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Past Winners
Check out the previous category winners and finalists.
2021
UX for Commerce
Aequillibrium
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Aequillibrium
Winner
Best
2021
UX
When DUCA Credit Union sought partnership with Aequilibrium to bring their new website and banking platform to life, Aequilibrium went far beyond putting up a website: the team developed a close partnership to help DUCA redefine their digital strategy in the context of a pandemic, digitize their business, switch from a transactional to advice-based approach, and improve their members' financial well-being. Aequillibrium’s Agile process included:
• developing personas and customer journeys
• intensive research and discovery
• examining website analytics
• improving IA and site navigation
• low, mid, and hi-fidelity designs at each stage
• reducing the website from 300 to 60 pages
• modernizing the technology platform for better agility and faster time to market
The new DUCA website is easier to navigate, more accessible, and widens capabilities both for DUCA and members. It’s a site that lets members do more, be more, achieve more.
AutoTrader
Winner
Best
2021
UX
AutoTrader
Winner
Best
2021
UX
The AutoTrader team cares about their customers and making their vehicle purchasing experience as pleasant, simple, and convenient as possible.
That's why they created the Try Before You Buy experience: allowing customers to test drive a vehicle from the comfort of their home for 48 hours. After completing an online flow on AutoTrader.ca, the car is delivered directly to a consumer's door for free, where they can have the time they need to test their potential vehicle and learn what it would feel like if they owned it.
When a user lands on AutoTrader's search results page, they can turn on a toggle that allows them to see listings that they can "Try Before You Buy," with a green CTA that stands out on our listings. Users are then able to navigate to a specific vehicle detail page, where they can access the online reservation flow for their vehicle. This can be done in three easy steps, and the car is delivered directly to their driveway on the date and time they selected.
The team at AutoTrader is making it possible to test drive a vehicle from your home.
TELUS
Winner
Best
2021
UX
TELUS
Winner
Best
2021
UX
The TELUS team set out to create a better bundling experience for their customers. They first set out to learn about customer pain points and bundling behaviour, then in leveraging this behavioural research, the team structured the solution to give varying user types the information they needed at the right moments—the cards give a quick glimpse at important specs, while the modals help users dive deeper into details, and instant feedback enables users to explore options and compare pricing with clarity and confidence into what they'll be paying.
The TELUS team also focused on implementing a consistent visual language with a focus on meaningful interactions. From the structure of plan cards to the selection patterns, users are helped to achieve their goal of selecting the products they need for their homes. And, the solution's experience aligns with customer mental models by giving them the ability to tinker, and encourages exploration by showcasing their options in a simple, clear experience.
By way of continuous testing, TELUS was able to ensure the experience worked for users, and have seen an increase in engagement and record-breaking conversion rates since launch.
UX for Good
Spatial Research and Design
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Spatial Research and Design
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Spatial Research and Design partnered with YWCA Vancouver who wanted to redesign their website to better position themselves as a driver of change in pursuit of social and economic equality for women.
The design needed to take into consideration a diverse set of audience needs and business objectives – making programs for women and families more accessible, supporting a range of marketing campaigns and events, and inspiring action by bringing the YWCA's programming, advocacy and impact to the forefront. And of course, it also needed to adhere to principles of inclusivity and accessibility standards.
Spatial's discovery process was based on a design thinking methodology that was grounded in research, and design was a human centred, iterative process that incorporated user testing and gave YWCA’s internal team the opportunity to provide input on the UX design and visual design along the way.
Apply Digital
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Apply Digital
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Apply redesigned the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation website to improve engagement, streamline the user experience, and increase donations. This was enabled by a revised brand, content strategy, UX/UI strategy, and CMS.
The redesigned website is influenced by donor research and journey maps, developed with an editorial feel, and visually unified across every aspect of the website and third-party portals. By building a collateral library of templates and components on the CMS platform, content can be easily added and designed by the PMCF team. This approach also gives the website structure and makes it easy to navigate which enhances the user experience and ensures that the most compelling content is front and center.
The new site’s content combines personal and inspiring stories with real-world context and research.
The PMCF’s role in cancer research and how people can make a difference in someone’s life was paramount to the whole project, and Apply ensured that impact was at the forefront.
