There are tons of candidates and entries for SXSW interactive this year. Here they are.

Activism

Amnesty International: Tear It Down
Boost
MakeMeSustainable
The Point
World Without Oil

Amusement

Bitstrips.com
Elf Yourself
HotEmuLuv
LeapFrog FLY – Give Someone the Finger!
The Mentos Intern

Art

Karen Collins Photography
Magazines and War
People’s Design Award
Viscosity – the modern art generator
We Are DAG

Blog

Bad Ass Ideas
The Big Noob
Light and Liberty Go Together: Library of Congress Blog
Passive-Aggressive Notes
True Office Confessions

Business

Daisy Marc Jacobs
Design My Room
Getty Images
iMakeOver
Wikinvest

Classic

GOOD Magazine
Independent Lens
Revision3
Scene 360
Wired.com

Community

Behance Network
Current
Emptees
Ficlets
Flock The Social Web Browser

CSS

Ficlets
FiveRuns
Galloping Inn
Love Winter Park
Stayokay

Educational Resource

Ecolect
MindBites
Only Human
The Story of Stuff
TED.com

Experimental

Defy All Challenges
Issuu
MetaNotes
UpNext
Voki

Film / TV

30 Days of Night
Animoto Productions
Sweeney Todd
Ustream.TV
Wired Science

Games

Kongregate
Launchball
Moshi Monsters
Quadradius
Sharkrunners

Mobile

DialedIn
Kyte
Leaflets
Mosio
Mozes

Motion Graphics

Buder Engel and Friends
HL2
Rapp Collins Website
Seduction By Light
WeeWorld

Music

BoomShuffle
Burst Labs
Minuit
Songza
Uncensored Interview

Portfolio

BradKayal.com
Brandcentral
JLern Design
Leinz
Sushi & Robots

Student

Daisy Dai
Dragon Interactive
The Dreaded Grove
JobKillers
Paper Critters

Technical Achievement

Daylife
Drop.io
Feedhaus
Twiddla!
Webot

I like the javascript functionality for justin sonfield’s photography portfolio.

My only beef is that there should be a loader for images as the user waits for them as the photos somewhat unexpectedly appear or lag once thumbnails are clicked. Contact form is a little funky, but beyond that the design allows for well-played functionality throughout.

I happened upon a usability shop called HUGE tonight while browsing the interweb.

They do great work and should be commended. Not for the big client list (Style.com, jetBlue and a few others), but for being quite transparent with their process. No, not that process. Not the “WHO WE ARE” and “HOW WE DO IT” pages that every other design shop features on their portfolio site. But their user-interaction and identity process. I love it.

They show screen grabs of in-progress Illustrator files and war rooms filled with battered and duly-annotated printouts. It reminds me that usability shouldn’t be overlooked and that there are people in the U.S. who are passionate about usability. When I took my first class on usability, I read seven chapters of the required course text (Jakob Nielsen, of course) before the second day of class. Usability has resurfaced as a growing passion of mine.

So keep up the good work, HUGE. I love it: you’re not nerdy and you remain to be usability experts.