Home » Competitions » Web Design

Imagine Cup Expression Web® Design Competition

Be a part of a global movement by competing in the U.S Imagine Cup 2010 Expression Web® Design competition, and create a web site that addresses the competition's theme of imagining a world where there's no poverty and no hunger. Team up with students from around the country, and work together to make a difference.

Submissions for the Spring Web Design Competition begin December 15th, 2009.

When competing in the U.S. Imagine Cup 2010 Expression Web® Design competition, you'll be using Microsoft® Expressions Web® to create great websites quickly and easily. All students are qualified to get Microsoft® Expression Web® for FREE through Microsoft® Dreamspark® - you can't beat free.

Here's how it works:

• Get started today by creating a profile
• You'll be able to create a Team for the Expression Web® Design competition beginning on Saturday, October 10th, 2009.
  • Create a team of up to four people, 16 years or older, including you. Ask a teacher or business professional to mentor your team-it helps!
• Start getting together your ideas for a website that addresses the U.S. Imagine Cup 2010 Web Design competition theme of: “Imagine a world where there’s no poverty and hunger”. You’ll be asked to submit a summary of your website idea for Round 1 of the Expression Web® Design competition, which starts on December 15th, 2009.
• For Round 2 entries, we'll judge your website on the following:
  • Adherence to technical requirements - 30%
  • Adherence to theme - 20%
  • Creativity in design, page layout, navigation - 25%
  • Creative use of rich media - 25%
  • Bonus points for
    • Creative use of Silverlight animation or Silverlight video (find out more about using Silverlight in your website project here.)
    • Use of Expression Blend, Design, or Encoder
      • Get Microsoft® Expression Web FREE by visiting Microsoft® DreamSpark®
    • Use of PHP, ASP.NET, and/or JavaScript

Deadlines:

You can submit your project starting on December 15, 2009, with the deadlines for submissions being:

• Round 1: February 1, 2010
• Round 2: March 15, 2010

What you'll need to provide:

Round 1

• A summary of your idea and how it addresses the theme of the competition (1 Page Maximum length)

Round 2

• Website URL
• All entry materials must be submitted and presented in the English language.
• Must have been developed using Expression Web 3® (trial or full version).
• Any other content creation tools can be used with Expression Web 3, although bonus points are granted if content is created with Expression Blend®, Expression Design®, or Expression Encoder®.
• Your Team’s entry must be Web standard compliant (no rendering errors in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Mozilla Firefox); you must use a doctype and secondary schema declaration.
• You Team’s website must make good use of the following technologies/languages: HTML/XHTML, CSS
• You site should include photographs and rich media (sound, animation, or video)
• The content of the site must address the social cause connected to the 2010 Imagine Cup Expression Web® Design competition theme: “Imagine a world where there’s no poverty and hunger”

Cash Prizes:

One (1) Grand Prize: A prize package that includes the following:

• $3,000 USD cash, to be shared equally among each member of the team.

One (1) First Prize: A prize package that includes the following:

• $2,000 USD cash, to be shared equally among each member of the team.

One (1) Second Prize: A prize package that includes the following:

• $1,000 USD cash, to be shared equally among each member of the team.

All winners will have the opportunity to meet with a Microsoft recruiter if interested.