Drawingroom, Key Pointe, and Epigram
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Drawingroom, Key Pointe, and Epigram
Winner
Best
2021
UX
The Inclusive Workplace is the first Canadian website designed to help people with autism or an intellectual disability find good jobs. Accessible, usable, and useful, the site is a valuable resource for inclusive hiring during COVID-19 and beyond.
The team designed an online resource to promote inclusive hiring in Canada. Funded by the Government of Canada, the site was conceived to help Canadian businesses meet labour shortages during COVID-19 by tapping into the benefits of hiring inclusively.
The first of its kind in Canada, the site features more than 100 free and bilingual community-developed multimedia resources, including eLearning courses, guides, and other timely information. The resources cover a broad spectrum of practical topics, from understanding the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace to preparing for a video conference job interview.
UX for Product
FORM Athletica
Winner
Best
2021
UX
FORM Athletica
Winner
Best
2021
UX
FORM set out to provide guided workout support to swimmers through FORM Workouts, a subscription-based, guided swim workout experience, delivered through the FORM Goggles. Workouts helps users feel like they are accountable to someone, simply by guiding them through a workout, but more importantly, the smart goggles experience, with an augmented reality display in the lens, provides encouragement throughout the swim, and congratulates users when they complete a swim—celebrating their achievement.
Users can also see the workouts that their friends in the app have done, which adds to the sense of community in the app, as it highlights potential shared experiences. During beta testing and since launch, FORM is hearing from users that they're enjoying their swimming workouts, looking forward to them more, and are pushing themselves harder in their swim sessions.
Enchant Labs
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Enchant Labs
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Since its founding in 2016 in Vancouver, Enchant has been creating guest experience magic with its larger-than-life-light maze installations all across North America. In 2020 the future seemed awfully promising at Enchant, but as you know, COVID happened.
With all the events cancelled, the Enchant team decided to explore their capabilities and expand their notion of immersive experiences into the digital realm. With innovation and experimentation as premises, the team started planning a way to still provide a safe and socially distant Enchant Christmas experience. Enter Enchant Santa Calls -- an app to be someone’s Santa. The Enchant team's adventurous and innovative spirit pushed them to create something that no one had ever done or tried.
The app was very well received by families as they were able to celebrate the winter festive time with their loved ones during COVID—over 40,000 people use the application. Kids loved it and thousands of childhood memories were created. The best part, Santa knew the kids so well in conversations, and the kids were just mesmerized that they were talking to Santa in real life.
Livshows
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Livshows
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Livshows allows creatives to express themselves and explore new channels to produce content and help them better communicate to their audience.
Accessibility has been a driving force in all work that the Livshows team has done. The team has diverse backgrounds in the creative industry, and recognized how complex it can be to create and publish augmented reality experiences with traditional tools. This was a huge barrier to adoption for content creators, artists, designers, and brands.
The goal of Livshows AR Builder was to make the creation of AR experiences effortless and intuitive.
UX for Students
Simon Fraser University
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Simon Fraser University
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Smart Explorer was built together with North Shore Rescue Team to help combat the rising calls to Search & Rescue. The app walks new hikers through how to be safe on trails while helping them find the hikes that work best for them. When hikers find a trail they like, they can follow 5 simple steps to create a trip plan. Safety precautions are built-in, such as reminders, sunset warnings, and ensuring they have an emergency contact if a hike goes overdue.
In designing the app, the student team researched the problem and conducted interviews with hikers and the rescue team. After finalizing the details, the team created wireframes, prototypes, and conducted user testing. The result was a first-of-its-kind app that prioritizes hiker safety while making it easy to find the trails that best suit skill and ability levels.
Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Winner
Best
2021
UX
94+ is a website that serves to facilitate action on truth and reconciliation in Canada by tracking progress on the TRC's 94 Calls to Action. The name is intentionally 94+, with the 'plus' indicating how the impact of implementing the Calls to Action would be far reaching and go beyond the confines of 'ticking boxes.'
While the C2As are central to progress in Canada, many Canadians are unaware of them, and those who are aware are unsure where to start. 94+ takes the complexity surrounding each C2A, and places it in a historical and a contemporary context. The tracker doesn't merely list the C2As, but offers a sophisticated tracking methodology, backgrounders, expert analysis, news, and timelines that situate the issues being expressed. Heavy and dense information is not simplified, but rather broken into absorbable pieces that readers can comprehend at their own pace.
