Posts tagged with "Apple Design Awards"

2026 Apple Design Awards Winners Announced

With WWDC right around the corner, Apple has revealed the winners of the annual Apple Design Awards. The Awards are given to an app and game from a pool of 36 finalists in the following categories:

  • Delight and Fun
  • Inclusivity
  • Innovation
  • Interaction
  • Social Impact
  • Visuals and Graphics

The pool of finalists was especially strong this year, but just one app and game is chosen for each category, and here’s what Apple picked:

Delight and Fun

Is This Seat Taken?

Is This Seat Taken?

App: grug
Developer: Ocho (Netherlands)

grug is a playful way to discover and embrace daily wisdom. The affirmation app provides a delightful way to read daily neolithic grunts. With just a simple idea, each prompt is thoughtfully delivered to offer users a small but meaningful moment of reflection.

Game: Is This Seat Taken?
Developer: Poti Poti Studio (Spain)

Is This Seat Taken? is a fun way to experience and solve tricky logic puzzles. The cartoon-style game provides entertaining scenarios, helping players navigate the quirkiness of public transit. Playful interactive elements within the game create a sense of charm to support users in enjoying an unhurried ride, one seat at a time.

Read more

Apple Announces Its 2026 Apple Design Award Finalists

Today, Apple announced the finalists for the Apple Design Awards in six categories:

  • Delight and Fun
  • Inclusivity
  • Innovation
  • Interaction
  • Social Impact
  • Visuals and Graphics

Each category includes three finalists for a total of 18 apps and games from across Apple’s platforms:

Delight and Fun

Finalists in this category provide memorable, engaging, and satisfying experiences enhanced by Apple technologies.

Apps

Games

Read more

2025 Apple Design Awards Winners and Finalists Announced

As WWDC approaches, Apple has announced the finalists for its annual Apple Design Awards, and in a departure from recent years, the winners too.

This year, there are six categories, and each category has a winning app and game, along with four finalists. Unlike last year, there is no Spatial Computing category this year. The 2025 ADA winners and finalists are:

Delight and Fun

Winners:

Finalists:

Innovation

Winners:

Finalists:

Interaction

Winner:

  • App
    • Taobao by Zhejiang Taobao Network
  • Game

Finalists:

Inclusivity

Winner:

Finalists:

Social Impact

Winners:

  • App
  • Game
    • Neva by Developer Digital

Finalists:

Visuals and Graphics

Winners:

Finalists:

The winners and finalists include a broad range of games and apps, including some from smaller developers including Lumy, Denim Art of Fauna, Skate City: New York, as well as titles from bigger publishers.

I’m glad that Apple has announced the finalists for the last few years. Winning an ADA is a big achievement for any developer, but it’s also nice to know who the finalists are because it’s quite an honor among the many apps that could have been chosen, too. Plus as a fan of apps, Apple’s longer finalist list always reminds me of an app or two that I haven’t tried yet. Congratulations to all of this year’s Apple Design Award winners and finalists.

WWDC 2024: The AppStories Interviews with ADA and Swift Student Challenge Distinguished Winners→

Devin Davies, the developer of Crouton.

Devin Davies, the developer of Crouton.

To wrap up our week of WWDC coverage, we just published a special episode of AppStories that was recorded in the Apple Podcasts Studio at Apple Park. Federico and I interviewed three of this year’s Apple Design Award winners:

Devin Davies.

Devin Davies.

  • Devin Davies, the creator of Crouton, which won an ADA in the Interaction category
Katarina Lotrič and Jasna Krmelj of Gentler Streak.

Katarina Lotrič and Jasna Krmelj of Gentler Streak.


- Katarina Lotrič, CEO and co-founder, and Jasna Krmelj, CTO and co-founder, of Gentler Streak, which won an ADA in the Social Impact category

James Cuda, CEO, and Michael Shaw, CTO, of Procreate.

James Cuda, CEO, and Michael Shaw, CTO, of Procreate.


- James Cuda, CEO, and Michael Shaw, CTO of Procreate, which won an ADA for (Procreate Dreams) in the Innovation category

We also interviewed two of the Swift Student Challenge Distinguished Winners:

  • Dezmond Blair, a student at the Apple Developer Academy in Detroit. His app marries his passion for biking and the outdoors with technology, which creates an immersive experience.
  • Adelaide Humez, a high school student from Lille, France. Her winning app, Egretta, allows users to create a journal of their dreams based on emotions.

In addition to being available as always in your favorite podcast app as an audio-only podcast, This special episode of AppStories is available on our new MacStories YouTube channel, which is also the home of Comfort Zone, one of the two podcasts we launched last week and other video projects.

[Subscribe here.](https://www.macstories.net/podcasts/appstories/plans)

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about the benefits included with an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

Permalink

Apple Design Award Winners Announced

Crouton (left) and Gentler Streak (right). Source: Apple.

