Digikala Prize, a global innovation competition in the design of Digikala packaging
According to the online economy report; Digikala Prize, is a global competition in the field of design, which is held in cooperation with packages (Iran’s only international packaging design event). This competition aims to create a platform for innovation and creativity of people in the field of design, and will choose different issues and topics in each period.
The first Digikala Prize with the theme of “Creating innovative design solutions for Digikala packaging to create a sensory connection with the audience” started in June 1402 and designers and all creative people around the world were invited to participate in this competition with innovative and intelligent ideas.
Saeed Mohammadi, the founder and chairman of the board of directors of Digikala, has spoken about this:
As the founder of Digikala, how important has design been to you in your business?
Design is always an important issue in any business, no matter what industry it is in. Industries that produce consumer goods find the importance of design in the stages of product design, packaging and also in the stage of designing their visual identity. Considering that Digikala is a brand that has a direct relationship with the final customer and consumer in its sales journey, the issue of design and the relationship that the final customer and user of Digikala has with the various contact points of Digikala has always been a very important issue.
He went on to point out that improving the user experience is one of the main priorities of their business, and said that the issue of design was also taken into account when designing the mobile application and Digikala website. Besides these things, he considers customer order packages as one of the most important points of contact with customers. Because Digikala customers will encounter this point of contact even if they have only placed an order once. He called this encounter a very deep encounter. Because he believes that this is the moment when the customer opens his package for the first time and has a very high concentration level on his order. Because he is checking the goods he ordered. Therefore, success in packaging design is one of the key factors in improving digital goods contact points, and Mohammadi mentioned this issue as one of his constant concerns.
What were your criteria for judging Digikala Prize works?
The founder of Digikala called the concept of those designs one of his main criteria in judging the works sent to the competition. Pointing out that this issue was raised in the general description of the competition, he said that the conceptual design of the works and their creativity is much more important than things such as usability, technical issues of manufacturing and producing packaging, or even compatibility with the brand’s visual identity. According to his explanations, when we talk about the concept of a design, we also deal with issues such as form, packaging shape design, conceptual design in user experience and the way the user interacts with the packaging. In all these dimensions, innovation and creativity are the most important measuring criteria.
According to Mohammadi, the number of works received in the competition Digikala Prize It was much more than their expected number. Among these works, there were many cases that were considered creative. He said that the design of some works was amazing. Of course, you can still find flaws in them. But the main goal in this competition was conceptual design. Therefore, the creativity and innovation of people to the extent that it can give the basic idea for the design of final products to Digikala has been very remarkable.
In your opinion, how innovative were the participants’ works?
“There has always been a lot of ambiguity and doubts in the definition of innovation and everyone has defined it from a different angle. I define innovation for myself as innovative works that are new to the eye. Here we received works that when you saw them, you felt that there was a novelty in them that the eye was not used to, and this was very important to me.
Explaining the issue that novelty alone was not enough and another important criterion is important along with it, he said: “Another aspect of creativity that had to be preserved along with novelty was the comprehensibility and experienceability of the works. At the time of the first encounter with that conceptual design, the user should be able to understand it and communicate with it despite the freshness and newness of that experience. This was not the case in all cases. Among the works, there were some that had these factors together. That is, when you were faced with that newly created and new plan, you could still understand it and find a kind of harmony with your needs in it. This issue was very important to me.”
Mohammadi further listed other cases as other scoring criteria for creative works; Things like simplicity, applicability, honesty of designs in the sense that they are not deceptive and do not create false attraction, environmental friendliness and sustainability.
How close does the participants’ work come to solving your packaging challenges?
Considering that the issue of packaging is always one of the main concerns of big companies, it also has many challenges, and Digikala, as the largest e-commerce company in the Middle East, is also facing these challenges, trying to solve these challenges with the help of creativity and innovation of designers at the level Domestic and international has been one of the goals of this competition. Saeed Mohammadi, the founder of Digikala, said about the capabilities of the submitted works in solving these challenges: “Currently, at this point, none of the submitted works are ready as a final product. But among the works, I remember many designs that could have been the starting point for designs that we could work on and develop as a final product.”
He further explained: “We need to know that Digikala Prize It was only a competition and the works that participated in this competition are not supposed to be final products. Rather, they are just conceptual designs that give us the initial creative seed and we can work on them more. Especially in technical matters, production requirements and use in operation centers, our teams must work hard to develop these designs and ideas to become the final product.
Will the chosen works of DigiCala Prize be able to revolutionize packaging in online retail?
The chairman of the board of directors of Digikala said about the success of the submitted works in solving the challenges of the packaging of online retail sales: “We can find a potential ability in the submitted works to solve these challenges. But as I explained earlier, in order to reach a final product, processes must be followed so that the initial design and creative ideas are developed towards the final product. In this way, other factors also affect the success and failure of reaching the final product. We hope and will do our best to start the product development process for a few of the selected designs and finally produce a successful final product in packaging.”