Every WWDC, Apple hands out Design Awards to its favorite apps and games of the past year, to “excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement.” Twelve developers picked up prizes this week for their exemplary design work.
Like last year, there were awards up for grabs for best app and best game across six categories: Inclusivity, Delight and Fun, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals and Graphics, and Innovation. Apple also revealed the losing finalists for each category, meaning there’s a total of 36 incredible finalists to check out.
Although it’s something of a shame to see big, well-known apps like Duolingo and Headspace take victories over smaller studios with interesting new ideas like Chantlings and Riveo, it’s admittedly nice to see more established apps still innovating with new features. Overall, it’s hard to argue too much against any of Apple’s picks.
SwingVision
For the full list of winners and finalists, head to the Apple Design Awards microsite. Here you can read Apple’s reasoning behind every win, check out the other finalists, and even watch a compilation of video interviews with app developers for a behind-the-scenes look at the design process.
Amongst the selection are plenty of apps we’ve reviewed highly this past year, and we’re really pleased to see them recognized formally by Apple’s judging panel. Beyond those that we reviewed, there are plenty more great-looking apps and games we’re looking forward to checking out soon.
Railbound
It’s also interesting to see the overlap with our own TapSmart App Awards, which we pick at the end of every calendar year. Apple’s Delight & Fun runner-up (Chantlings) was in our top apps of 2022, while two of our favorite games of 2022 (Knotwords and Automatoys) made the Apple Design Awards finals.
Oh, and if you’re hungry for even more great apps, take at last year’s winners, the 2021 winners, or our 2016-2020 favorites!