Submission Criteria, Rules, Ethics & Regulations
This international student competition is free, online and single-stage. The rules establish the submission requirements, evaluation process, ethical responsibilities and publication conditions. The organizer provides anonymous copies to the jury while retaining attributed originals for authorized exhibition and publication.
1 Submission Requirements
Each complete entry contains two compulsory files. The submission must use the official ErgoAesthetics templates and be received by 31 March 2027 at 23:59 Türkiye time (UTC+3).
|
Requirement |
Specification |
|
Project description |
English; maximum 200 words; Microsoft Word .doc or .docx |
|
Poster |
One page; A3 landscape; 420 × 297 mm; PDF only |
|
Poster file size |
Maximum 15 MB |
|
Image quality |
Raster images at 300 dpi at intended printed size |
|
Poster language |
English |
|
Registration |
free entry |
|
Payment receipt |
Not required-Free |
1.1 Project Description
The English description must identify the design problem, intended users or use context, proposed object, ergonomic response, aesthetic approach and their integration. Explain the principal design qualities without unsupported performance claims. Complete the Word template’s participant, project and declaration fields; the description alone is subject to the 200-word limit.
1.2 Project Poster
The PDF must show the object’s form, principal dimensions, ergonomic reasoning, use sequence and aesthetic development. Include relevant views, technical details, materials, diagrams, photographs or renders. A digital or physical prototype representation may be included on the board; no separate prototype file or physical delivery is required.
Keep the template’s designated identity area in its original position and place every competing author’s full name there. Supervisors must be listed separately. The project-code area must remain unchanged and blank for administrative use. No identifying names, affiliations, logos, portraits, contact details or links may appear elsewhere on the board.
2 Poster Content and Presentation
Participants may organize the design content freely within the template’s permitted area. The project title must be clear. Drawings must use readable labels and appropriate scales; principal dimensions must include units. Show how posture, reach, grip, movement, access or other relevant factors inform the object. For non-human users, explain the corresponding functional or species-specific requirements.
Distinguish a render, simulation or mock-up from a manufactured object and a test result from an assumption. Photographs of an existing prototype must represent the submitted design accurately. Do not rely on external videos or web links to supply missing mandatory content.
3 Submission Process
· Download the official ErgoAesthetics materials and Word and A3 poster templates through the competition platform.
· Complete the free online registration and project record using the links published on the platform.
· Upload the Word description/form and PDF poster, complete the declarations and retain confirmation.
Entries sent by email, social media or an unofficial file-transfer route are not accepted. A registered account alone is not a completed project submission. All required files and project information must be successfully submitted before the deadline.
Multiple Uploads and Finality of Submission
Do not create duplicate entries for the same project. Before the deadline, use the platform’s revision facility, if available, to replace a file within the existing entry. If duplicates are detected, the organizer may retain the latest complete valid version received before the deadline. After the deadline, only requested administrative or technical corrections may be accepted; design improvements are not permitted.
4 Free Registration and Project Records
There is no registration or submission fee and no payment receipt is required. Each distinct project needs one entry record regardless of team size. Participation, exhibition nomination and booklet selection do not require a subsequent competition publication fee. Registration does not guarantee an award, nomination or publication.
5 Eligibility Criteria
Current undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in Industrial Design, Architecture, Urban Design or Urbanism, Interior Design or Interior Architecture are eligible. Graduates in these disciplines between 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2027, inclusive, may also participate. Eligibility is assessed as of the final submission deadline, 31 March 2027.
Entries may be individual or by teams of up to four eligible competing authors. All team members must satisfy the conditions, consent to the entry and have contributed to the project. Participants may be from any country and there is no age restriction. Required legal permissions for minors must be obtained. The organizer may request enrolment or graduation evidence during verification without adding a third routine submission file.
Academic instructors may advise or supervise and must be identified separately. They are not student competing authors, do not count toward the team limit and may not replace the eligible participants’ design work with their own.
6 Submission Classifications
An entry may identify its disciplinary context as Industrial Design, Interior Design, Architecture, or Urban Design and Urbanism. Classification supports administration and publication; all entries are evaluated within one Student Category and share the same award pool. The submitted work must be a specific object, product or tool, including an object developed within an interior, architectural or urban project.
7 Eligible Object Types
There is no restriction to a particular product typology. Examples include furniture, lighting, household objects, work tools, assistive products, wearable objects, play products, packaging, street furniture, architectural fittings and animal-care products. The list is illustrative. Every entry must demonstrate both an ergonomic or user-fit rationale and a coherent aesthetic approach.
