This year I was asked to be one of the 60+ judges for the 2010 BIMA Awards.
Aside from meeting my fellow judges, a veritable "Who's Who" of the London digital design industry — these things are always good to meet up with friends, and catch up with people you haven't seen in years — the judging itself was a very educational and rewarding experience.
The work submitted to the awards offers a great cross-section of digital work produced in the UK. While I'm relatively up to date with what's happening in the industry (and was glad to see some personal favourites , there was a fair amount of work I'd never seen before — or work I had only noticed in passing previously.
While we all individually scored the first round of entries online, it was the second round of group evaluations and shortlisting of entries in our categories (Mobile Apps, Open Data, Self Promotion, Web Apps, and Websites & Microsites) which was the most interesting to me, as the group analysis (as you'd expect) highlighted many things individuals might have missed the first time around — altering my perceptions of certain entries on a few occasions (not always for the better sadly!).
So… what have I learned from this:
Overall I'd say the entries this year (as far as I could see from our categories) were quite strong, although there was a prevailing sense of "Great idea, too bad the execution lets it down/it wasn't pushed further" on more than one occasion. Similarly, a sizeable portion of entries suffered from being in a category not really befitting the work. The worst offenders in my opinion where those entries that simply didn't work, or focussed on aspects that weren't accessible at the time of judging, forcing us to make assumptions based on written descriptions and/or screenshots. Not very interactive, that.
But, when the work was good, it was great. And thats what its all about in the end. Coming together to look at digital work and be genuinely impressed (and dare I say happy) that the work is out there, and that someone had the (crazy) idea to do it.
So yeah, its nice to know that after 12 years I can still be impressed by New Stuff Online.
Come November 25th we'll know who the winners will be, and I think (hope!) it'll be good.