Mudita Mindful Design Challenge Winners Announced

And the Winners Are......

Following an anonymized evaluation by our interdisciplinary panel, the results are in!

Our goal with the Mudita Mindful App Design Challenge was to encourage developers to look beyond standard, attention-grabbing engagement metrics and focus instead on technology that respects human presence and digital well-being.

The response from the open-source community has been nothing short of inspiring. Every submission brought something meaningful to the table, and deciding on the final rankings was no small task, but we had a lot of fun along the way.

Today, we are thrilled to celebrate these creations with you.

Path 1 Winners: Building a New Application

You really wanted to build new applications from scratch! We received just one submission that was a dedicated port of an existing open-source app. To fairly recognize the incredible depth of talent in this competition, we have moved the remaining prize packages from Path 2 into Path 1, allowing us to award and celebrate more creators.

🥇 1st Place: Soundscape

The project: A minimalist audio mixer that acts as a tactile “audio bubble,” allowing users to blend high-quality nature stems into personalized, stress-reducing atmospheres.

A minimalist audio mixer for creating personalized, calming nature soundscapes.

Why it won: This application works flawlessly. The jury fell in love with its elegant architecture and intuitive, function-first controls. We loved how the Mindful Design System was applied. Soundscape brilliantly embraces the spirit of mindful design by encouraging users to set their perfect atmosphere, export their custom mixes for offline use, and then put their phone away to focus on the real world.

🥈 2nd Place: Ink Ride

The project: A specialized, clean bicycle computer built specifically to bring a high-legibility, privacy-focused cycling dashboard to e-paper screens.

A clean, privacy-focused cycling dashboard designed for e-paper screens.

Why it won: Ink Ride is everything a piece of calm technology should be. It rejects the adversarial, dopamine-heavy gamification loops of typical fitness trackers, such as streaks and public leaderboards, and focuses purely on safety and utility. With route imports, off-route alerts, and a beautiful monochrome layout optimized for direct sunlight, it delivers a deeply useful tool for cyclists who want to keep their eyes on the road.

🥉 3rd Place: Astro Watch

The project: A user-friendly astronomy and stargazing companion that, among other things, tracks astronomical dawn and dusk, as well as a full-month lunar phase calendar.

A simple stargazing companion with dawn, dusk, and lunar phase tracking.

Why it won: This charming niche application is beautifully optimized for the screen limitations of e-paper. The jury loved how intentionally the developer handled screen updates. It is the perfect kind of utility: something meant to be referenced quickly, so users can spend less time looking at a screen and more time appreciating the night sky.

4th Place: Pure Cycle

Awarded using the 2nd-place prize package from Path 2

The project: A deeply private, minimalist menstrual cycle tracker tailored for e-ink devices, allowing users to track periods, intensity states, and notes.

A private, minimalist cycle tracker designed for e-ink devices.

Why it won: Taking care of our health is essential, and Pure Cycle shines a bright light on user well-being by stripping away the invasive data tracking, ad networks, and endless notification bloat common in modern tracking apps. Featuring a highly usable calendar layout and clean, predictable cycle tracking, it gives users a private, distraction-free tool that respects their data and their focus.

5th Place: Sexy Launcher

Awarded using the 3rd-place prize package from Path 2

The project: A minimalist, privacy-friendly Android launcher built to keep phone interactions brief and non-addictive.

Why it won: We really appreciated the aesthetic direction of this launcher. By emphasizing clean typographic lists and integrating a clever “home note” feature, it helps users keep their immediate, real-world priorities top of mind every time they wake up their screen.

Path 2 Winners: Refactoring an Existing App

This category focused on re-engineering an existing open-source Android application to optimize it for a relaxed, monochrome e-paper experience.

🥇 1st Place: Blanket — a port of the GNOME Blanket app

The project: A port of GNOME Blanket, the popular Linux ambient noise application.

An ambient sound app inspired by GNOME Blanket, a popular Linux app for relaxing background noise.

Why it won: Porting this application was a major feat, and the developer’s execution of e-ink-first design choices is thoughtful. To eliminate rapid screen flickering and reduce battery drain, continuous volume sliders were replaced with 10 discrete blocks, while live countdown timers were transformed into static 5-segment graphics. The result is a rich selection of ambient sounds wrapped in a thoughtful interface that stays quiet until touched.

A huge congratulations to all of the creators of the featured apps! Our team will be sending out your official email notifications this week. Please remember to reply to our email within seven (7) days to confirm your contact and shipping details so we can dispatch your e-paper alarm clocks, either Mudita Harmony 2 or Mudita Bell 2, and custom Mudita apparel.

We also want to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who entered, tested, and pushed code. Every application successfully compiled, worked, and brought something truly unique to our community. By publishing your work under open-source licenses, you are actively expanding a more humane ecosystem where technology serves human focus, rather than competing for it.

Thank you!

Keep building mindfully, The Mudita Team