Crouton (left) and Gentler Streak (right). Source: Apple.

Apple has announced the winners of the 2024 Apple Design Award. Just over one week ago, Apple revealed six finalists in each of seven categories.

This year’s winners include an app and game in each category for a total of 14 winners, including MacStories favorites like Crouton, Gentler Streak, and Blackbox:

Delight and Fun

Inclusivity

Innovation

Interaction

  • App: Crouton by Devin Davies (New Zealand)
  • Game: Rytmos by Floppy Club (Denmark)

Social Impact

Visuals and Graphics

  • App: Rooms by Things, Inc. (United States)
  • Game: Lies of P by NEOWIZ (South Korea)

Spatial Computing

This year’s ADAs represent a wide cross-section of apps, from solo developers to large corporations. Of course, I’m partial to the indies on the list, but overall, I think Apple’s choices this year are excellent.

2023 Apple Design Award Winners Revealed

Two weeks ago, Apple announced the finalists for the 2023 Apple Design Awards: 36 apps and games in six categories: Inclusivity, Delight and Fun, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals and Graphics, and Innovation.

Last evening, at an outdoor event on the stage built outside Caffè Macs for yesterday’s WWDC Keynote, the company announced two winners (one app and one game) in each category for a total of twelve 2023 Apple Design Award winners. Following the announcements, developers gathered in Caffè Macs for a reception and had a chance to see the Vision Pro for themselves at the Steve Jobs Theater.

Congratulations to all of this year’s Apple Design Award winners:

Inclusivity

Delight and Fun

Interaction

Social Impact

Visuals and Graphics

Innovation

We’ll have more 2023 Apple Design Award coverage soon, so stay tuned.

You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2023 hub or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2023 RSS feed.

2023 ADA Finalists Announced

As has been the case the past couple of years, Apple has announced the finalists in the running for its annual Apple Design Awards. The awards ceremony revealing the winners will be held during WWDC at 6:30 pm Pacific on June 6th.

The finalists have been divided into six categories that include six finalists each:

Inclusivity

Delight and Fun

Interaction

Social Impact

Visuals and Graphics

Innovation

The selections include a broad selection of games and apps, including some apps from smaller developers like Knotwords, Afterplace, and Gentler Streak, as well as titles from bigger publishers.

This is the third year in a row that Apple has announced the finalists in advance, which I like a lot. Winning an ADA is a big achievement for any developer, but it’s also nice to know who the finalists are because it’s quite an honor among the many apps that could have been chosen too.

AppStories, Episode 278 – 2022 Apple Design Award Winners: The AppStories Interviews→

It’s been quite a week. We’ve recorded daily episodes of AppStories in the Club MacStories+ Discord community, covering everything from our initial reactions to Monday’s keynote to the features of each of the OS updates announced. It’s been a lot of fun and we’re not quite finished, but the highlight of the week was the opportunity to interview three of the Apple Design Award winners in Apple’s podcast studio, where I recorded in person with the ADA winners with Federico joining us remotely on the big screen.

We interviewed Claire d’Este of Savage Interactive, the maker of Procreate, which won an ADA in the Inclusivity category, Curtis Herbert of Breakpoint Studios, the creator of Slopes, which won in the Interaction category, and Joe Lee, of Netmarble, the developer of MARVEL Future Revolution, which won in the Innovation category. It was a fantastic mix of apps and games and an excellent conversation about the qualities that make an app or game an Apple Design Award-winner.

Sponsored by:

  • Kolide – Endpoint security powered by people. Try Kolide for 14 days free; no credit card required.
Curtis Herbert (left) and Joe Lee (right).

Curtis Herbert (left) and Joe Lee (right).

Thanks again to Apple for making the interviews possible and a highlight of our week, and thanks to Claire, Curtis, and Joe for taking the time to share their experiences as developers with us.

[Subscribe here.](https://www.macstories.net/podcasts/appstories/plans)

Subscribe here.

We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.

To learn more about the benefits included with an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.

Permalink

2022 Apple Design Award Finalists Announced

Like last year, Apple has announced the finalists in the running for its annual Apple Design Awards. The awards ceremony revealing the winners will be held during WWDC at 5:00 PM Pacific on June 6th.

The finalists have been divided into six categories that include six finalists each:

Inclusivity

Delight and Fun

Interaction

Social Impact

Visuals and Graphics

Innovation

The selections include a broad selection of games and apps, including some apps from smaller developers like Halide Mark II, Transit, and Slopes, as well as titles from bigger publishers.

This is the second year in a row that Apple has announced the finalists in advance, which I like a lot. Winning an ADA is a big achievement for any developer, but it’s also nice to know who the finalists are because it, too, is quite an honor among the many apps that could have been chosen.