8 Project Status
Conceptual, unbuilt, prototyped and built student designs are accepted. Academic coursework, thesis projects, workshop work and independently developed designs are eligible when authorship and rights are valid. Previously published, exhibited or awarded projects are not automatically excluded, but their prior status must be disclosed in the project record. The same object may not be entered repeatedly as different projects.
A defined object and a credible prototype representation are required. A drawing-based or digital prototype is acceptable; physical manufacture is optional. Built or commissioned objects require permission from relevant co-designers, employers, clients and other rights holders. Entries must not breach confidentiality or contractual obligations.
9 Site and Scale
Objects may serve any real or hypothetical location worldwide and may use any suitable scale. Explain the intended context. For human users, address applicable dimensions, usability, accessibility, comfort and safety. For animals, explain species-appropriate use and welfare. For other non-human systems, define their functional fit and any human interface. Complete buildings or masterplans are outside the brief unless a distinct object is developed as the competition entry.
10 Evaluation Criteria
|
Evaluation Criterion |
Weight |
|
Ergonomics, comfort, usability and user fit |
30% |
|
Aesthetics, form and design coherence |
30% |
|
Integration of ergonomics and aesthetics |
15% |
|
Originality and design innovation |
10% |
|
Feasibility, materials and environmental responsibility |
10% |
|
Communication and supporting evidence |
5% |
|
Total |
100% |
The jury assesses the declared development level, intended users and evidence. Conceptual work is not penalized solely for being unbuilt, but unsupported claims receive no credit as verified performance. Clear diagrams and explained assumptions may support a concept. Turkish and English posters are assessed fairly with language support where needed.
Jury Independence and Fair Evaluation
Confirmed jurors, affiliations and relevant expertise will be published on the official platform before evaluation. The jury will contain at least three members, with industrial design professionals forming the majority and appropriate ergonomics and design expertise represented. Organizers administer eligibility checks and the process; the jury independently assesses design quality.
The organizer assigns an entry code and makes a jury copy of each eligible poster by removing or irreversibly masking the designated identity area. Names, affiliations, file metadata and identifying information in the Word form are removed from materials sent to jurors. The original attributed files are retained separately. Participants must not reveal entry identities to jurors before results.
Jurors declare conflicts and keep submissions and deliberations confidential. A conflicted juror does not assess the affected entry; an independent replacement or other documented arrangement preserves comparable assessment. Decisions and reasons are recorded. Rankings follow the weighted evaluation; ties are resolved first by the combined ergonomics and aesthetics scores, then by the integration score, and finally by a recorded jury decision.
Originality and Authorship
The object must be the original creative work of the eligible participants. Each entry must accurately list all competing authors and identify advisory assistance separately. Entrants must hold the necessary rights or obtain permission from co-owners, employers, institutions or sponsors where relevant. Academic supervision does not itself establish ownership.
Plagiarism, false authorship, unauthorized copying and misleading presentation of another person’s work are prohibited. Sources for legitimate references and reused materials must be credited. Entries may be checked for similarity and rights compliance before or after results. Previously published work must be disclosed without identifying authors outside the designated jury-removable area.
Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Tools
Computational design and AI-assisted tools are permitted if participants retain responsibility for the design and disclose substantial use. Identify the tool, purpose, design stage and affected content in the Word form and, where relevant, in non-identifying poster notes. The declaration may be provided in English as a separate template field outside the 200-word description.
AI imagery must not substitute for a coherent object or fabricate dimensions, manufactured prototypes, user tests, safety certification or measured ergonomic performance. Mark generated or simulated visualizations appropriately. Participants remain responsible for accuracy, permissions and the originality of the submitted design.
Research Data and Representation Ethics
Present measurements, user research, ergonomic references, cost estimates and environmental claims honestly. Identify assumptions and cite relevant sources. Do not manipulate evidence, invent test participants or present speculative results as verified findings. Obtain permissions, informed consent and institutional ethics approval when required for human-participant research; avoid unnecessary personal or sensitive data on the poster.
Animal-related proposals must respect welfare and applicable research requirements. Entry does not require live animal testing or unsafe human testing. A competition award is not product certification or authorization to market a product.
Images Photography and Third Party Materials
Obtain permission to use protected photographs, drawings, illustrations, textures, fonts, models and datasets where required, covering the intended competition publication and exhibition. Proper attribution must accompany authorized material. Place identifying credits in the designated removable area when they could reveal the team during judging; retain the full credits in the Word form for publication.
