Reference

How judges read a submission

The maker’s hardest skill isn’t building — it’s reading your OWN work the way a judge will, against each pillar, before you ship. A pass on one pillar is not a pass overall; judge them all. Here are the five generic pillars and a pre-ship checklist. Open the judging lab →

  • Experienced in ~3 minutes

    A judge should reach a satisfying moment fast. This isn’t “make it shorter” — it’s “put your best idea first.” Front-load the payoff and move depth behind the demo.

  • Self-contained & works offline

    It must run with no network and no required account — a judge may review it on a plane. Bundle everything it needs inside the app; a first-run fetch or a sign-in wall is the classic failure.

  • Your own work, with credits

    The creative core must be yours. Borrowed art, sound, or data is fine when the license allows reuse AND you credit the author — a public dataset with a credit is allowed, an uncredited CC-BY asset is not.

  • Inclusive & accessible

    Meaning must never ride on colour alone (add a shape, pattern, or label), and support the system screen reader and large text. Test with a colour-blindness simulator.

  • A fresh idea

    “Fresh” isn’t “a brand-new genre” — it’s one honest twist that’s clearly yours. A re-skin (new art, identical rules) reads as unoriginal.

Judge your own work before you ship

  • The three-minute cutCan a judge reach the payoff in three minutes? If not, cut the demo down to your single best idea.
  • Airplane modeTurn off the network and quit any account. Does it still open and run? A first-run fetch or a sign-in wall fails here.
  • The Credits screenList every borrowed asset — its author and its license. Keep an attribution log AS you build so nothing is missed.
  • Colour is never aloneFor every colour cue, is there a second one (shape/pattern/label)? Run a colour-blindness simulator and the screen reader.
  • One honest twistName the one rule that makes your entry yours, not a re-skin of a classic.
  • The current rulesContests change their rubric every year. Read the OFFICIAL current rules before you rely on any checklist — including this one.

These five pillars are generic judging criteria in the spirit of student app showcases — not any one contest’s official rules, and no affiliation is implied. Contests change their rules every year: read the official current rules before you rely on any checklist. Nothing you judge here leaves your device. Judge a submission →