Press Release
Color Terrae App by Simone Ardito Receives the Silver A' Design Award in Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design
Simone Ardito recognized for mobile technologies, applications and software design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design category for Color Terrae App by Simone Ardito. The result belongs to the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
More About Color Terrae App
Color Terrae is a mobile application for archaeologists. The application digitizes the identification, analysis, classification and description of stratigraphic units following the Munsell color code. A color detection function based on artificial intelligence reads photographs taken by the user and links each stratigraphic unit to a specific color code. A Diary section works as a notebook and as a photographic archive for notes, voice memos and pictures. Dig Mode provides an interface optimized for outdoor use on excavation days.
About Simone Ardito
Simone Ardito is a 25 years old future-oriented designer. With 3+ years experience crafting digital products, he has been developing a strong product thinking and ability to empathize for people and business needs. Having breathed different working environment moods allowed him to built an interdisciplinary skillset to design solutions in a holistic way. His goal is to integrate sustainability within his design process in order to deliver concrete and helpful products with sustainable measured impact.
Award Record
Simone Ardito is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design Award
The A' Mobile Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good design in mobile industry by leading designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to mobile designers, application developers, software engineers and user interface designers from all countries. Typical entries include smartphones, tablets, wearables, mobile applications, mobile games and mobile software. The awarded mobile designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/mobile
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/118425
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/118425
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!118425
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/294267
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Color Terrae App
- Function
- App
- Category
- Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Software and Electronics & Appliances
- Colors
- Dim Gray, Gainsboro, Linen, Dark Slate Gray and Wheat
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Simone Ardito
- Country
- Italy
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2020 - 2021
- Design ID
- #118425
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Color Terrae is an AI-powered app created to optimize archaeologist's workflow by replacing the current inefficient paper-based processes. AI technology comes into play with a color detection function: it is able to identify colors from photographs taken by the user, and to associate the photographed stratigraphic unit to a specific color code. Furthermore, Color Terrae offers the chance to switch to Dig Mode, an outdoor-optimized version of the app which can be really useful on dig days.
- Inspiration
- The project comes from the desire to bring innovation in areas where digital technology is not much explored, such as archaeology. Color Terrae indeed allows to digitalize some of the main activities of the archaeologist: identification, analysis, classification and description of stratigraphic units following the Munsell color code.
- Research
- Results from interviews, researches and user tests established that a mobile app could help the archaeologist in at least three different phases: 1. During the archaeological excavation, recognise the different layers, distinguish between them and note their characteristics. 2. During documentation to assign univocal color codes to the layers to avoid confusion or misunderstandings. 3. During the study phase of the site, which usually takes place several months after the excavation and fieldworks.
- Challenge
- The most challenging part was to bring to digital the current paper-based process without altering the user experience. In fact by using this app the archeologist should not change his workflow, but willingly follow the same process used previously on paper, now on digital. Understanding all the human and technical pain points has been crucial in order to come up with an appropriate digital solution.
- Realization and Technology
- From pencil to pixels to code. The project started from rough sketches on paper sheets, then it moved to digital meeting the following softwares: Adobe Illustrator (logo and brand identity), Sketch (wireframes, hi-fi mockups and prototype), Xcode with Swift UI (app), Core ML and Python (AI colors detector).
- Operation and Interaction
- Once the app is launched, the user can interact with the main area, Diary, launch the Camera, or switch to Dig Mode through settings. Diary, as the name may suggest, works as a notebook, but also as a photographic archive. Here user can write or record his thoughts during the day at the dig, and save all the pictures he has taken. In order to have a well structured archive, all the files (notes, voice memo and pics) are divided in three sections: recents, lists and all.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in the last quarter of 2020 and had its first demo release and test phase in February 2021 in Lugano, Switzerland.
- Specifications
- When a picture is taken, AI technology analyses it and samples pixel by pixel in order to get the matching color unit related to a Munsell color code. There are 1000 hex color codes learned by the AI. Since most of them are pretty similar, they are grouped in 100 color units. Each color unit belongs to a Munsell color. Most hex color codes detected within a color unit will indicate the "winning" unit which is associated with a specific Munsell color.
- Keywords
- Archaeology, Digital Innovation, Use of Technology, User Experience, App Design, Artificial Intelligence
