Student Design Challenge

The OzCHI Student Design Challenge (SDC) is a yearly international student design competition within the broad scope of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), but also extending to wider disciplines such as design, architecture and humanities (interdisciplinary teams are strongly encouraged). 

Teams will face a design problem (to be released 7th of September) and work together to brainstorm, sketch and ideate a prototype design to resolve/address the design problem in response. After the challenge period, teams will be required to submit a video showcasing their design, alongside a poster, and any demonstration requirements (such that attendees at the conference can participate in their designs if desired). 

HCI Academics will review the submissions and select finalist teams to present at the conference. Finalist teams will showcase their designs at OzCHI (Adelaide, South Australia in Nov 2026) towards a panel of judges, to select the winning team.   

Important Dates

• 7th September: Challenge Open / Brief Released

• 21st September: Submission Link Opens

• 28th September: Challenge Closes

• 16th October: Notification and other relevant dates. 

Prize

Two registrations are required per team for the top three finalists. The top three teams will be awarded a certificate of recognition. 

How It Works

Participants will have an extended period to work on their projects, with the brief released two weeks in advance of the competition. 

At the start of the two-week challenge period, student teams will receive a brief containing a real-world HCI research problem.

• Submission format:
• A 5-minute video clip demonstrating the solution to the HCI research problem.
• An A1 poster (portrait).
• (Optional) A brief outline of any physical/digital prototype for display at the conference, and any technical requirements (e.g. power, space requirements) needed for students who wish to demonstrate their concept. 

• Submissions are not anonymous and should include all author names, affiliations and contact information (i.e. email). 

The design brief will describe an issue or topic which is relatively open-ended, so teams will be required to use their intuition and creativity to develop a design solution/experience. To aid teams, the brief will also include:

• Links to background reading and theory relative to the topic. 
• Toolkits to help teams ideate solutions to the problem space established by the brief.
• Instructions for the final submission.

We encourage teams to complete the challenge by following a design process. Teams are free to follow any design process they wish (e.g. UX design process, design funnel). We present a process below to get teams started, but teams are welcome to pick their own: 

1. Conducting a literature review (e.g. what’s the state-of-the-art and what hasn’t been done before?); 
2. Without limits, ideation of what a design solution might look like?  Teams could start with a broad range of concepts before funnelling to a singular solution. 
3. Storyboarding how users (human or otherwise) might interact with the solution. 
4. Prototyping and reflection. Prototypes can be high-fidelity (e.g. a digital application) or low-fidelity (e.g. composed of cardboard and paper). 

Please do NOT gather primary data (e.g. interviews, surveys) from participants outside of the team. Data should be gathered by e.g. team brainstorming, scholarly literature, reports and news articles. 

Team Eligibility

• Teams must have 2 to 4 members. 
• At the time of the SDC (within September 2026) participants must be students. Students can be at any stage of their academic study (e.g. undergraduate or postgraduate). 
• Team members can be from multiple disciplines, institutions, countries and continents. 
• Participants can not be a member or more than one team. 
• Each team will be required to provide the contact details of a Team Representative (who will be the primary contact during the challenge). 

The Challenge Brief

Download the Challenge Brief:

Download PDF

Submission Instructions

Please ensure your team includes all the required documents in:

• One folder: Name the folder using the alphabetical order of family names for each team member: (e.g. Volmer_Smith_Matthews.zip). 
• Ensure all files (video, poster) are named identically to the .zip file (eg. Volmer_Smith_Matthews.mp4). 

Make sure the following files are included in the .zip file:  

1. 5-Minute Video Clip
• Refer to the design brief for more information. 
2. Poster (PDF)
   • A1 size, portrait format, printed. Please bring your printed poster to the conference in order to have it displayed.  
3. Demonstration requirements (optional)
   1. If you wish to demonstrate the teams work, are there any power/space requirements to facilitate the demonstration. 

Upload your .zip file here: [Link to be added closer to due date] 

Generative AI Acknowledgement

Students must acknowledge any use of generative AI in the creation of their content (i.e. posters, videos, and prototypes), including specifying any AI tools used and the extent of their contribution to outputs, writing, or design processes;