WWDC 2021: Indian music app NaadSadhana gets top honours at Apple Design Award 2021

Apple announced winners of best-in-class apps at the ongoing virtual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2021 event in Cupertino.

Apple has awarded 12 apps and games under the six categories-- Inclusivity, Delightful & Fun, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals & Graphics and Innovation.

In addition to the award and certificate, the winners will be entitled to get a prize package that includes hardware for every developer in the team.

Among them, NaadSadhana app developed by India-based Sandeep Ranade won top honours in the innovation segment for its state-of-the-art experience and novel use of Apple technologies.

Ranade's NaadSadhana, as the name suggests is a music app. It started out as an app for Hindustani classical music but has continued to add a ton of new features. It now supports 7 different genres of music: Hindustani classical, Semi-Classical, Devotional, Light / Bollywood, Carnatic, Western and Fusion.

NaadSadhana app developed by India-based Sandeep Ranade. Credit: Apple

Also, League of Legends: Wild Rift, a gaming app developed by Riot Games (United States) too awarded under the innovation category. The team was praised for turning a complex and very popular PC game (same name) into a delightful gaming experience on mobile.

Under the inclusivity segment, Voice Dream Reader developed by Voice Dream LLC (United States) won the top honours. It is touted to be the best-in-class text-to-speech application in the Apple App Store. It can read text aloud from just about any digital source, whether it’s a PDF, webpage, or ebook, in more than two dozen languages.

HoloVista developed by Aconite (United States) too won Apple Design Awards 2021 under inclusivity. It supports a wide variety of accessibility features, including options for motion control, text sizes, text contrast, sound, and visual effect intensity.

The Pok Pok Playroom game developed by Pok Pok (Belgium) was adjudged best in fun and delightful segment. It is a playful, and beautifully animated app for kids that captivates users with its thoughtful design and mesmerizing interactions. It offers subtle haptics, spot-on sound effects, and provides endless hours of fun for kids of all ages, while rewarding creativity and experimentation.

Apple Design Awards winner for Delight and Fun: “Pok Pok Playroom,” by Pok Pok. Credit: Apple

Another gaming app Little Orpheus created by The Chinese Room (United Kingdom) too won Apple Design Awards under the fun and delightful category. It offers an enjoyable platformer that brings easy controls, excellent storytelling, and a console-like experience to a casual game.

Under the interaction category, CARROT Weather developed Brian Mueller, Grailr LLC (United States) won top honours. It offers intuitive interfaces and effortless controls that are perfectly tailored to its platform.

And, Bird Alone developed by George Batchelor (Canada) made it to the top-12 list under the interaction category. It offers explorative interactions, haptics, parallax, and dynamic sound effects that imbue richness into its world. The game is brought to life through clever notification integration, graphics, and music that changes depending on the real-world weather, season, and time of day.

A novel app Be My Eyes developed by S/I Be My Eyes (Denmark) won top honours under Social Impact. It enables people who are blind and low vision to identify objects by pairing them with volunteers from around the world using their camera. The app supports more than 300,000 blind and low-vision users and more than 4.5 million volunteers, across 150+ countries and 180+ languages.

Another interesting gaming app Alba developed by ustwo games (United Kingdom) also made it to the top-list for creating awareness of saving local wildlife and develop pro-environment activism among children. In the game, a natural reserve is being bulldozed by the city to make a hotel, Alba, the protagonist saves local wildlife, repairs the bridge in the reserve, and cleans up trash around town.

Apple Design Awards winner for Social Impact “Alba,” by ustwo games. Credit: Apple

Under the visuals and graphics category, Loóna created by Loóna Inc (Belarus) won the top honours. It offers gracefully animated sleepscape sessions that combine relaxing activities, storytelling, and atmospheric sounds. Every aspect of its interface — type, colour, animation, and 3D content — has been crafted with precision to create a soothing, calming experience.

Genshin Impact developed by miHoYo Limited (China) too made it to the list offering stunning imagery, skillfully drawn interfaces, and high-quality animations that lend to a distinctive and cohesive theme.

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