The 2009 MEX Mobile User Experience Awards closed for entries at 23:00 GMT on Friday, 8th May and we had a fantastic selection of 47 entries this year – thanks to everyone who entered. You can check them all out, including videos and screenshots, cast your votes and comment on your favourites at mobileuserexperience.com/mexdesign/.

Our judging panel is now busy reviewing the entries. We’ll be contacting any contestant who makes it onto the short-lists by Wednesday, 13th May and inviting them to attend the Awards – keep your diaries free for the night of Tuesday, 19th May, when we’ll be hosting the Awards party in London.

The Awards are announced at a special evening reception on the first night of the MEX Conference in London each year, attended by 100 of the leading thinkers in mobile telecoms. See the photos from last year and this Reuters TV coverage.

This year’s judging panel is:

• Ken Blakeslee, Chairman, WebMobility Ventures
• Steve Busfield, Head of Media & Technology, Guardian News & Media
• Rudy de Waele, Founder, dotOpen & M-Trends
• Tim Green, Editor, Mobile Entertainment Magazine
• Mike Grenville, Founder, 160Characters.org
• And me…Marek Pawlowski, Founder, MEX

The MEX Awards are designed to recognise achievement in 2 key areas:

1) User-centred design

Has the designer genuinely understood and empathised with the needs of their target audience and how well are those needs reflected in the product they’ve designed? Please reward entries which show they have clearly spent time thinking about who the users are, what kind of unique needs they may have and how they can deliver an experience really suited to those individuals.

2) Thinking differently

Does the entry represent a different way of thinking? We’re not necessarily looking for cutting edge technology here, but has the designer created something which represents a new way of solving user experience challenges? Sometimes the most innovative products have the simplest technology…

Finally, can we hold up the winners as inspiring examples of good mobile user experience to encourage the rest of the mobile industry to do better for its customers?

The sponsors

Entering the MEX Mobile User Experience Awards is completely free of charge, thanks to the generous support of our visionary sponsors. Nuance is our title sponsor and Immersion is our Platinum sponsor. Digital Communications KTN is the bronze sponsor. The Awards are co-located with the 2009 MEX Conference. To find out more about becoming a sponsor of the MEX Awards or MEX Conference, please contact Marek Pawlowski (+44 7767 622957 or mp@pmn.co.uk).