The capital of Lebanon, Beirut, became the host of web design awards on Friday. The event took place at Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure (Biel)
Center to honour numerous Lebanese web sites that manifest outstanding design.
The curious web design awards were meant to promote the creativeness of Lebanon's web professionals so that the web world become more familiar with the quality that Lebanese web design market has to offer. The event enjoyed a considerable interest and featured a great number of competitors who contended for fourteen categories such as: art and design, culture and education, media, and personal.
The awards ceremony was very well-organized by the Assembly of Professionals and Technicians in Lebanon, a non-governmental organization promoting the country's technology industry. Through the sponsorship assistance of Microsoft Corporation, the event had a very solemn store, featuring Lebanese celebrities such as Social Affairs Minister Assad Diab and Miss Lebanon 2004 Nadine Njeim.
The winners were selected from a pool of competitors by a judge team comprised of members of Web-design companies and specialized technicians. The selection process was based on certain criteria, pertaining to concept and creativity, technical support and navigation, content and structure, visual design and internet activity.
The multitude of 42 winners were honoured with a trophy complemented by a one-year insurance worth $500,000 by the Arab League Insurance Group. The most outstanding winner was the multimedia and Web site design company - www.grafium.com, who was recognized for its remarkable web site design. The company's conception of a flashy, metallic home page positioned in front of a chessboard proved to be the most original one in terms of creativeness.
Other laureates of the awards ceremony were the Lebanese Heritage Museum, who received awards for both best structure and best strategy, as well as Future T.V. who was respected for the best technical Web site. Some other Web sites won the best awards for being the most creative, having the best structure, best technical services and best Web site built on Microsoft technology.
