Press Release
Jizheng Guan Receives the A' Design Award for Sparkhood Generative companion UI in Digital Product Design
Jizheng Guan recognized for digital product design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 28, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ Sparkhood Generative companion UI by Jizheng Guan, designed for Sparkhood, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Digital Product Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2025 - 2026 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 assessed 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 Sparkhood Generative companion UI
Sparkhood is an AI-driven motivation app that helps users take the first step toward meaningful goals. Inspired by visual storytelling and behavioral psychology, it transforms ambition into an interactive experience—featuring a guiding “future self” and adaptive UI that responds in real time. By breaking complex challenges into simple actions, Sparkhood builds momentum, supports identity formation through action, and enables users to explore and understand themselves.
About Jizheng Guan
Jizheng (Marshall) Guan is a New York–based creator working across design, technology, and business. Trained in computer science, mathematics, and financial engineering at Cornell, he currently works in systematic trading and data analytics, building robust systems, strategies, and interfaces under uncertainty. His creative work explores technology as a medium for expression, helping people turn observation and intention into clearer action. Through projects in interactive storytelling, city sketch-walks, and digital experiences, he is interested in how art, design, and technology can help people and communities express themselves with clarity, beauty, and imagination.
Award Record
This recognition makes Jizheng Guan a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Digital Product Design Award
The A' Digital Product Design Award is an international competition recognizing top digital product designs by leading brands, designers and agencies worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to digital product designers, user experience designers, user interface designers and interaction designers from all countries. Entries typically include digital products, apps, e-books, virtual reality experiences, interactive websites and digital games. Awarded digital product designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/digital-product
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission 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. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated 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. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates 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, the upload of a work and the 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. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/182301
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/182301
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!182301
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/379386
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
- Sparkhood Generative companion UI
- Function
- Generative companion UI
- Category
- Digital Product Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Software
- Colors
- White Smoke, Black, Sienna, Light Slate Gray and Dark Olive Green
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Sparkhood
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Jizheng Guan
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #182301
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Sparkhood is an AI based system that helps users move from hesitation to action. It turns goals into a lived experience. A future self shows what is possible. A resistance character reflects doubt and fear. Tasks are broken into clear, small steps. Users focus on one step at a time, instead of being overwhelmed. The system is not only about motivation. It builds identity through action, and helps users see their own patterns over time.
- Inspiration
- After graduation, I spent time helping over 100 alumni students in one to one sessions. Many of them felt stuck. They were unsure what to do, afraid to try, or simply followed the crowd into jobs that did not fit them. In the AI era, entry level chances to try are shrinking, while tools and resources are everywhere. This gap creates more hesitation, not less. Sparkhood is built to close that gap. It helps people start before they feel ready. The app breaks down complex goals into small actions, and builds a sense of companionship so users do not feel alone. Instead of pushing users to be perfect, it helps them try, observe, and learn. Even if they quit, they understand themselves better.
- Research
- This project explores how reframing difficulty changes user behavior. From over 100 one to one sessions, a key insight emerged. People often turn problems into self judgment, which blocks action. By turning problems into external characters, users can observe them instead of internalizing them. This shift reduces self attack and makes challenges easier to approach. Combined with AI generated UI and adaptive sessions, the system creates a loop of observation, action, and reflection.
- Challenge
- A key challenge was designing a system that supports users without creating pressure or judgment. Representing problems as characters had to feel helpful, not childish or distracting. Another challenge was guiding users toward action without forcing behavior. On the technical side, real time generation of UI, characters, and interactions had to remain consistent and clear.
- Realization and Technology
- The system uses prompt design, agent based logic, and modular UI blocks. User input such as goals, emotions, and concerns are mapped into structured states. The app then generates UI, tasks, and interactions in real time. Visual elements like scenes, avatars, and motion are rendered from a prompt library. Each session is task focused and adaptive, helping users stay present and engaged.
- Operation and Interaction
- Users begin by entering a goal and current challenge. Users then enter a focused session. Within the session, guidance characters help break down the task and support problem solving. When friction appears, the system generates a character that represents the problem. This allows users to see it as something external and workable. The interface adapts in real time to the user’s state, keeping attention on the current step. After the session, progress is recorded, reinforcing a sense of growth and understanding.
- Project Duration and Location
- Sep 2025 - Feb 2026, New York, United States
- Specifications
- Mobile app designed for most smartphones.
- Keywords
- Mobile app, goal management, agentic UI, motivation, companion
