The 2025 World Usability Initiative (WUI) Design Challenge theme was "Emerging Technologies and Human Experience". Award winners were announced on World Usability Day:
- Gold: AI-Driven Social Interaction: A Sustainable Bench for Building Connections in the Parks (Bonding Bench), by: Phuong Lien (Lindsey) To
- Silver: AR Applications for Future Flight Deck: System Usability and User Experience, by: Declan Saunders, Wen-Chin Li, James Blundell, Samuel Cohort, and Dujuan Sevillian
- Bronze: Stopping AI Scams with AI: A Scam Detection App for User Protection, by: Christina Kim
HCI International 2026 sponsors the awards and congratulates the winners. The three awards (Gold $1,250; Silver $1,000; and Bronze $750) will be conferred during the Opening Plenary Session in the evening of the 28th of July 2026.
The three award winners are also cordially invited, with complimentary registration, to present their work on the 29th of July 2026 in a special hybrid session of the Conference, to be chaired by Elizabeth Rosenzweig, Director of World Usability Day.
World Usability Day is a single day of events occurring around the world that brings together communities of professional, industrial, educational, citizen, and government groups for our common objective: to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use.