Today we’re announcing the first of a series of Design Challenges as part of the Mozilla Lab’s Concept Series. We’re inviting design-focused students from around the world to develop new ideas & prototypes for the future of the Web.

Overview

The Design Challenge is a series of events to encourage innovation, and experimentation in user interface design for the Web. Our aim is to provoke thought, facilitate discussion, and inspire future design directions for Firefox, the Mozilla project, and the Web as a whole.

For the inaugural edition of the Design Challenge, we’re focusing on highlighting the creativity of students: if you don’t know what’s impossible, you’ll accomplish it.

If you’re a student, help us answer the question: “What would a browser look like if the Web was all there was? No windows, no unnecessary trappings. Just the Web.”

How it works

In this first edition of the Design Challenge, we’ll only be accepting and mentoring 20 students from around the world. We’ll then be inviting the “best in class” to mentor the next round of participants, and scale the design effort.

Each edition of the Design Challenge will focus on a different question. The first question we’re looking to address is: “What would a browser look like if the Web was all there was?”: As the Web becomes even more ubiquitous, we’ll never have to leave it. Whether it’s on touch tables, giant wall-sized screens, mobile devices, or just our computers, exploring the interactions for browsing a windowless Web will become ever-more important in the next couple of years.

To get started, you’ll need to submit a mockup of your idea. This can be anything from a napkin drawing, to a wireframe, to a polished graphic or video. Through the Labs discussion forums, you’ll be able to exchange and discuss ideas with fellow students. (To facilitate the free exchange of ideas, all content and contributions will be licensed under appropriate open source licenses.)

We’ll then identify the most promising ideas, and their creators will be invited to participate in a mentoring program where we’ll work together to refine ideas & mockups into interactive prototypes. This will include participation in online sessions and courseware focused on user experience design.

Final polished prototypes will be posted and honors for “best in class” will be bestowed.

Important Dates

• March 1st, 2009 – Submission deadline for Initial Mockups
• March 6th, 2009 – Invitations to participate in mentorship phase sent out
• March 9th – March 27th, 2009 – Mentorship phase where ideas & mockups are refined
• April 12th, 2009 – Submission deadline for Prototypes
• Late April – Wrap up event with awards bestowed for “best of class”

Getting Involved

If you’re interested in participating, please do join us in the discussion forums – you’ll find information on how to participate here.

If your school is interested in participating, please contact us at conceptseries@mozilla.com.