Apple’s 2025 Design Awards saw innovative and user-first apps and games take center stage. This year’s roster of app nominees ranged from 3D modeling software to a volunteer-run community resource, bringing unique feature sets to their respective categories.

But two learning apps stood out for embodying their category perfectly, from their intended use cases to simple interfaces. Here’s what makes them so great, in case you missed it.

What Are the Apple Design Awards?

Every year, Apple recognizes pioneers of app and game design based on their creativity, innovation, and technical achievements through its Design Awards. This is also a way to cherish the work of Apple developers, according to the company. These awards have been presented annually since 1997 as part of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Awards are presented for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS apps.

In previous years, apps and games like CARROT Weather, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Genshin Impact, and Procreate have won for their innovation and visuals, beating out major competition from fellow nominees.

Since 2021, the Apple Design Awards have seen the introduction of six categories: Inclusivity, Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Visuals and Graphics, and Social Impact. Each category sees three app nominees and three game nominees, with two winners per category.

Who Won?

Apple Design Awards 2025 awarded 12 winners from a total of 36 nominated apps and games. These apps and games took home the cake:

The winners this year have seen praise for their user interface, innovative features, accessibility for users, and stunning visuals of app elements. Two apps that stood out to me were Speechify and CapWords, which help their users learn better through interactive, innovative methods. What do these apps do, and why did they win an Apple Design Award?

Speechify

Speechify, which won the Apple Design Award for inclusivity, is an accessible way to read and process information. Developed by Speechify USA, this is an app you can download and use on iPhone and iPad. The app beat out Evolve, an LGBTQ+ centered self-care app, and Train Fitness, an inclusive workout app.

What Does It Do?

Speechify is a free speech-to-text reader, designed to process text from websites, documents, PDFs, scans, emails, and more. The app supports over 50 languages and 200 AI voices for reading text. You can use Speechify’s in-app bookstore (which includes classic literature, school texts, mysteries, and more) or import books from Kindle, your files, or Google Drive. You can also scan text and physical books, use links to articles, and generate AI text to listen to.

Speechify has been helpful to users with ADHD, dyslexia, and visual impairments, with different voices and reading speeds facilitating better reading.

The Interface and Features

Accessibility is at the core of Speechify’s design and feature set. The iOS version of the app features a minimalist design, with a home tab that gets you everything you need, including import options, the bookstore, and your reading time. You can find a library of text you have uploaded and read, as well as books you have accessed. A “+” (plus) button in the middle of the navigation bar allows you to create text (for easy upload), and you can also access a virtual bookstore through the app with free books.

When you start listening to text, you can quickly pause, rewind, and skip text, change voices and speed, increase font size, and change the look of your text’s background. You can also access a table of contents for books, download audio, and set a sleep timer. One of my favorite features Speechify allows for is “Mix with Background Music,” which lets you listen to text while letting music from other apps play.

Why It Won

Speechify’s simple UI, combined with its offerings of accessibility-first features, especially VoiceOver, helped the app win Apple’s Design Award in this category. Apple praised the app for its usability by readers with different use cases, be it leisure reading, study, auditory learning, or accessible reading. Speechify also lowers the cognitive load on users, including voiceover for instructions and minimal issues when scanning/uploading text, and is a good resource for people trying to read more books despite any obstacles they might be facing.

I find that Speechify, unlike other text-to-audio apps and resources, employs reading voices that are as natural as they can sound despite being AI. I’ve always been put off by very obviously robotic-sounding voices when trying to listen to text, with a lack of enunciation and natural tone, but from the get-go, Speechify works because it offers so many voice options that you can find something that suits your taste.

CapWords

CapWords is a language-learning app for iPhone and iPad that uses AI-powered “Snap and Learn” technology to help you pick up new words. This app, which won the “Delight and Fun” Apple Design Award, was developed by HappyPlan Tech, China, and managed to beat out Lumy (sun and moon tracker) and Denim (playlist cover maker).

What Does It Do?

CapWords helps you learn new languages and recognize objects by a simple method: by snapping pictures. You point your CapWords camera at any object, be it a book, coffee cup, building, or food item, and the app turns the object into an interactive sticker. By setting up your native language and the new language you want to learn, you can get the names of objects you snap in both, aiding your language learning process.

Your snapped pictures (now stickers) are then stored in a fun, dotted virtual book, which you can review as needed. CapWords also prepares flashcards based on your snaps so you can review words every day.

The Interface and Features

CapWords’ interface uses intuitive, interactive elements that make the app quick to grasp and use. Despite the lack of a navigation bar, you can easily access the app’s core feature, your saved objects in a virtual scrapbook, flashcards, and your profile settings. When I started using the app, CapWords captivated me with its simplicity and sleek design, but it’s also a super effective way to learn new words, using real-life examples.

When you snap a picture, you get to check if the object is within CapWords’ lens and edit it as needed. Once you get the object’s name, you can adjust and review words if you think corrections are needed. You can also swap which language you want to see object names and translations in, with 10 languages (English, French, Chinese, Spanish, and more) being supported.

Why It Won

It’s not surprising to see why CapWords won a Design Award in the Delight and Fun category. Everything about the app, from its set-up and tutorial to its interface and technology, just screams good old-fashioned fun. As Apple noted, CapWords makes language learning a playground, and I couldn’t agree more. If you’re someone who is intimidated by the prospect of learning a new language, this app is a perfect starting point because, like other language-learning apps, it gamifies the process.

What strikes me as different about CapWords in contrast to its counterparts, however, is the visual interactions that you don’t often see. There are no levels, hearts, or high stakes here: just your camera, an object in front of you that you don’t know the name of, and flashcards to help you memorize new words. You can take things at your own pace, create adorable object stickers, and essentially make a virtual scrapbook of new words that you pick up using real-life interactions. CapWords is an accessible and simple (yet delightful) app that even children can use for better visual learning.

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CapWords and Speechify are just two of twelve winners that embody the spirit of the Apple Design Awards: to celebrate the developers and minds behind the products. Each category winner and nominee brought their best to the table, raising the stakes for future rosters.