactive design competition? So, if it is not on the web, on a PDA, on
a kiosk, or a game it's just not cool? Interesting.
 
Finally, I find it interesting that this competition, along with most other
design competitions, groups all interactive design under one category.
Although I think it is very difficult to compare a cool web animation with a
software interface for a mobile device, someone is going to have say which
is the "better" experience for two EXTREMELY different things. In contrast,
there are many, many categories for graph design, non-interactive
communication: branding and identity, corporate communication, editorial
design, illustration, pacakgin, promotional design and advertising, and
typeface design.  I've noticed that when competitions include interactive
design, the accepted attitude is that all that interactive stuff should be
judged against each other even though the reality is that it is all
different. I would really like to see AIGA especially start to think about
all the different aspects of experience design instead of grouping it into
one "interactive" grab bag and hoping for the best. 
 
Thoughts?
 
-- Julie Stanford
 
_____________________________________
Julie Stanford
Principal, Sliced Bread Design | www.slicedbreaddesign.com
<http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/> 
650-799-7225


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