Rippl awarded an Honourable Mention in Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design Awards

Rippl, the New Zealand contact tracing app developed by PaperKite was honored in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards for 2021 in the Pandemic Response category.

Celebrating 10 years of Innovation by Design, the 2021 honorees include nearly 600 projects, products, and services from Nike, Verizon, Microsoft, and others.

The 10th anniversary of the awards, which can be found in the October 2021 issue of Fast Company, recognise people, teams, and companies that transform businesses, organisations, and society through design. One of the most sought-after design awards in the industry, Innovation by Design is the only competition to honor creative work at the intersection of design, business, and innovation, recognising the people, companies, and trends that have steadily advanced design to the forefront of the business conversation.

Rippl was an unexpected product build for us last year, with the NZ wide lockdown in March 2020 serving as the catalyst to experiment with a contact tracing solution for NZ businesses.

Our main motivation was to get local businesses back on their feet, and quickly. The need was certainly there at the time – reassurance was needed for the general public that a simple to use privacy-first contact tracing app was available, and business venues all over the country jumped on board very quickly, as Rippl enabled them to meet strict government requirements for reopening post-lockdown.

Speed to market was key to our success too. Within 3 weeks we took Rippl from concept to release. Working with posBoss, the Ministry of Health and local councils (Wellington & Dunedin), our check-in and alerting app was awarded the Privacy Trust Mark, a hugely important factor in it’s take up. Rippl is one of only a few products to have integration partner status with the New Zealand Ministry of Health.

With more than 80,000 app downloads, we’re delighted to have done our bit towards fighting the pandemic.

“The whole team is super proud of this international recognition of PaperKite's privacy first design approach for Rippl. We knew we'd done something pretty special and receiving this recognition for Innovation by Design from Fast Company is an amazing achievement.”

Antony Dixon, PaperKite Chief Executive.

“Design is not just a beauty contest,” said Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “It’s something that can change the world and create solutions in a time when we face pressing global issues such as systemic racism, climate change, and a global pandemic. Many of these entries showcase these challenges while providing hope for the future through their steadfast commitment to elevate design.”

The judges include renowned designers from a variety of disciplines, business leaders from some of the most innovative companies in the world, and Fast Company’s own writers and editors. Entries are judged on the key ingredients of innovation: functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact, and business impact.

To see the complete list, click here 

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