Hasta La Ideas

In October we launched the Fast Track to the Mobile App Design Challenge, an international competition for the Windows Phone to design new apps to help people get their work done. We received amazing and inspiring submissions from to-do lists to contact managers to shutting notifications off so you can focus on actually working. After hours of review and deliberation by our fantastic judges Scott Wilson (MINIMAL), Jill Nussbaum (Barbarian Group), René Schulte (Schulte Software Development), Mike Kruzeniski (Microsoft), Brandon Watson (Microsoft) and Eric Ludlum (Core77), we are proud to announce our five winners and 95 finalists!

All winners and finalists will receive a 1-year subscription to the App Hub development community and the first 25 finalists who launch their apps in the Windows Marketplace will become our Notable Finalists, scoring a Windows Phone. Winners not only receive a subscription to App Hub, Windows Phone and XBox 360 with Kinect, but they also get an app development deal to fast track their apps to the Windows Marketplace. Keep checking back over the next couple months as we start Phase 2 of the competition: following the winners along the development path from design to launching their apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Without further ado…

WINNERS

Bridge – an integrated mobile tool for small team collaboration across time zones.

App Designer:
Ying Wei, Toh
Seoul, South Korea (originally Ipoh, Malaysia)
Portfolio: www.coroflot.com/yingwei
LinkedIn: kr.linkedin.com/in/yingwei
Credits: Dennis Park, Visual Designer

Ying Wei is a passionate User Experience designer specializing in user research, user interface and interaction design. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Interface Design from Multimedia University, Malaysia in 2007 and her Master’s degree in Interaction Design from Kookmin University, Seoul, South Korea in Feb 2011. She was an interaction designer at Autodesk in Shanghai where her responsibility is to assist the development of the global products and workflows such as AutoCAD Map3D and Digital Cities projects in a global team spreading over US, Canada, and China.

Currently, she is working as an information architect in Seoul.
Ying Wei loves traveling and exploring different countries and cultures.

Blackbelt – a level-up based business app aimed at improving company productivity and employee self awareness through objectives, incentives and competition.

App Designer:
Mark William Salerno
Milan, Italy (originally Melbourne, Australia)
Industrial Design: www.designsalerno.net
Graphic Design: www.marksmanstudios.com

New freelancer Mark William Salerno set out to become a car designer yet could not deny his passion for mixed design disciplines in Arts, Graphic, Multimedia and Industrial Design.

Earning ‘The Man’ nickname at Design Innovation Milano, he became an ID project leader and international tutor. Moving to the design capital in 2006, he completed a master course with Alfa Romeo at the famous Scuola Politecnica di Design. An upbringing in Australia excelled his natural skills with studies at Swinburne TAFE and Monash University.

Utlizing all facets of art and design, he continues to develop a fine ‘explore-filter-evolve’ cycle of creative labor.

Social Mints – easily track and measure what people are saying about a company, brand or new product across the social media landscape.

App Designer:
Pratik Kothari
Virginia Beach, VA
www.gotechark.com
www.moodswinglife.com

Pratik Kothari works as Director of IT for reQuire, LLC and also runs his own company Techark Consultancy. Kothari holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Computer Science and is passionate about solving challenging problems.

Microsoft has recognized Kothari as a Developer Hero for his extremely popular Windows Phone apps: Mood Swing, Dress Pal, Smart Goals, RedMinder and …honey, I got it! All his apps are very practical and based out of necessities in one’s daily life. An AppHub Spotlight on Kothari’s apps is available here.

Rhythmatic – an easy to use and powerful business cash-flow management mobile app.

App Designer:
Geof Harries
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
http://subvert.ca

Geof Harries is a designer who is most commonly hired to research, plan and conceive user interfaces for enterprise software products. When not working on client projects, he and the team at Subvert develop their own commercial software products built on the Microsoft technology platform. Outside of work, Geof loves to spend time with his wife and three children. He occasionally can be found in the Yukon wilderness atop his mountain bike, cross-country skis or snowboard.

car-pal+ – helps road warriors track fuel efficiency, find the nearest gas station, and monitor road alerts and maintenance history.

App Designer:
Alan Asher
Denver, Colorado
www.linkedin.com/in/alanasher
Credits: Chris Bartlett

Alan Asher is an aspiring 28-year-old entrepreneur and digital-media designer whose passion is interface design and user experience. He enjoys designing and consulting from start-up ventures to enterprise-level applications.

With six years of business and technology experience in the financial-services industry, Alan looks forward to meeting new people, learning from new opportunities, and engaging in new challenges. His other interests include finance, technological trends and photography.

Alan is also an active member of his local community, dedicating personal time to programs like Junior Achievement to cultivate young business leaders of the future.

We can’t reveal too much about these apps before they’re launched, but here are the finalists we’ll also be keeping an eye on:

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