American Judge

Recently, I had the opportunity to help judge the 14th annual MITX Interactive Awards. You can see the list of finalists here. The winners will be announced November 17 at an awards ceremony at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The MITX Interactive Awards honor the best interactive work from New England’s digital marketing & media community.

Judging the awards was a great experience. It gave me more insight into how non-designers look at work — and that was refreshing. My experience as a judge contrasted sharply from my experience in the workplace in some ways, and mirrored my workplace experience in other ways.

You see, at Corey we look at every branding and design project holistically. Our end goal is never to build the best looking site or the one with the most bells and whistles, utilizing all of the latest technologies. The design and the technology are secondary. First and foremost, our goal is to create a positive and beneficial user experience for the intended audience. Everything else stems from that experience.  If we create an experience that speaks to the target, then we’ve succeeded.

So it was interesting for me to see so many of the judges evaluating individual elements of the award entrees. Some were fixated on the demos, others the technology. Still others were focused on individual design elements. Utlimately, they evaluated the total project, and that’s what really matters. What was especially refreshing was that all of the judges factored in the ROI when evaluating the work. After all the best looking design and the coolest technology are meaningless unless they deliver the intended results.