Gemini 2 got the Red Dot Award

It’s rare that MacPawers give up their jeans and sneakers in favor of ties and dress shoes, but that’s exactly what happened on October 27. In glamorous Konzerthaus Berlin, the well-dressed team behind Gemini 2 received their well-deserved Red Dot Award.

Since 1955, Red Dot has existed to reward good design, with its Communication Design category laser-targeting projects that exhibit “clarity and emotion” and “affect the viewer in an emotional and sustainable way.” As people who believe every app — even a supposedly boring utility — should make you feel a tiny bit better, we’re happy Gemini 2 was recognized for that particular effort.

Back to the future, or how Gemini 2 got this way

When we started designing the new version of Gemini, the task seemed daunting, because the bar had been raised pretty high in the past. Gemini was one the Best Apps of 2012 according to Apple, imitated by a few hundred other duplicate finders and loved by users everywhere. So, we fished for ideas in the future.

“My theory was that in 30 years UI design would play with surfaces: nanomaterials, textures, fabrics,” says Dmitry Novikov, Art Director at MacPaw and Gemini’s lead designer. “So I thought, what kind of surface is the most fitting for finding duplicates? That’s how we came up with the one made entirely of duplicated circles.”

Sorting out thousands of files can be soul-crushingly boring, so we wanted to cheer up and reward our users. With a little inspiration from computer games, sci-fi movies, and other nerdy stuff, we came up with an achievement system for Gemini 2. Much like a game, it would have badges, ranks, levels, and experience percentages.

“I think a big idea behind gamification is that every minute of your time is valuable,” says Aleksandr Ageev, the author of the achievements artwork. “You might as well make it fun.”

In the end, it’s all about you

Although it’s flattering to have the recognition of design critics, it’s you — our users — we’re doing this for. And because it’s you who suggest, beta test, and comment, this award is also yours. Thank you for a chance to affect you in an emotional and sustainable way make your Mac life a little happier.

Kudos to everyone who worked on Gemini 2

Anton Mironov

Denis Stas

Alexey Prykhodko

Oleksii Nezhyborets

Serhiy Tatarchuk

Serhiy Buchnev

Serhiy Krivoblotsky

Alexey Pawlowski

Vera Tkachenko

Alex Chirva

Alex Yemelyanov

Dmitriy Novikov

Oleksandr Ageev

Liudmyla Khomiak

Oleh Prokopenko

Pavlo Haidamak

Dmytro Litvenchuk

Roman Tyshchenko

Anatoly Kasyanov

Serhiy Grigoruk

Volodymyr Radchenko

Volodymyr Voronin

Yaroslav Kopylov

Taras Neporozniy

Dmitriy Tereschuk

Ray East

Dmitriy Bilkun

Ivan Kuziv

Sergey Yaremenko

Julia Petryk

Olga Kurylenko

Olga Medikari

Oksana Kizikelova

Alice Kotlyarenko

Pavlo Huk

Roman Tikhonychev

Yevhenii Peteliev

Yevhenii Batsiun

Oksana Vdovychenko

Oleksandr Kosovan

Bogdan Grechanovsky

Andrew Dvoynos

Kate Uglitskikh

Oleksandra Cherniavska

Beta testers of MacPaw

Every human and cat at MacPaw