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November 4, 2016

Announcing the winners of the 2016 10k Apart contest



When we announced the 10k Apart contest back in August, we thought we might get a hundred entries or so. Sure, there was a lot on the line in terms of cash and prizes, but we had no idea that we’d be inundated with entries. We received over 380 entries for the contest—147 on the final day—and accepted over 270 of them into the gallery. Then the judging began and, after a lot of deliberation, our esteemed panel of judges has picked our winners.

The Honorable Mentions

We had so many amazing entries this year that I was glad we’d doubled the honorable mention spots. Without further ado, the honorable mentions for this year’s contest were (in alphabetical order):

Such an amazing group of entries! I highly recommend you check each one out. Do yourself a favor and set aside a few hours to really tuck into them.

People’s Choice: Firstname Basher

Once the entries were up, we gave you the chance to have your say and pick our People’s Choice award winner and you picked a cheeky little entry by Emilien Schneider, Pablo Barral, and Romain Petiot called Firstname Basher. This clever site helps you pick a name for your child, not by telling you its good qualities, but by telling you what’s wrong with it!

Screen capture of the Firstname Basher entry
Firstname Basher by Emilien Schneider, Pablo Barral, and Romain Petiot

Best Technical: 10K UK Weather Analyzer & Visualizer

This was a hard-fought contest between a handful of stellar entries. Ultimately, 10K UK Weather Analyzer & Visualizer by Yash Raj Singh took home the prize. Judge Rachel Andrew had this to say about it: “I love the use of open data in this one and the various little touches to help bring that data to life, obviously a lot of careful work has gone into this entry.” Judge Heydon Pickering was equally impressed: “Incorporating several impressive features including data visualizations and a little meta game, this was perhaps the most ambitious entry.”

Screen capture of 10K UK Weather Analyzer & Visualizer
10K UK Weather Analyzer & Visualizer by Yash Raj Singh

Best Design: 10KB Pixel Art Character

This was another toughy. We got so many beautiful entries this year. Ultimately, Hannah Malcolm’s 10KB Pixel Art Character took home the prize. It’s a fun little app for building your own 8-bit avatar. Judge Lara Hogan had this to say: “Super cute and it seems tremendously extendable.” Well done!

Screen capture of 10KB Pixel Art Character
10KB Pixel Art Character by Hannah Malcolm

Best Overall: Dashingly Responsive

I think the judging panel was geeking out big time over the winning entry. Judge Rachel Andrew nailed it when she said “Each time I looked I saw another small detail that impressed me, and the use of simple technology in a creative way seemed to sum up the competition for me.” Mat Marquis felt much the same: “There are a lot of sharp little details in the design of this page, implemented well—and coming in at only ~8k in total, including audio, is pretty impressive stuff.” High praise for Emil Björklund and his deceptively simple-looking Dashingly Responsive. Under the hood it was anything but simple.

Dashingly Responsive supports a variety of screen sizes and even shrinks to morse code on incredibly narrow screens.

Believe me when I say you will want to take some time to dig into Emil’s code to really digest all of the magic he worked into such a small package. And he left lots of very helpful comments in the markup to let you know what he did and why he did it. It was cheeky, clever, and demonstrated a mastery of front-end design and development we should all aspire to.

Great work Emil and congratulations on your much-deserved win!


Thank you all so much for participating in this year’s 10k Apart contest. Whether you entered, voted, or simply cheered the entrants from the sidelines, your efforts have helped spark renewed interest in creating amazing experiences that are tiny, fast, and accessible to everyone. Let’s do it again soon!

Aaron Gustafson, Web Standards Advocate