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On April 17, 2018 a competition created to improve healthy lifestyle habits in the categories of
physical, social, and financial well-being will come to a close after 5 years. The competition was
originally launched by the Stanford Center of Longevity and was titled “The Stanford Center on
Longevity Design Challenge.” It was created to encourage innovators in various fields to help improve
the way people make healthy decisions through good design—both of services and products.

The contest ends at a vital cultural moment, as social media companies like Facebook take stock of
how they’ve affected people’s habits and influenced popular culture, and have taken responsibility
for their lack of care regarding people’s social and intellectual health.

An Overview of the Stanford Design Challenge

An aim of the challenge was to give young designers, inventors, and thinkers a path to changing and
improving the world they live in. By connecting innovators with industry giants and potential funders,
the challenge promised to create a better world through better products, better services, and better
ideas.

The early portion of the design challenge was conducted online, making it affordable for the students
involved. For those that make the finals at Stanford, travel expenses are covered by the design
challenge. The team competition limits the size of the team to no more than 5. If a team makes the
finals, a student must be the presenter in the finals.

The 2018 Challenge

This year’s challenge began with phase 1 back in September 2017. Phase 1 allowed teams to
familiarize themselves with the challenge topic and begin working on solutions and concepts around
that topic. Then the judging period began in December 2017, when finalists were announced and the
select number of teams was announced in January 2018.

At that point, Phase 2 was launched and the finalists were given until April 2018 to develop their
ideas into a final presentation to be delivered at the awards ceremony at Stanford University.

As the contest heads toward its conclusion, we hope more contests like this yield deeper thought
about the things we make: how our choices (financial, physical, dietary) are influenced by the design
of the products and services around us.