Design Challenge Prizes - What Do You Want?

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for the chance to provide feedback. A lot of the previous comments echo my own.

In the main, I feel Element14 do a great job running their design challenges - certainly I don't know of any other community/website that does anything similar on a regular basis. (Circuit Cellar used to run regular contests a number of years ago).

Here are some of the things I thing E14 have done right:

• The design challenges are themed, and usually very current. The prizes themselves are generally secondary to the challenge itself.
• The prizes for previous challenges have been varied - sometimes they are more technical (an oscilloscope), sometimes not (a laptop), sometimes there is just one, sometimes more.
• Global entrants - I love that E14 allow entries from all over the world. I live in a small corner of the southern hemisphere, and often events from other websites are "US residents only"
• Engagement - There has been nice promotion of the challenges and related webinars.

Here are some other comments:

• For those that aren't initially chosen for the challenges, how about offering the chance to buy a discounted "entry pack" with all the relevant dev kits?
• Some of the previous challenges have suffered greatly from shipping delays.
• Some of the challenges are really big in scope. Some smaller ones might be good. For example, who can make the most efficient power regulator? Who can make the best Raspberry Pi weather station?

As for what I would like to see offered, I thought I would comment on that separately. Equipment is always the best option for myself. This includes laptops, oscilloscopes, function generators, multimeters, etc... This is simply because more equipment allows me to make more material/content. Vouchers for Newark would be nice, but it takes away from the grandeur of being awarded a physical prize for Element14.

I'll be frank so that the feedback is, hopefully, useful (i.e. Don't Judge Me! ). I always evaluate the prize before I decide. Here's how I look at it: I'm going to be working on something whether or not I am enrolled in a design challenge. If I like the prize enough, I'll come up with an idea for the competition. I do, however, agree with the others, that being selected is a prize in itself. I prefer the challenges with the small amount of kit and the budget since I can be more creative. It feels more like engineering to me (i.e., do something on a fixed budget). I didn't apply for any of the recent design challenges.

I didn't apply for the Sudden Impact challenge because I was working on the In The Air challenge. Sudden Impact seemed like a HUGE commitment. For a challenge that big I would need to be a bachelor or part of a design team.

I didn't apply for either the Enchanted Objects or the SciFi Your Pi design challenge for two reasons: I wasn't interested in the prize enough to come up with a decent idea and I prefer to work forward in a design. What I mean is, I prefer to come up with the idea and then determine what I need to purchase to fulfill the requirements instead of having to make a product from a predetermined platform. Some people are really good at working from a kit and moving backwards to an idea, but not me.

Now, I'm not saying the prize is the only thing that gets me to apply. Like I said, I'm going to be working on something anyway. It's the prize that sways me to be interested in the design challenge as opposed to another project I am working on.

What he said ..., for me really it is just fun to compete, the rest is just a bonus

Well the 3D printer for the Xmas Lights challange was a real motivator

but even more fun was the Minion giveaways and Minion flavour Duck Tape for the current one.

It is quite weird what motivates us ???

So in some cases it is the little things but a grand prize that is tangable and will keep on going or helping with the hoby for a long time to come is always a winner

So

Oscilloscope

DMM

Soldering Iron / tools

Vouchers to use at the Newark Store

I think everyone has something different to motivate them so cool and usefull should cover it

Wow - great question - what candies do we want in the jar?

The obvious interest in this question indicates we are all very interested in the prizes and their motivational value.

There are all kinds of different motives at work in a design challenge - quite different for different contestants. It is useful to provide a range of "prizes" that appeal to all of these different motives.

For me the biggest prize is the respect of the members and sponsors, who are all expert peers, and finding better ways to express such respect is a key to increasing motivation.

If you think of winning an international design challenge as winning a world championships of engineering, it would be (is) a highly coveted and motivating achievement. For those who like to commemorate such achievements it might be very motivating to be awarded a suitably impressive trophy.

Other powerful motivators for me are the requirements to solve problems inherent in any design challenge and the chance to exercise creativity in designing solutions. So some contestants may be motivated by a separate prize for creativity, regardless of how well it works. It doesn't need to be big, just some recognition.

