We will evaluate projects based on the following four criteria, focusing on the novelty and execution of the user interface experience enabled by Claude:
Criterion
Description
Scoring (1 - 5)
Working Prototype & Execution
How well the concept is realized into a functional, demonstrable product. Focus is on stability and responsiveness, not just the idea.
1: No working code or major crashes. 2: Runs, but is highly unstable or missing core functionality. 3: Functional, but with noticeable bugs or rough edges. 4: Solidly working prototype with minor polish issues. 5: Flawlessly executing, stable, and responsive application.
Interface Novelty & Playfulness
The degree to which the project explores new UI patterns (breaking convention) and creates an experience that feels fresh, playful, or surprisingly intuitive, moving beyond standard chat windows.
1: Standard chat interface or direct copy of existing patterns. 2: Minor visual tweaks to a standard interface. 3: Introduces one slightly novel interaction or visual element. 4: Successfully implements a genuinely fresh UI pattern (e.g., timeline, canvas, unique keypad) that enhances interaction. 5: Reimagines human-AI interaction with a groundbreaking, playful, and highly usable new interface paradigm.
Theme Alignment: Generative Interfaces
How effectively the project leverages Claude’s power to make interaction itself the innovation, focusing on the interface rather than just the AI’s output quality.
1: Uses Claude only as a backend for standard input/output. 2: The interface is slightly informed by Claude’s capabilities. 3: The interface adapts based on Claude’s state or output in a meaningful way. 4: Interaction is deeply coupled with Claude’s reasoning, leading to adaptive or purpose-driven UIs. 5: The entire experience is defined by a novel interaction loop enabled directly by Claude’s reasoning power (e.g., interaction is the innovation).
Leveraging Claude’s Capabilities
How well the project utilizes the specific strengths of Claude (reasoning, context handling, multimodal potential if applicable) to enable the novel interface, beyond just using a generic LLM.
1: Project could use any basic LLM. 2: Uses Claude, but only for simple text generation. 3: Leverages Claude’s reasoning for multi-step tasks or complex state management. 4: Integrates Claude’s specific strengths (e.g., complex instruction following, long context) to drive the core UI logic. 5: The interface design is impossible or significantly degraded without Claude’s specific, powerful reasoning abilities.
Key Milestones
Milestones
Team Formation Deadline
February 21, 2026 at 5:30PM EST
You must be on a valid team by this date and time.
