Space Travel Design Challenge Winners

We recently hosted a design challenge with Adobe XD—and the winners have been chosen!

But first, a recap...

The Challenge

Reach for the stars! Space travel may seem like it’s light-years away, but if we could visit other worlds today, where would you go? Use your creativity to envision a digital solution for space travel.

Build a prototype for a digital product that will serve the needs of the challenge and the target audience. It can be a mobile app, website, game or whatever you deem as the most effective solution for engagement. 

The Constraints

Your project must be created and shown interactively in Adobe XD, and be 5 or more prototyped screens that are wired together. A brief written description of your design approach and how you solved the problem should be included with your prototype. Maximum of 500 words.

📝 Tips: 

• Focus on the main flow that solves the problem (No need to include the login screen)
• Start with paper and pencil to sketch before prototyping in XD
• Use real copy where it makes sense to communicate your idea
• Test your idea with a friend or family member 
• Placeholder images and graphics are ok

🔍 Projects were evaluated on:

• Demonstration of the theme idea and solution
• Intuitive content and navigation design
• Principles of design for visual information and human considerations
• Empathy towards the target audience
• Uniqueness of the concept

🏆 The 1st place winner will receive: 

• A $500 Designlab scholarship
• One year free Creative Cloud
• Adobe Swag
• Designlab Swag

🎁 2nd & 3rd place winners will receive:

• 3-months of free Creative Cloud 
• Adobe Swag
• Designlab Swag

The Judges

We received so many submissions for this design challenge that were out-of-this-world awesome. Selecting just a few winners was very challenge. Meet the celebrity judges who helped us make our decisions...

Erik Gartzke, UX Designer at Space CAMP

Erik Gartzke is a United States Marine, UX Academy graduate, and a UX Designer at Space CAMP. He works with Agile teams to design and develop software products for the US Space Force and Air Force. He was our expert on all things space for this challenge.

Danielle Elise & Darren Jxn, Founders of All Black Creatives

Danielle and Darren, husband and wife co-founders of All Black Creatives, are able to connect, celebrate and accelerate their creatives through brand partnerships and intentional design. Designlab is pleased to be partnering with their organization, seeking to bring diversity into the field of design.

Ivelisse Capellan, Product Designer at Alaska Airlines

Ivelisse is a Puerto Rican product designer currently working at Alaska Airlines. Coming from an interdisciplinary background with experience in chemistry and cultural management, she has been able to translate those skills into the design field. Over the years, she's learned to embrace her analytical nature while exploring user interactions and building new products at companies like Microsoft and Sinclair Digital. She brought the travel perspective to this challenge judging.

Jamie Nuzbach, Strategic Development Manager at Adobe XD

Jamie brings Adobe XD's performance, integrations and cross-platform solution to educators, students and business professionals in the UX industry. With years of experience as a Creative Director in enterprise and agency, Jamie understands the needs of companies today and how XD can help designers revolutionize their workflow. Jamie was our Adobe XD expert judge.

The Finalists

10th Place: Space Watch by Shuk Yu Liu

9th Place: Untitled by Devarpan Mukherjee

8th Place: Astra by Dhanashree Bhat

7th Place: Stardigrad by Caitlin James

6th Place: AWAY by Lorena Prieto

5th Place: NebuLyft by Emily Kehlenbeck

4th Place: Astro by Yvon Tran

The Winners

And the winners are...

3rd Place: Space Walks by Gal Shalitin 🥉

This site contains lovely images, color choices, and typography. We love the creative spaceship names! The navigation process is intuitive and clear. And the UX writing in the call to actions are clear throughout the entire flow.

2nd Place: PULSAR by Jessica Koh 🥈

This project showed great research and attention to detail, like using real names from scientists, and an alien language. They expertly used animations to give a sense of immersion to the app. The experience is very clear in how to book a trip to Mars.

1st Place: Lightspeed by Chou Yang 🥇

This is a very well designed app. We love that they chose to go with a light theme so as to contrast the darkness of space. The visual hierarchy was on point and the navigation was clear. The iconography is also beautiful.

Thank you to all who entered, and congratulations to our winners!

If you haven't already, be sure to sign up for our Adobe XD 101 free 7-day email course. You'll learn how to design your own app like the ones seen above!

Ready to take your UX design skills to the next level? Learn more about our UX Academy program.