Likewise, it might be appropriate to have a prize for the best user interface, or the solution that most looks like a product, or the most complexity, or the lowest power, or the best workmanship, etc.

I also like the idea that every participant might get a token prize. The sponsored contestants already get their subsidy materials and budget, which usually is a more than adequate reward for participation, but you don't need to be sponsored to participate, and more un-sponsored participation might be encouraged if there were more small prizes.

Big prizes tend to be more motivating, eliciting greater effort and greater accolades, so tougher and possibly more interesting challenges can be tackled, but this also limits participation, so a range of challenge difficulties and a corresponding range of prize sizes is a good way to keep things interesting and encourage the widest possible participation.

The goodie bag of products idea is certainly motivating - having a choice of several different bags, each with different contents might make it even more interesting, while still allowing the contents to be comprised of sponsor materials.

Doug

a good idea to keep people from losing interest and motivation along the way.

Christian's minions during the Forget Me Not worked pretty well to spark people's interest, and encourage good value blogs.

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact the site is an Engineering site, rather than a TV reality show.

It is important that the sponsors and element14 get good coverage of the products they provide, which encourages others to buy and use them.

In some cases the competitiors seem to be the test dummies as the products aren't quite ready for general consumption, and this puts extra pressure on the Challenge.

I wonder how wide the target audience is for these products ...

I like Nico's robotics idea.

While we have a Teachers Pet that involves a COS, I wonder if there isn't room for competitors to make one perhaps using two of Infineon's Motor Shields.

It would be ideal if it had a 'must not exceed' value, constructed using basic tools (ie no CNC machines) and have a complete BOM so others can reproduce it easily.

If you use commonly available and easily programmed controllers, you have a wide target audience, and a useful resource for the site.

Mark

Hello Nicole,

I have appreciated very much this thread as it is. Just the idea that you are asking what about prized, preferences and so on it is very nice. Another aspect that I see really valuable is that prizes are not only from Element14. I remember when for some years with Nokia as developer on Symbian, Qt etc. they always supported with something like the challenges, events for ambassador developers and so on; always (great) Nokia phones of every model !

My opinion is that a good incentive - in a general view - maybe a couple os 2nd and 3rd prizes beside the grans prix. Just to create more attractive. Then I agree with you that the prize, at least for a good number of challengers is one more incentive to finish the job. By my side, I don't participate to all the challenges but I am attracted to those that give me the opportunity to really develop a certain type of project I already have in mind. So it is the developer material that I consider the real attractive: this gives me the possibility to make a prototype or move a step forward in a project with a good sponsorship. Then, but only then after all, the prize is interesting.

Just to show an example, the fact that I can participate in SciFi Your PI is the real win. Then who really will demonstrate the best should be also the challenge winner. There are a lot of projects in this challenge that I really appreciate and like, and follow as they are intelligent, interesting and awesome. But maybe my vision by this point of view is not so meaningful as I am very few competitive and more cooperative.

Enrico

Thanks all for taking the time to share your thoughts - I am so glad to hear that so many of you are motivated by the challenge itself and not so much the prize at the end of it - although I'm sure a physical "prize" is the nice "cherry on top" for all the hard work!  

I also can appreciate that the investment of time to compete in a Design Challenge is quite substantial as well - I'm also hearing that many of you feel some kind of "finishers" prize would be a good idea to keep people from losing interest and motivation along the way.   I also like the idea of the top winners being able to pick their prize.  i.e. the first place winner would get dibs and so on...

I'll be sure to pass along these ideas to our Design Challenge Program Manager; and please feel free to keep the conversation and ideas going in the meantime if you think of anything else as well.

Thanks!

Hi Nicole,

I usually do not look very much at the prizes as I do the aspects of the challenge and the opportunity to do something interesting with the components provided.

I understand that some challenges entail a lot more work than others, so I agree that the prizes should reflect a good reward for the effort expended.

To entice more participants, you might want to add more ancillary prizes so that even the people who do not win get some value for their time and effort.

A better reward structure might get more recipients to actually follow through and blog through the challenge.

DAB