oday, the winners of the design contest will be made public! I can't wait to see the other contestants! What were the criteria again? Let's count my horses in this game. Bear with me as I quote the call-for-designs site specifications:

• "Design should be a PNG, TIF or JPG image, suitable for use in a small web widget, in English language." - check!
  
• "You are providing a mockup only, IDEA's programmers will animate it." - fair enough - check!
  
• "The imagery should include a map of ASEAN countries, and be a single screen which shows the clock." - yep!
  
• "Dimensions should be less than 500x500, and greater than 150x150 pixels." - done!
  
• "Opaque background suitable to be in a web browser." - affirmative!
  

OK, that part is not that hard. Let's see the tricky part:
"Submissions will be judged on several criteria, including overall appearance, usability, and Malaysian cultural appropriateness."
As far as appearance is concerned, well, judge for yourself, I tried to use a flat, but bright blue color scheme, contrasted that with a red highlight colour. The map is quite detailed, highlights all ASEAN countries, names them and focuses on Malaysia. Furthermore, the equator is visible, as well as surrounding countries. Usability: I tried not to make the most obvious mistakes.

On the Malaysian cultural appropriateness-front, I named Australia as a reference, instead of China. And hey, jury, the word "including" in the last line, that is a nice way out!

Will this design be recognised? The biggest question, also with contests is: "compared to what?"
I guess we'll just wait and see!

oday I read on the design contest website that the jury wrote that the contest is now closed. They are reviewing the submissions and winners will be chosen by the end of the month.
That is a little bit late, but let's see what they come up with. It's worth a wait!

ore news: I just got an email from IDEA.org to notify me that while the committee is still reviewing the designs, my design is in the top five!!
Not bad! They will soon disclose the 3 winning designs....

ince of today, the winning designs are published online. Judge for jourself!
Winners, congratulations!