Do not include identifiable people without an appropriate permission or legal basis. Participants must keep evidence of permissions and respond to substantiated claims. Permission to use a material during study does not necessarily authorize its public reproduction.
Intellectual Property Rights
Participation and receipt of a certificate do not transfer ownership of the design or submitted materials to Alanya University. Rights remain with their lawful holders. Participants must disclose relevant co-ownership, employment, institutional or sponsor rights and obtain authorization from those holders before entering.
Through a separate written publication authorization in the Word form or submission system, the relevant rights holders grant Alanya University a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence for the following specific uses: reproduction of the submitted poster, description and associated credits; distribution of the competition booklet; public display in the competition exhibition; and communication to the public through the official platform and competition-related news, academic presentations and social-media announcements.
This permission covers the 2026 edition, its results, exhibition, booklet and their permanent archive. New promotional use is limited to five years from the results announcement; already issued publications and archival records may remain available thereafter for the applicable lawful retention period. No licence to manufacture, sell, commercially develop or materially alter the object is granted. Those uses require a separate written agreement and agreed remuneration.
The organizer may resize, crop, typeset or arrange submitted materials for publication without changing the underlying design or meaning. Material changes require the relevant rights holder’s written agreement. Authors and declared supervisors are credited after anonymous evaluation. Participants should consider design registration before public disclosure; protection requirements can differ between countries.
Participant Privacy and Public Identification
Before collecting personal data, the organizer will provide a separate competition-specific privacy notice identifying the data controller, purposes, legal bases, recipient groups, collection method, retention arrangements and participant rights. Necessary data support registration, communication, verification, certificates and authorized exhibition and publication. Private email addresses, identification documents and verification records will not be displayed in public project materials.
The names and affiliations of selected authors and declared supervisors may accompany their projects after judging under the disclosed lawful arrangements. Any processing that requires express consent must use a separate consent statement; acceptance of competition rules is not blanket consent to unrelated processing. International access or transfers must use a lawful mechanism where applicable.
Conflict of Interest
Organizing committee members, jurors and persons preparing or administering the evaluation may not compete or advise an entry. Jurors’ immediate family members, business partners and members of their design teams may not enter. Academic supervision, employment, recent collaboration or another relationship that could compromise impartiality must be disclosed. A juror who advised an entry cannot evaluate it.
Students of the host university may enter if otherwise eligible. They must receive no privileged assistance or information. If a participant’s instructor serves on the jury, the organizer must provide an independent assessment arrangement or resolve the conflict before evaluation. Undisclosed material conflicts may lead to exclusion.
Communication With the Jury
Questions must go to the competition secretariat through the contact channel published on the official platform. Participants must not privately contact or lobby jurors about entries before results. Gifts, payments, inducements and attempts to obtain preferential treatment are prohibited. Material clarifications are published for all participants.
Equality Respect and Professional Conduct
Evaluation is based on the submitted design and published criteria. Nationality, institution, gender, disability, personal relationships and reputation do not confer preference. Participants and organizers must communicate respectfully. Unlawful discriminatory, threatening, defamatory or abusive content may be excluded.
Grounds for Disqualification
· Late or substantially incomplete submission; invalid eligibility; more than four competing authors; or failure to provide the required Word file and single-page A3 landscape PDF.
· Identification outside the designated removable area, deliberate disclosure of identity to jurors, or refusal to correct an administrative anonymity issue when requested.
· Plagiarism, false authorship, forged eligibility evidence, infringement, misleading performance claims or concealed material conflicts.
· Improper influence on the jury, duplicate presentation of the same object as different entries, or a serious breach of the brief or ethical rules.
Names correctly placed in the designated identity area are required and do not breach anonymity. Administrative checks are applied consistently. Where a substantiated allegation requires factual clarification, the participant is given a reasonable opportunity to respond before a final adverse decision, unless immediate temporary suspension is needed to protect the process.
Multiple Projects and Team Responsibility
Participants may submit multiple distinct projects using separate free entry records. Each team appoints a representative; all members agree on authorship, permissions and communication. Names in the poster and Word form must match. Any proposed authorship correction must be supported by evidence and agreement of affected contributors; convenience alone does not justify adding or removing authors after judging.
Jury Decisions
The jury’s design-quality assessment and ranking are final within the competition. Disagreement with an aesthetic judgment alone is not grounds for reassessment. Documented concerns about eligibility, originality, conflicts, rights or procedural irregularities may be submitted to the secretariat. These rules do not remove statutory complaint, data-protection or judicial remedies.
