Manifest Digital Participates in Microsoft PhizzPop Design Challenge

Manifest Digital was recently selected by Microsoft as one of four Chicago design agencies to participate in their PhizzPop Design Challenge competition. As part of the competition, three people from each agency work together to address a particular business problem through solution design. The teams are provided with some initial Microsoft training. Then, the teams are provided the design challenge and given about a week to devise a solution. The competition is judged by design industry experts on November 20th, with the winning team moving on to showcase and compete at the SXSW conference in March 2009.

The PhizzPop Design Challenge – Chicago 2016 Olympics Bid Awareness

An overview of the challenge taken from Microsoft’s UX Evangelist Chris Bernard’s blog:

You’ve been selected by the Chicago 2016 Committee to help provide digital strategies to help Chicago be selected at the site of the 2016 Olympics. Chicago 2016 has less than a year before the International Olympic Committee votes on which of the four competing cities wins the bid. The four competing cities are Chicago, Madrid, Rio, and Tokyo.

One of the key elements to winning the bid for Chicago is getting the city’s youth behind the bid. Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 will be in their late 20’s to early 30’s if/when the Olympic come to Chicago in 2016. This is the audience that in 2016 will be going to events, and taking their kids to cheer on the next Shawn Johnson or Michael Phelps.

The committee is looking for ways to actively engage and ultimately generate support with the city’s youth in a demonstrable way. It is very important to not just get the youth involved but somehow show their impact/support in a visual/meaningful way. It is also important to somehow find ways to activate those that influence youth, like teachers, coaches, and parents.

Introducing the Manifest PhizzPop Team

We’ve stacked the deck and have three great team members representing Manifest. Here’s a bit about them…

• Brian Henkel – One of Manifest’s wicked-hard-core User Experience Architects, Brian is leading the user experience design charge. Look for him to sketch, wireframe and incorporate plenty of multimedia ideas into the design. He’s a big thinker, so look for a solution with a true “WOW!” effect.
• Kevin Panke – An energetic and exciting interactive designer, Kevin is the team’s visual design magician. Kevin’s drive for creating fresh, bold and simple designs will help the team put the “pop” in their PhizzPop solution.
• Dan Thompson – As the team’s lead developer, Dan has the challenge of getting the solution to actually work (yes, this actually needs to happen). This will be challenge in itself, as Brian and Kevin will likely come up with large, kick-ass creative ideas. This isn’t anything new to Dan though – he’s constantly playing an integral role in developing many of the solutions for Manifest’s clients on a regular basis.

Look for the team to hit a homerun on the challenge. As I write, they’re cooped up in the design room across from me. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Don’t miss out on cheering them on during the showcase and judging event.

Don’t forget to RSVP to attend the showcase and the judging!