Index: is dedicated to change global mindsets by showing and exploring how design can improve life for people. It focuses solely on Design to Improve Life. Design to Improve Life is evaluated according to three parameters: Form, Impact and Context. 

Judging
The jury's main concern is that the nominated designs substantially improve important aspects of people's lives or carry the potential to do so. The jury will evaluate three aspects of the designs: Form, Impact and Context.

Form is concerned with the surface, material, interface, color, coherency and aesthetic of the design.

Impact is concerned with the impact or potential impact of the design and, thus, the number of lives improved by the design, the distribution and the economic and environmental sustainability.

Context is concerned with the context that the design is designed to fit: the challenge or the problem, the relevance of the challenge, the culture and the geography.

Design to Improve Life is evaluated according to the three parameters of Form, Impact and Context because, in short, Form relates to Design, Impact to Improvements and Context to Life, which creates the coherency seen below.

Judging Process
The jury process will be divided into two rounds:

In the first round, in an online process the jury will evaluate all nominated designs and select the finalists on the basis of the nomination material uploaded to indexaward.dk.

Following their selection, all finalists will be contacted by Index: and must approve of their position as finalist, approve of participating in Index: Award Exhibition and provide further material about the design to be used for Index: Award Exhibition and for the second jury round.

In the second round, the jury will evaluate all finalists again on the basis of the extended material and from among the finalists select the five winners of Index: Award.

Categories
- Body
- Home
- Work
- Play
- Community

Body
This category comprises all designs related to the body, for example: Clothes, shoes, appliances and aids used in treatment and care, tools to help in covering basic or sophisticated needs, body-related technology as in hearing aids. Services related to health and care, strategies regarding vital processes and public health and demographic development.

Home
This category comprises all designs related to the home, for example: Architecture, interior design, lighting, furniture, tools, appliances for the home, utility systems, software and home computer, AV and communications hardware etc. Services and processes for the home and strategies for new ways of living and new forms of cohabitation. 

Work
This category comprises all designs related to the workplace, for example: Architecture and interior design, work tools, manufacturing machines, aids as well as communications, control and management systems. Services for the workplace and strategies for work environment issues as well as strategies for organizational and managerial development. 

Play
This category comprises all designs related to sport, play, leisure and culture, for example: The design of leisure facilities, tools, games and equipment used for sports, cultural activities and other leisure activities. Design of strategies, services and concepts within these areas. 

Community
This category comprises all designs of things that we share communally, for example: Roads, public spaces and parks, cities, infrastructure, means of transport, signage, mass media and communications. The design of strategies, services and concepts for society, networking and communities.

Awards
One prize worth 100.000 Euros will be presented to the winner of each category.

The five categories represent the entire human life, and each category calls for entries from very different design fields. All nominated designs will be divided into the five categories by the Index: staff. The Index: Jury upholds the right to change the category of a design.

Who Can Nominate?
People from all over the world can nominate for Index: Award 2009 - among these are:
- Index: Regional Ambassadors appointed by Index:
- Members of Index: The Index: City membership network.
- Professional design institutions registered by Index: as Nomination Bodies Professional design institutions are by our definition: Non profit design centers, design universities, design competitions, design organizations etc.
- Members of the jury. To ensure access to our jury's vast knowledge about Design to Improve Life, we allow jurors to nominate for Index: Award 2009. However, members of the jury will not be able to nominate own designs, and they will have to plea incompetency in judging designs nominated by themselves. Designs created in a process, where a juror in one way or the other -as teacher, consultant or actual designer- has been involved and subsequently nominated by others, may be among the finalists - but cannot win Index: Award 2009.
- Private individuals, including designers, commercial companies and designers, who wish to nominate for Index: Award 2009.
- The Index: Operational Lounge can also identify and nominate appropriate designs.

If you -as an individual, a company representative or an institution- nominate a design, you are under the obligation to obtain permission from the designer, before the design is nominated.

Who Is Eligible for Nomination?
Designers, design teams, public and private companies as well as design students and design enthusiasts from all over the world. Index: has no requirements regarding formal design education for Index: Award nominees.

Nominated designs can be tangible designs or intangible designs, such as concepts, strategies or services. The role of the designer/design team must be well-defined in each nomination.

Nominated designs must be genuinely new. Sheer restyling of known designs is insufficient, unless it implies a genuinely new aspect to improve life. Publication of the design is accepted.

Nominated designs must, as a minimum, be on a prototype stage, which enables testing or user comments.

The nominated designs must not date back later than 2004. 

No fee of any kind is required. This ensures that designs from the all over the world can be nominated without financial hindrance.

Competition Schedule
27 August 2008: Call for Nominations
08 December 2008:  Nomination Deadline
21 August 2009: Index: Award Exhibition