Post Result Intellectual Property Claims
Submit competition-related originality or ownership concerns within one calendar month of the results announcement, by 30 June 2027 at 23:59 Türkiye time (UTC+3). Provide the project identification, specific grounds and supporting evidence through the official contact channel. This administrative period does not extinguish legal rights or prevent later substantiated allegations from being considered.
The organizer may seek evidence, invite the affected team’s response and obtain independent advice. A disputed award or publication may be temporarily suspended. If a serious violation is confirmed, the organizer may withdraw the award, certificate, nomination or publication selection and issue an appropriate correction. The outcome is documented and communicated to affected parties.
Publication and Exhibition
First, second and third place receive winner certificates. Twenty projects are nominated for the exhibition and fifty well-structured projects are selected for the booklet. The three winners are included among the twenty nominees, and the twenty nominees are included among the fifty booklet selections. No cash prizes are offered. Selection counts may be reduced if there are insufficient eligible, publishable entries; the reason will be announced.
Selected projects may be displayed in the official online exhibition, results pages and competition archive and reproduced in the booklet and related announcements under the specific publication permission. Any physical exhibition venue and schedule will be published separately. Submission does not require shipping an object. Any later voluntary physical display requires separate custody, return and cost arrangements.
Competition Booklet
The competition booklet will be published under Alanya University publications and will identify this edition. Publication selection considers design quality, eligibility, readable visual material, clear ergonomic analysis, aesthetic coherence and complete permissions. The editor may request technical files, clarification or correction of metadata; such requests do not reopen design evaluation.
Selected teams must check project titles, full names, affiliations, supervisor credits, captions and descriptions at the final proof stage. The publication date, format, editorial credits and access arrangements will be announced on the official platform. An ISBN or other identifier is reported only after assignment. Inclusion is not a claim of journal indexing, peer-reviewed article status or commercial product approval.
Routine requests to change design content or authorship after publication are not accepted. Factual errors, rights infringements or serious ethical problems may require a dated correction, removal or retraction with a proportionate explanation and record of the action. Material editorial changes before publication require author or rights-holder agreement.
Amendments and Official Announcements
The official platform is the authoritative source for announcements and approved amendments. Any necessary change is dated, explained and communicated equally. Rules and evaluation weights will not be changed retrospectively to disadvantage completed entries. A deadline extension must be public; substantial changes require reasonable additional time or a fair withdrawal option. The intended results date is 31 May 2027.
Competition Cancellation or Exceptional Circumstances
The organizer may postpone, suspend or cancel the competition where exceptional circumstances prevent fair continuation. It will publish the reason and its treatment of submitted work. If cancellation occurs before judging and publication, entries will not be exhibited or promoted without a separate lawful authorization. Administrative records are retained or deleted under the privacy notice and applicable obligations. There are no entry fees to refund.
Applicable Laws and Professional Guidance
The competition operates within applicable Turkish law, including Law No. 6769 on industrial property, Law No. 5846 on intellectual and artistic works and Law No. 6698 on personal data protection. Relevant employment, institutional, research and product requirements apply according to each project’s circumstances. Mandatory legal rights prevail over conflicting competition provisions.
WDO design competition guidance and ETMK’s published product competition framework inform fair practice. This does not state or imply WDO endorsement, ETMK approval or use of their logos. Any formal recognition requires separate confirmation. University approvals, contracts and publication permissions must be administered by authorized institutional representatives.
Participant Responsibility and Acceptance
Participants must read the brief, verify eligibility, use current templates, provide accurate information, obtain rights permissions, respect the deadline and check official announcements. All team members must accept the competition terms. The representative confirms their authority to submit. Specific publication permissions and any required personal-data consent remain separately documented.
Final Submission Checklist
|
Requirement |
Confirm Before Submission |
|
Eligibility |
Every author is a current student or an eligible recent graduate |
|
Team |
One to four competing authors; advisors listed separately |
|
Word file |
Official form completed; English description no more than 200 words |
|
Poster |
One A3 landscape PDF, 420 × 297 mm, no larger than 15 MB |
|
Design content |
Defined object, ergonomics, aesthetics, dimensions and prototype representation |
|
Identity |
Names only in the designated area; administrative code field blank |
|
Rights and ethics |
Permissions, authorship and relevant AI declarations complete |
|
Submission |
Separate free entry record completed; both files uploaded; confirmation retained |
|
Deadline |
31 March 2027, 23:59 Türkiye time (UTC+3) |
Official platform and published contact channel