Centre for Digital Media
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Centre for Digital Media
Winner
Best
2021
UX
Digitales aims to facilitate storytelling for a young audience, allowing them to lead their own learning experience in an engaging way. The pandemic has affected everyone in different ways and, at some point, we have all felt pretty isolated. The Digitales app has the power to solve this disconnect by helping young learners better engage in storytelling by sharing, capturing visual elements to implement in their stories, and collaborating with other users. The skill of good storytelling is not innate, and it takes practice.
Digitales reinforces storytelling as a skill to achieve latent learning. Each user is supported through the various steps of adding assets using pop-up tips, a concept referred to as scaffolding by education experts. There is no overt incentive to create one’s own story or memorize any information. However, knowing that there are positive reinforcements to be gained in the form of receiving a good rating and a reward for one’s performance is motivation in itself.
The challenge of completing the task with a visible outcome and sharing their creation with others offers some incentive and further reinforces their ownership of that creation.
2020
UX for Commerce
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
A re-imagining of what an All-Star voting experience should be, the 2020 voting website tailored the experience to fans of all kinds. To give fans a thank you for voting and to promote social sharing, Engine Digital developed a technology solution that produced a dynamic shareable asset of the fans' selections to post on social media.
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
The new experience for RaceFace, a premium mountain biking brand, empowers customers to find the right products for their riding style while taking the friction out of the process. Using a carefully crafted story for RaceFace's products and collections allows mountain bikers to easily understand the difference between parts to find the best gear.
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Premier contemporary lighting manufacturer Rich Brilliant Willing’s e-commerce experience brings together contemporary design and smooth interaction, with one goal: make designers’ lives easier. We added tools to ease business processes like a product configurator, automated tear sheets, and online quotes. Reducing work for RBW helped designers to receive information and products faster.
UX for Good
Charitable Impact
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Charitable Impact
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Charitable Impact is for anyone who wants to make a difference, no matter what causes you choose to support. Charitable Impact developed an innovative approach to giving: combining a core charity structure called a donor-advised-fund with unique functionality, such as messaging, notifications, ability to give with friends & family, peer-to-peer giving, and personalized cause-based recommendations.
Invoke Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Invoke Digital
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Adopt-A-City is a SaaS platform that creates a smooth and easy experience for a city's residents to participate in asset adoption programs like Adopt-A-Park, Adopt-A-Street, and more. Invoke Digital built a new experience that enables overburdened city staff to focus their efforts on bigger challenges, while residents are encouraged to become active participants in their community.
UBC Press
Winner
Best
2020
UX
UBC Press
Winner
Best
2020
UX
As I Remember It is a web-based multimedia interactive book published on the RavenSpace platform, authored by Elder Elsie Paul of the Tla’amin (SLY-am-mon) Nation. The ambitious experience challenges users to consider their relationship to the content they access, to whom it belongs, and how they might listen and learn. It demonstrates how Indigenous knowledge holders can teach across groups and generations to embrace the torch of cultural revitalization.
UX for Product
POWERSHiFTER
Winner
Best
2020
UX
POWERSHiFTER
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Delta Controls needed help creating a planning and configuration experience for their O3 Sensor Hub. POWERSHiFTER helped build a custom application to manage these Sensor Hubs online. The challenge was making a highly technical tool simple for all users. They can easily configure and install a sensor without comprehensive training, all within 90 seconds.
Bananatag
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Bananatag
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Great internal communication is a team effort, but most tools are designed for single users. Bananatag's Email Designer lets organizations collaborate before they hit send, creating beautiful emails together in real-time and sharing them instantly. Unlocking collaboration provides more control and power while remaining friendly and easy to understand alongside existing aspects of the designer.
AbCellera Biologics
Winner
Best
2020
UX
AbCellera Biologics
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Antibody drug development is slow, costly, and has a high failure rate. As the world’s first interactive data visualization platform for antibodies, Celium’s simple, scalable, and stunning system de-risks and accelerates antibody discovery workflows. It quickly became an integral part of AbCellera’s full-stack antibody discovery platform, making the impossible part of our every day.
