22.01.2026

Interview: Why design awards are a strategic business tool

Design awards are not just beautiful ornaments for the shelf, but above all a strategic lever for business goals. In this interview, Verena Reuter, Senior User Experience Consultant at UID, explains how excellent UX helps companies to differentiate themselves in saturated markets, win over new customers and motivate internal teams.

Verena Reuter, Senior User Experience Consultant at UID since 2012, is considered our “Queen of Awards” for good reason. She has won numerous awards – including for projects with Heidolph, TRUMPF and LIEBHERR. In this interview, she explains how design awards are becoming an important business tool.

Verena, many markets today are extremely saturated and competition is fierce. Why should a company differentiate itself through design awards of all things?

Verena: We are often surrounded by good products. Which one should we buy? Which tool will take my company forward? If product features are the same, the user interface becomes the decisive differentiating factor. Of course, customers then often go for a product that has won an important design award. It is a seal of quality for product maturity and innovation and creates trust.

In the B2B market, an award-winning product opens up new markets for me, even internationally. Design awards therefore create lasting visibility where other marketing measures often fall flat. They also enable reporting on the company by neutral media – this increases reputation and is advantageous for the evaluation of the product or company by AI, for example.

A design award therefore increases the overall value of a digital product. How does this contribute to my strategic corporate orientation? How does it bring employees closer to the company’s goals?

A design award shows that the company takes UX and design seriously and develops with a focus on people. Behind every award-winning product are people who have designed a product with outstanding product features and now want to convey this through the user interface. Our customer LIEBHERR, for example, is the world’s largest supplier of tower cranes. This market leadership is underlined by the multi-touch operating system, which won the iF Design Award. The product is excellent – and so is the operation! The design award strengthens the focus on quality, both externally and internally. The team is also proud of winning prizes and works hard and with motivation for the next award.

If I want to use advantages such as competitive differentiation or greater attention: what are my first steps?

Incorporate the design award strategically! When a product wins an award, it speaks for the standard of the entire organization. Customers interpret this as proof of quality, credibility and innovative strength. If the award is integrated into the communication strategy, it increases visibility and strengthens trust in the brand. In short: a design award is not an end in itself, but a valid component of brand management – measurable in terms of trust and market position. With our consultancy brand Changitors, we are currently supporting two clients with their award submissions for precisely these reasons.

What can UID contribute to this?

The list of awards that we have won together with our customers is long. In over 25 years at UID, we have collected a number of awards, mainly iF Awards and Red Dot Awards. The Thermomix® from Vorwerk and various UIs from LIEBHERR and TRUMPF were particularly successful.

So you know the secret recipe for winning design awards?

Behind many of the prizes won, there are of course also some lost entries. We know the process and how the jury meetings work. UID experts have been members of various award juries themselves. Over the years, you get a feel for what is important when submitting an entry.

So should you submit your UI directly to a design award? The submission fees themselves are not very high.

Of course, you should only submit products that you can fully support. The award submission is the “freestyle”. Before that, you have to do your duty and create an excellent product through user-centered design. That’s why we only advise our customers to submit an entry at the end of a user-centered process. This is the logical step after a successful design.

In the case of an award, the costs are higher and the effort required for a submission is often enormous. What can companies do if they shy away from this effort?

We advise many of our customers to use the “User-centered development” seal, which is awarded by the Usability in Germany (UIG) association. If you want to receive the seal, you have to be audited. It certifies user-centered development processes for digital products.

So what is your conclusion on design awards and their impact on companies?

Just do it! A design award is a great reward for your own work and rewards you for many hours of project work. You get to see in black and white that you have created a great product for people. It feels good because you have achieved your goal: creating aesthetic and user-friendly products.

The interview was conducted by Marion Gottschling.

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