Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Announces 2025 Stanley Caplan User-Centered Product Design Category Excellence Award Winner: The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) Website Redesign
Posted October 30, 2025
October 29, 2025 – The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) today announced the recipient of a new distinction within the Stanley Caplan User-Centered Product Design Award program. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) Website Redesign has been recognized with the Category Excellence Award for Concept Development and Design Methods.
This marks the first time the UCD Award program has issued Category Excellence Awards, which were created to honor submissions that demonstrate exceptional strength in specific aspects of user-centered design, even if not selected as the overall award winner. In 2025, Peloton Strength+ was chosen as the overall winner, with TRS as the sole Category Excellence Award recipient.
Please join us to hear directly from the winning design team on November 19, 2025, from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Eastern. This special HFES session will include a presentation from Peloton about the design and development of the award-winning product. The session is open to all HFES members and the general public.
Key Factors Contributing to the Selection of TRS:
- Rigorous Design Methods: The judges were particularly impressed by TRS’s commitment to human factors principles throughout the design process, including extensive user research, iterative testing, and evidence-based decision making.
- Thoughtful Integration of Human Factors: The submission demonstrated how insights from human factors shaped design outcomes, ensuring the final product addressed real user needs rather than theoretical requirements.
- Clear Documentation and Transparency: Judges praised the strong documentation of the TRS process, which made the team’s approach transparent and highlighted how decisions were grounded in research and user input.
- Commitment to Stakeholders and Users: TRS balanced the needs of multiple distinct user groups with organizational priorities, an achievement that underscored the team’s attention to real-world usability in the public sector.
In summary, the judges described TRS’s approach as outstanding in Concept Development and Design Methods, making the team the inaugural recipient of the Category Excellence Award.
TRS Team Statement
TRS Chief Communications Officer, Beth Hallmark, shared, “The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) is proud to be the inaugural recipient of the Category Excellence Award, which underscores our deep commitment to understanding and serving the diverse needs of our members. This UCD recognition reflects the thoughtful, user-centered approach that guided our recent redesign efforts. The award submission was led by TRS' Communications Division, which ensured that insights and feedback directly from TRS members, retirees, and stakeholders were central to the process.”
Judging Panel
The 2025 award selection committee consisted of the following distinguished judges (listed alphabetically):
- Andrea Berman
- David Aurelio
- Eric Bergman
- David Gilmore
- Junyao Liu
About the Stanley Caplan User-Centered Product Design Award The Stanley Caplan User-Centered Product Design Award is presented annually to teams and individuals who demonstrate outstanding innovation in user-centered design. Named in honor of Stanley Caplan, an HFES fellow, the award highlights efforts to promote user-centered research and design across multiple industries. The new Category Excellence Award broadens the program’s ability to celebrate projects that demonstrate extraordinary achievement in one or more areas of the award’s judging criteria: functional obviousness, ease of operation, creativity/innovation,
concept development, design, and evaluation.
Nominations for the 2026 award — the program’s 25th anniversary year — are due by April 30, 2026, and can be submitted at www.UCDaward.com.