The Splash Awards recognize the best Drupal projects. The event is an example of another unique initiative in the Drupal community. After all, the competition is meant to acknowledge not only developers but also clients’ websites. At the same time, the Splash Awards itself can be organized by anyone who wishes to promote the venture in their country. Let's see how this year's Dutch edition, which Droptica is a silver sponsor, promises to be.
What are the Splash Awards in the Drupal world?
The first edition of the Splash Awards took place in the Netherlands in Amsterdam in 2014. In the following years, the competition began to extend its reach to other European countries (such as Denmark, France, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany) and the USA so that projects from all over the world can be honored.
Due to the dynamic growth of the initiative, in 2019, the Splash Awards became the official brand name of the Drupal prizes. This gave the event a consistent character and enabled it to be held in other regions as well. The slogans behind the new universal branding design are flexibility, inclusivity, and open source.
Example of Splash Awards logo posters, source: Drupal.org
A Dutch edition of the Splash Awards 2023
The upcoming Splash Awards will occur in Utrecht on November 16 in the unique space of the Railway Museum. The setting for a beautiful evening will be an elegant theater room. We at Droptica are pleased that our company has become a silver sponsor of the event's gala and, thus, again, supporting the Drupal community.
While waiting for this year's award ceremony, we encourage you to check out the photo gallery from last year's edition to get a feel for the occasion's atmosphere.
Source: photos.google.com, from SplashAwards.nl
By the way, it's worth looking at some of the winning 2022 projects. Among them are:
- Successful digital transformation for one of the largest Dutch driving schools with awards in the Website of the Year and Tools/Apps categories. The project emphasized the customer journey, used Design Sprint to prototype several concepts, and tested them with the target group.
- Koenigsegg with the prize in the Design/UX category. The goal was to design a platform that would showcase technologies and vehicles in an innovative way, as well as tell the stories behind the brand.
- Lekkervanbijons.be: recipe website to stimulate consumers to buy more local products, awarded in the Government category. The project upgraded the Drupal version from 7 to 9, with several updates and new features that improved the user experience.
What projects have a chance to win the Splash Awards?
Companies/agencies registered in the Netherlands or Belgium can submit their projects in the Dutch competition. The project must have been active, used, and published the previous year. In each category, the jury nominates a minimum of three and a maximum of four projects that haven’t previously won a Splash Award. In addition to the agency responsible for the project, the prize also goes to the client for whom the project was made.
This year's edition includes the following categories:
- Design/UX – projects focusing on what is visible to the end user: UX, visual elements, and motion design.
- E-commerce – websites whose primary purpose is to sell products and services via internet (online stores can also be reported as a separate part of a larger platform).
- Enterprise – projects in the industrial sector (e.g., corporate websites or custom business applications).
- Healthcare – projects related to healthcare.
- Non-profit – projects created for the non-profit sector, for non-profit organizations, or other non-commercial initiatives.
- Education – all projects in which education plays a key role, such as e-learning environments.
- Government – platforms developed for government and public institutions.
- Publishing/Media – portals and online platforms engaged in regularly publishing content.
- Social/Community – projects where integrating with the intranet and using the "wisdom of the many" principle is essential.
- Tools/apps – innovative tools or applications translating business processes into an online environment.
Source: photos.google.com, from SplashAwards.nl
Who will be assessing the projects in this year’s Splash Awards Nederland?
This year's Splash Awards Nederland jury includes:
- Janne Kalliola – Chief Growth Officer at Exove, where he leads the company and is responsible for customer relations, business development, and strategy execution.
- Carole Grootenboer – a freelance product owner with over 20 years of experience in the field of project management. She specializes in overseeing the development of Drupal websites, mobile applications, CRM, e-learning, online marketing, and cross-media events. She has also organized Drupaljam for many years!
- Stella Power – director and web developer at Annertech. She maintains several Drupal modules and has been active in this technology community since 2008.
- Bostjan Kovac – owner of Agiledrop (since 2014), which provides developers for web development projects. He is also a programmer and a well-known Drupal community personality.
- Anja Schirwinski – owner of Undpaul agency, which implements projects on Drupal.
- Bas Boot – works at the University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam and prepares individuals for careers in media technology.
- Lenny Moskalyk – senior project manager at Cocomore and organizer of DrupalCamp Kyiv, among others. She also hosted the last edition of Drupaljam.
Jury members make a decision based on the evaluation criteria:
- Business case – does the project increase sales, reduce costs, provide a better brand experience, etc.? Do the results show that goals were met or exceeded?
- Community value – projects are evaluated based on their importance to the Drupal community (this can be code, such as modules published on Drupal.org).
- Concept and Strategy - is the concept for the website clear, unique, and consistently executed? Do the chosen strategy and final product development meet the goals that served as the starting point for the project?
- Design / UX – does the design have high quality? Is it tailored to the target audience and supports the message to be conveyed?
- Innovation – how relevant is the project on a scale from "a lighthouse project that everyone should look at" to "the next website relaunch"?
- Technology – does the use of Drupal comply with standards? Does the design consider additional complexities, such as integrations with external systems?
Droptica as a silver sponsor of the Splash Awards Nederland
Our Drupal agency has been supporting various Drupal community events for years. However, we treat the Splash Awards specially because of the uniqueness of these prizes and honoring not only project authors but also clients. For this reason, among others, we decided to become a silver sponsor of this year's event in the Netherlands.
