GSMA mWomen Design Challenge is a competition seeking creative solutions for making the smartphone user experience more intuitive for technically illiterate users, particularly women, in developing countries.

There is already a mobile phone gender gap in the developing world, where feature phones with basic voice and SMS capabilities are currently the norm. Smartphones are forecast to proliferate in these markets over the next few years. The aim of this challenge is to address some of the usage barriers for women now, to prevent them falling further behind in the future.

Entries can be submitted until 14 December, 2012. Winners, who will be announced in February in Barcelona at GSMA’s Mobile World Congress, will receive prizes up to US$20,000, and will have the opportunity to speak with potential investors interested in commercializing strong innovations.

Check it out at http://designchallenge.mwomen.org/.