UX for Students
SIAT at Simon Fraser University
Winner
Best
2020
UX
SIAT at Simon Fraser University
Best
2020
UX
Winner
Safe Shopper is an app to navigate COVID-19 disruptions by providing a place to learn store hours and their health precautions, enabling people to make informed decisions for essential shopping trips. Users can get general info or submit and read reviews. Owners communicate changes about their operations or availability, saving users' time and demonstrating their health efforts.
IDEA School of Design at Capilano University
Winner
Best
2020
UX
IDEA School of Design at Capilano University
Best
2020
UX
Winner
Ami enables Cognitive Behavioural Therapy practices in an app. The core is the AI chatbot, which intakes the user’s negative thoughts and rationally clarifies them. If the problem is beyond the AI, it can share with a therapist. The journal enables users to prepare for upcoming sessions, and grounding strategy audio guides help users improve mindfulness
IDEA School of Design at Capilano University
Winner
Best
2020
UX
Timewise exists to help new retirees embrace this change as a start to an enriching life stage. An app to find communities through various meetups and events, users can do activities and hobbies with others, attend workshops, volunteer, or meet new people. The app introduces structure to your lifestyle as well as chances to exercise cognitive function.
2019
UX for Marketing
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Engine Digital
Best
2019
UX
Winner
The Power Smart campaign has been in the market since 1989, but many of BC Hydro’s residential customers were not aware of the programs, simple behavioural changes, and DIY upgrades that make a significant difference in conserving electricity.
The Power Smart website provided a clear and consistent creative platform to communicate these tips and help educate British Columbians about quick, easy, and low cost ways to make a difference. The website also included a contest with weekly energy-saving prize packages and a grand prize. The Spring campaign resulted in 250,000 contest submissions, which more than doubled the number of contest submissions in the Fall campaign.
The Engine Digital team provided a platform that was a departure from previous Power Smart campaigns, by creating an experience that was fun, informative…..and a little bit cheeky.
Goat
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Goat
Best
2019
UX
Winner
Skipper Otto challenges traditional means of buying seafood by connecting consumers directly to the fishermen. Their unique model aims to keep small scale fishing alive in B.C and ensure customers have access to the very best wild, sustainable seafood.
Through immersive video content, family photos and emotive CTAs, consumers are educated on the importance of eating with the ecosystem and are guided to pledge their commitment by becoming a member. With a primary focus on storytelling and driving sign ups, we created an experience which connects to consumers on an emotional level, ensuring the user flow is considered at every touchpoint to organically guide the user to take action.
Apply Digital
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Apply Digital
Best
2019
UX
Winner
Ag Growth International (AGI), an international agricultural manufacturer, had grown significantly in the past few years through the acquisition of other companies. This had led to their digital presence being fragmented, inconsistent, and outdated. Their corporate website was not responsive, nor could it accommodate the company’s bold growth strategy and continued market expansion.
Aggrowth.com launched as an elevated, much-improved corporate marketing website that united the company’s enterprise marketing vision with a unified brand message and a powerful story, all supported by a new, robust content management system.
UX for Commerce
Mountain Equipment Company
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Mountain Equipment Company
Winner
Best
2019
UX
We built this experience to enable our 5 million+ members to get quick access to the gear and apparel they need in order to enjoy good times outside. Armed with the insight that 40% of our members live within 20 minutes of a store and that we had an opportunity to meet their expectations of avoiding shipping fees, needing faster and more convenient delivery options and adapting to their shopping patterns (such as late seasonal shopping), the project was born.
Bringing intelligence and relevance to our store pickup service, we created an experience to identify eligible products and inform the user about picking up their online order in 2 hours in an effort to drive their decision to shop at MEC.
The solution was to make changes in the online user experience, post purchase communication, and fulfillment process in order to provide members with a faster, more convenient delivery option.
Buddi
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Buddi provides cannabis retailers with Interactive in-store menus to allow customers to browse a retailers real-time inventory. Our menus integrate with their point of sale system and are completely automated.
Our system automatically manages and updates the retail menu via our integrations with various cannabis-focused point of sale systems. We read the inventory and based on UPC we decide to add or remove a product from the menu.
When a customer has decided which products they would like to purchase they can add those to a shopping cart and place an order. This takes the customer's order and parks it inside of the point of sale system.
