Web Design Challenge

The Web Design Challenge is a new ICT (Information and Communication Technology) design competition for KS3 pupils. It offers them a unique opportunity to develop their ICT, creativity, literacy and design skills, as well as their knowledge and understanding of key agendas within the citizenship curriculum.

The national competition has been designed especially for 11 to 14 year-olds (Key Stage 3) and all schools across England are invited to take part. Prizes include laptops, games consoles and design resources as well as the chance to attend a master class from top web designer, Daljit Singh. The overall winner will see their site go live in summer 2005.

The competition takes place in two phases. In phase one, children will be invited to design their own home pages based on a wide range of citizenship-related issues, such as environment, criminal justice and religion. The results will be judged in January 2005 by a panel that includes representatives from the Hansard Society, Design Museum and Culture Online.

In phase two, more than 200 shortlisted young designers will attend master classes in February 2005 at: Urbis (Manchester), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Watershed (Bristol) and the Design Museum (London). The children will be asked to design a new site under the title 'Being Heard'. Teacher resources will be published to support the ICT and citizenship curricula in England.

In Summer 2005, five shortlisted schools will be invited to a prize-giving celebration at the Design Museum. One design will be selected by an expert panel including Danny Brown (winner of the Designer of the Year Award 2004) and Alice Rawsthorn (Director of the Design Museum), which will go live as the official 'Being Heard' website.

Phase one of Web Design Challenge launched in October 2004 and can be found at www.webdesignchallenge.org.