GUI Olympics 2002: Let the Games Begin!

With Olympic fever starting to spread as Salt Lake gears up for the Winter Games, BetaNews has joined up with Stardock and several Web sites to create the first ever GUI Olympics. The GUI Olympics is the ultimate user interface design contest in which users from around the world can submit their WindowBlinds skins and battle for $10,000 in cash and prizes among 15 events. Artists represent their Web site of choice and BetaNews needs your help to bring home a few gold medals - and you can win some cash and software in process.

The rules are simple: Create an original skin using special free BetaNews versions of WindowBlinds and SkinStudio, and submit it to the GUI Olympics Web site. You may update your skin as many times as you would like and submit an unlimited number of skins. The first three "warm up" events have been announced, and additional events will be unveiled every other day. With 75 awards being handed out, your chances of winning are very high.

Users will vote on the best skins to serve as a guide for the official judges that will come from the founding sites. Dr. Theo Mandel, one of the authors of the CUA 91 user interface specification -- on which Microsoft Windows and OS/2 were based -- will also be on the panel of judges. The contest will officially end on March 25.

Even if you have never made a WindowBlinds skin, now is a great time to start using SkinStudio free of charge. For more information including a breakdown of awards, visit the GUI Olympics Web site. After creating your GUI masterpiece, upload the skin and select BetaNews as the Web site you represent. Good luck, and keep checking back for updates on the contest.