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Engine Digital
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Founded in 2004, Loloi Rugs is a family-owned company that creates artistically-designed rugs, pillows, and throws and distributes them to the trade (wholesale).
With their recent growth and evolving challenges around product search, site navigation, and the overall e-commerce experience from discovery to checkout, Loloi turned to Engine Digital to completely redesign and improve the website experience.
The site now functions seamlessly for all customers, including improved product recommendations, a UI that communicates the Loloi brand, and a seamless experience from discovery to checkout, all with scalability in mind as Loloi continues to introduce new product categories.
UX for Good
Logic&Form
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Logic&Form
Winner
Best
2019
UX
A massive interactive wall explores historical and contemporary digital records about the Indian Residential School System, presented on three 100" 4K multitouch screens with maps, timelines, nodes, browsing and 6-channel audio. A unique way of representing historical and contemporary digital records about the Indian Residential School system, the Interactive Wall creates avenues for entry into the subject matter through a purposefully unguided experience. The system provides an open-ended approach to learning through a variety of data visualization interfaces.
NGX Interactive
Winner
Best
2019
UX
NGX Interactive
Winner
Best
2019
UX
The Microform Reader History Exploration Kiosk exhibit uses a blend of physical and digital elements to provide the nostalgic experience of using a “retro” research tool, packaged within a sleek, modern, and intuitive interface. Built to provide visitors with a curated glimpse into the library’s collection, the kiosk offers an introduction to Calgary's history, sorted into easy to grasp content themes. The exhibit is backed by an extensible content management system framework that enables the library to add content over time, without changing the user experience.
PeaceGeeks
Winner
Best
2019
UX
PeaceGeeks
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Arrival Advisor helps newcomers find information and resources, relevant to their personal situation, to help them on their immigration journey to Canada. Arrival Advisor serves as a reliable source of information that users can trust, and the experience provides assistance right from the time they start planning their journey all the way through to after arrival. To design and develop the app, the team partnered with service providers, newcomers, and key local stakeholders to understand the challenges faced by immigrants and refugees.
UX for Students
SIAT at Simon Fraser University
Winner
Best
2019
UX
We created a health-tracking app which helps remote caregivers provide care and support to their distant loved ones. When apart, providing care to a loved one is challenging because staying informed is often difficult. By providing access to informative data tracked by wearable technology and offering simple health reports and suggestions based on the data, Medilog enables distant caregivers to be informed and provide care even while apart. Furthermore, the app also enables caregivers to schedule appointments with family doctors and suggest health tasks for care receivers. Lastly, with an emergency trigger, Medilog ensures that caregivers are well-informed and notified in cases of emergency. With Medilog, distant caregiving is made less complex so caregivers can feel connected and provide care seamlessly to distant loved ones.
SIAT at Simon Fraser University
Winner
Best
2019
UX
SIAT at Simon Fraser University
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Currently, Twitter is not perceived as a credible source of information due to the subjective nature of user-created content. Large volumes of conflicting information can cause unnecessary panic and confusion among those who are checking Twitter for clear and recent information, especially under the stress of an emergency.
Emergency officials are currently utilizing Twitter when releasing official statements, reports, and updates to the public. However, with the amount of tweets spiking during emergencies there is no guarantee that their information is reaching the right people. Our solution is an attempt to bridge the gap between people searching for reliable answers in emergencies, and the accounts that are providing it. An intervention that can mitigate the right information from getting lost can provide an accessible resource for both audiences and bring credibility to Twitter’s brand.
SIAT at Simon Fraser University
Winner
Best
2019
UX
Our mobile application, YouMe is an inclusive sexual education app that aims to teach sexual education topics through gamification elements by allowing users to learn, apply, and discover.
Users are given the opportunity to learn about a variety of topics ranging from relationships to reproduction. Each topic is its own module with a set number of lessons users can complete at their own pace. Each lesson contains an informational video and article the user can choose to use in order to learn about their chosen topic.
After watching the informational video and/or article, users can then apply what they’ve learned through a quick and easy interactive quiz.
We believe that learning shouldn’t be boring and a linear process, hence why users can unlock fun mini-games by completing certain modules and lessons. These games are meant to allow users to apply what they’ve learned and can be played either individually or with friends.