Online Awards Platform
A custom online awards platform, built in collaboration with member organizations across Canada, serving over 250,000 users each year.
1. Project Overview
Original Client: A group of several Home Builders' Associations in Ontario, Canada
Role/Contributions: Product Designer and Developer
Duration: 2015 to present
Project Summary
Awardify is a comprehensive awards management platform developed to streamline the submission, review, and administration of awards programs. Initially conceived to address internal needs of local Home Builders' Associations, Awardify has since grown into a commercial-grade platform supporting over 250,000 users annually. The platform provides end-to-end awards management with features like application tracking, payment processing, judging, public voting, and real-time reporting.
2. The Problem
Most Home Builders' Associations across Canada run annual awards programs for their members. Their already-overworked office administrators would organize the awards program by means of a combination of emails, spreadsheets, mailed-in contents, and even faxes! Running their awards programs each year required an enormous effort, and involved an exhausting amount of manual coordination.
Goals
- Automate submission tracking, payments, and review processes.
- Provide a unified platform for applicants, judges, and administrators.
- Enable real-time visibility into program performance, submission statuses, and payments.
- Alleviate administrative burden with automation, self-serve tools, and real-time reporting.
3. Research & Discovery
Research Methods
- Conducted interviews with office administrators to understand the shape and demands of their awards programs.
- Identified pain points related to the entry submission process, payment tracking, and the judging process.
Insights
- An enormous amount of time and resources were wasted each year on manual tracking, and one-by-one communication with entrants.
- Input from judges was often inconsistent. They needed a way to ensure judges had access to their assigned list of entries and to a centralized set of judging criteria.
- Most offices were using several services to handle voting, which were not designed for their use. This resulted in low engagement and frustration for voters as well as administrators.
4. Strategy
Design Recommendations
Based on feedback from administrators, I proposed a set of initial features that would directly address the biggest problems their various offices were experiencing.
Design Process
Initial layouts were prepared as usability wireframes. I invited feedback from the original group of associations, and ran 2 or 3 rounds of wireframing.
Design Priorities
- User-Focused: Intuitive, role-based dashboards for administrators, entrants, and judges.
- Automation: Automated workflows to track applications, payments, and judging progress.
- Modularity: Customizable features and workflows to meet the specific needs of different awards programs.
5. Implementation
Construction of the first version of Awardify began in the spring of 2015, starting with the admin panel and basic public website, and moving into a series of sprints to prepare the entrant and judge work areas.
How It Was Built
Awardify was built using a custom tech stack, including PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and modern front-end frameworks. The system incorporates payment gateways like Stripe for secure payment processing. The back end employs a robust database structure to track submissions, payments, and scoring.
Launch & Delivery
- Phase 1 (Fall 2015): Initial launch with core admin controls, submission, and judging workflows.
- Phase 2 (Spring 2016): Added payment processing for entries, public voting, and expanded admin dashboards.
- Phase 3 (Fall 2017): Full platform release, supporting all core features, integrations, and advanced reporting. A second set of associations were added to the system.
6. Results & Impact
Awardify has grown substantially both in regard to its user base and in the sophistication of its software.
- User Base Growth: Expanded from an initial 3,000 users to over 250,000 annually.
- Efficiency Gains: Reduced admin workload by more than 60% due to automated submission tracking and payment processing. For many organizations, Awardify has become the backbone of their awards process.
7. Reflections
We've achieved many technical feats over the years, but my favourite achievement of all is knowing that Awardify removes stress from the daily life of the people who are at the helm of their awards programs. Watching stress lines disappear is why I work in digital, and it has been a privilege to deliver "peace of mind" to those Awardify serves.
Luke provided outstanding project leadership and communication throughout this entire process. He demonstrated great creativity in delivering on our objectives in a way that would work well for our members. And in the face of the many customizations we needed, he was able to accommodate us skillfully. When the time came to launch the website, Luke was very accessible, responding quickly, and offering excellent service to us and our members. This is such an exciting time for the WRHBA and Luke is to be commended for all his hard work and diligence in getting us to this point. Thanks for creating such an awesome website for us. All is greatly appreciated!
— Marie Schroeder (Waterloo Region Home Builders' Association)