Apple recently announced its list of winners for its annual Apple Design Awards. I look forward to this event yearly because I am interested in the mobile applications that won the award to check out their features.
The list is known to have the best mobile applications that bring bold, creative, and distinctive ideas to life. Apple acknowledges the ingenuity of the designs, determination, vision, and program development of these apps.
Check below some of the best apps that earned the Apple Design Award. Learn how and why they won in a specific category.
- Be My Eyes
- Genshin Impact
- League of Legends: Wild Rift
- Pok Pok Playroom
- Voice Dream Reader
Be My Eyes
The Be My Eyes app won under the "Social Impact" category. The vision is noble, and people will agree that it deserves the award.
The app pairs sighted volunteers with blind or visually impaired users to recognize the objects or materials at hand. It is done using the camera angle from the visually impaired or blind individual. From the name itself, I can infer that the volunteers serve as the eyes of those visually impaired.
It is like a level-up video calling platform because the visually impaired individuals need to call through the app, which will eventually connect to an available volunteer. The system ensures that the volunteer who will be answering the call must speak the same language and at the same time zone.
The volunteer will then give instructions or answers. Some contents on the app can be read aloud using the speech synthesis technique. With the vision to help visually impaired individuals, Be My Eyes deserves the award because of its social impact.
An Ad-Free Experience on the Be My Eyes Mobile App
Be My Eyes has over 4.6 million volunteers helping over 292,000 visually impaired users. The team ensures that they are inclusive, so they have over 180 available languages on the app.
Be My Eyes is free to download on both the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. The app is entirely free because they want more visually impaired people to enjoy the help they can offer.
Lastly, there are no advertisements on the app as the team aims to remove unnecessary details or information on Be My Eyes. They only want to focus on delivering help and service to others.
Genshin Impact
"Pushing the visual frontier of mobile gaming" is what made Genshin Impact win the Apple Design Award under the "Visuals and Graphics" category. Since its launch in 2020, many people have come to love the game because of its other-worldly design and graphics.
I have played mobile games for quite a while, and Genshin Impact struck me the most because of its exciting visuals and design. It stands out from other mobile games due to its vividness and precision in the visuals and graphics.
Apple mentioned that Genshin Impact significantly impacted the players on the shadow quality, motion blur, and frame rate. It definitely improved my gaming experience. I can vividly see what my character is doing, like attacking slime monsters, causing an earthquake, or directing a bolt of lightning.
For those looking for a game with exquisite graphics, make sure to check out Genshin Impact. It is an open-world environment action-role playing game. Since I am familiar with the kind of game, I did not have difficulty navigating Genshin Impact as wanted by the developer, miHoyo.
Genshin Impact Mobile App Compatibility
The game garnered popularity immediately after its release. Aside from graphics, I find the storyline intriguing. In addition, Genshin Impact allows us to enjoy an action-based battle system wherein users can switch characters and use elemental magic to fight monsters or other players.
Genshin Impact is available across various platforms like PlayStation 4 and 5, Microsoft Windows, Android phones, iOS phones, and many more. So, the app is free to download on the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.
There are in-app purchases for character items and in-game currency. The only disadvantage that I had with the game is that it consumes so much phone storage because of the graphics.
League of Legends: Wild Rift
I loved League of Legends as a PC game because I used to spend hours playing back then. So, when Riot Games announced that they are developing the mobile version of the app, I was kind of baffled because of how complex a PC game can be available on phones.
But, the developers made it happen. They had the alpha launch in Brazil and the Philippines in June 2020. The team continued to improve the gaming experience and graphics quality of League of Legends: Wild Rift. Eventually, they officially released the game in March 2021.
It gained nods from players and technology experts as Riot Games launched a mobile version of the highly complex PC game. This leads to Apple acknowledging the breakthrough of the app, like League of Legends: Wild Rift won the Design Award under the "Innovation" category.
League of Legends: Wild Rift is a multiplayer online battle arena wherein players face an opponent in a five-versus-five situation. Each player uses a champion, like a character in the game, and fights along with the teammates to win the game by destroying the Nexus in the enemy's base.
How to Download the League of Legends: Wild Rift Mobile App
With the availability of mobile devices, I can now play the game anywhere because it is more convenient than playing on a PC. Wild Rift still follows the free-to-play model as users can create accounts for free and improve their accounts by acquiring more champions.
League of Legends: Wild Rift is free to download on the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. Though they are free to download, they are in-app purchases for in-game currency to buy champions, equipment, and other things.
Pok Pok Playroom
Focusing on children's way of playing, Pok Pok Playroom is an application that garnered an Apple Design Award under the "Delight and Fun" category. Apple mentioned that Playroom provides a memorable, engaging, and satisfying experience to the users.
It is unique because when I installed the application, I did not know what to do until I realized that Pok Pok Playroom is not meant for adults. The game is designed for children aged two to six years old.
According to its developers, they intentionally mimic how a child plays in real life and bring it on the mobile app. There are no specific rules, and everything is open-ended. The children are free to do whatever they want on the application.
Pok Pok Playroom was released in the first half of 2021. At present, it contains six toys for the children to play with. The toys include drawing tools, blocks to stack, switches, and buttons. There is also an interactive town to poke things out.
Pok Pok Playroom Mobile App Subscription
Instead of playing for myself, I play the app with my four-year nephew. I can clearly see the app's innovation because it fits how children play with physical toys. It is good that kids have alternative toys to play with.
The application is only available to download on the iOS App Store. Though it is free to download, there is a subscription plan for the app. The Pok Pok Playroom app's premium subscription costs $3.99 when billed monthly, while $29.99 when billed annually.
Before subscribing, there is a 14-day trial period for the users to explore the app, see the benefits, and enjoy the features. The app is ideal for larger screens, like iPads, so that children will have more precise and more prominent visuals of the games and toys.
Voice Dream Reader
The Voice Dream Reader app is known to be a solution for those who are visually impaired but wish to read books. The app has advanced text-to-speech technology software with an audio version of the text or PDF file.
With this idea, Voice Dream Reader secured a spot on the list of Apple Design Awards under the "Inclusivity" category. The app ensures that regardless of people's background, abilities, and languages, they can enjoy the features of Voice Dream Reader.
It is considered one of the best text-to-speech apps that read aloud the text on the document. The Voice Dream Reader app is known to be a versatile one because it reads a variety of file formats like PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Word Documents, web articles, and more.
Voice Dream Reader Subscription and Compatibility
I have been looking for an app that reads various electronic book formats so, when I saw this, I immediately took the chance to buy the app on the App Store because I think this is worth the money.
The cost of Voice Dream Reader is $9.99, and it is compatible with all other Apple products like iPad, iPhone, etc. There are also other in-app purchases for different items to improve the user experience.
Conclusion
The Apple Design Awards are a hallmark of the best mobile applications. They acknowledge the best among the various categories: Inclusivity, Social Impact, Delight and Fun, Interaction, Innovation, and Visuals and Graphics.
Last updated on December 28th, 2022 at 07:05 pm
