Guanyu Tao Is Honored with the A' Design Award for Meta Keysmith Metaverse Space in Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design

Guanyu Tao acknowledged for interface, interaction and user experience design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Meta Keysmith Metaverse Space by Guanyu Tao, designed for Gerry Tao, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The recognition forms part of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

What the A' Design Award Means

The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.

More About Meta Keysmith Metaverse Space

Meta Keysmith is a metaverse entry design that reimagines digital access through a 3D password framework. Unlike traditional logins, it transforms authentication into an interactive spatial puzzle, requiring users to engage with their surroundings to unlock entry. Built using VR, Unreal Engine, and procedural modeling, the system generates randomized spatial challenges, ensuring both security and immersion. By integrating architectural principles, Meta Keysmith creates a layered, meaningful transition into virtual worlds, enhancing the sense of arrival and user engagement in the metaverse.

About Guanyu Tao

Guanyu Tao is an architectural designer and visual artist based in Los Angeles. With a background in architecture and urban design, his work spans the fields of built environment, digital art, and spatial research. Tao’s professional experience includes critical roles in large-scale architectural and planning projects across the United States and China. His work has been recognized by international design institutions and featured in exhibitions and publications. He is an Associate of the American Institute of Architects and a LEED Accredited Professional, contributing to sustainable and context-driven design practice.

Award Record

This recognition makes Guanyu Tao a winner of 2 A' Design Awards. The awards were granted in the 2024 - 2025 edition of the A' Design Award & Competition.

About the A' Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design Award

The A' Interface Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good user interface designs by the best UI/UX designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to interface designers, interaction designers, user experience designers and digital product designers from all countries. Typical entries include websites, mobile applications, software interfaces, game interfaces, wearable interfaces and virtual reality interfaces. The awarded interface designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/interface

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/169693
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/169693
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!169693
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/358571

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Meta Keysmith Metaverse Space
Function: Metaverse Space
Category: Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design
Discipline: Communication Design
Industry: Software
Colors: White Smoke, Dark Slate Gray, Gainsboro, Dim Gray and Silver
Images: 5
Client: Gerry Tao

The Recognition

Laureate: Guanyu Tao
Country: United States of America
Recognition: A' Design Award
Edition: 2024 - 2025
Design ID: #169693

Credits

Image Credits: Designer Guanyu Tao

Design Details

Unique Properties: Meta Keysmith is a metaverse-oriented spatial design that introduces a framework for 3D password authentication. Instead of conventional alphanumeric inputs, it employs spatial puzzles with randomized configurations, requiring users to interact with the environment to unlock entry. Developed using point cloud scanning, VR prototyping, and Unreal Engine, this system enhances security and immersion, transforming access into a structured, interactive spatial experience.
Inspiration: Meta Keysmith is inspired by the importance of thresholds in architecture. In physical spaces, entry is more than a passage—it is a designed transition that enhances experience. However, metaverse access is often abrupt, lacking spatial depth. This project restores the ritual of entry, creating a structured transition that makes stepping into the virtual world an intentional act, rather than just a teleportation or loading screen.
Research: This research explores spatial entry design in the metaverse, focusing on how architecture can create immersive and meaningful transitions. The objective was to develop a 3D interaction-based access system instead of traditional login methods. The methodology included point cloud scanning of real-world spaces, VR-based prototyping in Unreal Engine, and spatial typology studies on temples and Japanese architecture. The findings show that structured spatial transitions enhance user orientation and engagement, offering new perspectives on digital thresholds in virtual environments.
Challenge: The biggest challenge was translating architectural entry principles into a virtual context where traditional constraints do not apply. Unlike physical spaces, metaverse environments lack material limitations, requiring a new logic for spatial transitions. Another challenge was designing a secure yet engaging password system using 3D puzzles instead of text. Overcoming these required procedural design, VR integration, and adaptive interactions to ensure usability and immersion.
Realization and Technology: Meta Keysmith is developed using procedural modeling and parametric design with Blender, Cinema 4D, and Houdini. The project integrates VR and Unreal Engine as the game engine, allowing users to interact with the space through controllers. By engaging in spatial interaction, players input their access keys, making the transition into the metaverse an interactive and immersive entry process rather than a passive login.
Operation and Interaction: Meta Keysmith transforms the login process into an interactive spatial journey. Instead of typing a password, users navigate through a 3D puzzle, where movement and interaction unlock access. The space dynamically adapts, generating randomized paths for each entry. This process makes access more engaging, secure, and immersive, replacing the passive login screen with an interactive transition that enhances user presence in the metaverse.
Project Duration and Location: This is a virtual project completed in 2022. As a digital architectural concept, META_KEYSMITH exists within virtual environments rather than a physical location. The project was developed as an exploration of spatial interaction and metaverse entry design, focusing on how architecture can redefine digital thresholds and user experiences in virtual worlds.
Specifications: As a digital architecture prototype, the demo space of Meta Keysmith measures approximately 10m x 20m. It consists of a layered transition zone where users interact with spatial puzzles to gain access. The design is modular and scalable, allowing integration into various metaverse platforms. Its technical framework supports real-time interaction, VR compatibility, and adaptive spatial configurations for a seamless and immersive entry experience.
Keywords: metaverse, architecture, space design, virtual reality, interactive entry, digital threshold, procedural design, immersive experience, spatial transition, 3D puzzle