The competition
The Innovation by Design Challenge is a competition organized by the City of Renens, Écal, Heig-VD and EPFL. The challenge aims to bring together local startups and designers, whether students or professionals, to address a specific issue that allows the company to push innovation within its structure through design.
The Challenge process
The challenge takes place over a given time limit, 4 sessions of 3 hours spread over a week for this time. It allows companies and designers to collaborate on the ideation, identification of opportunities and creation of a prototype, as well as to prepare a pitch-type presentation for the jury and the audience.
Over the course of a series of workshops, participants receive advice from experts and coaches from both academia and professionals in the implementation of innovation. In addition to valuable advice that shapes the course of the challenge, several tools created specifically for the occasion are made available during the sessions to speed up the process and shape the multiple ideas as effectively as possible.
Our collaboration with Codex
I was therefore brought together with Codex, our neighbors based at the Forge of EPFL Innovation Park, with the objective of optimizing the user experience of their digital product and the visual communication of their services.
The concept
Codex introduces a new way of visiting and discovering a venue through the use of technologies accessible to all via a smartphone and by integrating the concepts of “gamification” and community. For the purpose of this competition, we decided to only focus on the Codex mobile application for museums and other cultural institutions.
The intent was not only to re-imagine the app’s various functionalities but also to portray it in a way that was consistent with the communication objectives set. With the help of Pablo Bellon, Student Designer at Écal, we designed a new playful and adaptive interface that was well received by the public and earned us the People’s Choice Award.
The other projects and prizes
Our team won the People’s Choice Award by the City of Renens. The jury, composed of representatives of regional political, economic and academic circles, awarded their own prize to two projects ex-aequo : Pneumoscope and NebuloSystems. You can find out more about these projects of outstanding quality on the Challenge’s website here.
This competition was above all a genuine experience of skill-sharing and each of the 5 projects submitted is irrefutable proof of the importance to be given to design within any innovation venture. We warmly thank the event organizers and participants and highly recommend any startup looking to discover the potential of design to participate next year!
A word from Codex
“ Our collaboration with Michael and Pablo was far more interesting and effective than we could have ever imagined. It is very pleasant to meet a team of reactive, attentive and above all extremely creative designers!
Our application’s new design is thought out to provide a satisfying visual experience, safeguard your batteries and make it easier for everyone to understand. It also adapts very well to all the audiences we meet.”
Stefan Rotarus, Co-founder of Codex.
To read more about it
Innovaud article : 3 winners at the Innovation by Design Challenge in 2019
Start-Up Ticker Switzerland : Un 3e Innovation by Design Challenge de haut-niveau