One of the highlights of WWDC each year is the announcement of the winners of Apple Design Awards for the best designed apps of the year. Here are this year’s winners:
Blackbox (free with in-app purchase): a puzzle game that uses the various sensors of the iPhone to solve those puzzles…without touching the screen of the iPhone. Pretty clever, huh? The ADA judges thought so, too.
Things 3 ($9.99): One of the best to-do list apps ever, and the second time that Things has one an Apple Design Award (the first being back in 2009).
Mushroom 11 ($4.99): the world has been devastated, and the only thing living is a mutant fungus called Mushroom 11. You need to move it around by actually erasing part of the fungus and letting it regenerate. The artwork is crazy, and the app features electronica from The Future Sound of London.
Lake (free with in-app purchases): It’s one of those adult coloring books, but with a difference. You can use a finger like a paint bucket or get super-fine control with an Apple Pencil. Daily new drawings are added, and you can pay for drawings by top artists with in-app purchases.
Splitter Critters ($2.99): How do you move your critters from one point to another in this game? Easy. Use your finger to slash your way across the screen and slice their world, shifting it to create both obstacles to block them and pathways to ease their journey.
Bear (free with in-app purchases): Doesn’t sound like a note-taking app, does it? Well it is, and it’s actually pretty impressive, with versions for iPhone, iPad and Mac. It features Markup support and tagging, and can replace much more complex note-taking apps.
Elk Currency Converter ($3.99 after 14 day free trial) : Anyone who spends a lot of time traveling around the world will love this app. It’s easy to use and automatically uses your current location to determine which currencies you may need to see in the app.
Enlight ($3.99): Powerful image manipulation? Check. Easy to learn and use? Yep. These are the same folks who designed the popular Facetune app for fixing selfies, and Enlight takes the pain out of doing some wild stuff with your photos.
Old Man’s Journey ($4.99): No, this isn’t about the three guys who make up the AWT team; instead, it’s a beautiful puzzle and adventure game.
Kitchen Stories (free): We all need help in the kitchen, whether we’re looking for recipes or just how to do certain things. Kitchen Stories provides a bunch of built-in videos that are informative and concise as well as step-by-step recipes…with pictures!
Our congratulations to all of the winners of the 2017 Apple Design Awards!
