IDEAs

I was exchanging emails today with a co-worker of mine from a latent design contracting job. Apparently they have been cutting back and many of my friends there have been getting laid off. It was great to catch up with her and offer her a resource to help her in her search to find new employment. In one of her reply emails she said:

"I was cleaning out my hard drive and files and keep finding your sketches and mock ups - you are a huge part of what make it such a great (and award-winning) UI! "

It was a nice ego booster to hear that people appreciated the work I did there, but then I stopped. "Award-winning?" Last I checked, I hadn't heard anything about winning any awards. When I checked back with her on it, she explained that our device won the bronze International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) which, according to 3M anyway, is one of the worlds most prestigious design competitions sponsored by Business Week magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Now, before my head gets too big I should mention that the award is for the entire product design of the device which took the work of many smart people. Still, how psyched am I to have taken part in designing the user interface to this cool dental device!? A part of that IDEA belongs to me, and you can rest assured, I will be bragging about it.