UX Designers should start participating in Hackathons
I’ve noticed that there’s a lack of UX designers participating in Hackathons here in Singapore which I believe is a huge waste of talent and expertise. Hackathons are designed to put participants under intense pressure to build a product or service that solves a real problem. So to raise more awareness on hackathon, I decided to write an article about it.
Before I dwell more into the topic of Hackathon, let me first answer what is a Hackathon?
Hackathon stems from the word Marathon (A long, or difficult activity accomplished in a short period)
A hackathon puts a group of strangers (Developers, Designers, Hustlers, Data Scientist, Engineers) together into a team setting to solve challenge statement posted by the company/organisers.
The team then goes into a 24–48 hour (or more) marathon to code, design and develop meaningful solutions that solves the world’s more dire problems. Pizza is often served to prevent them from going hungry. Solutions are then pitched and winners get some prizes. It’s not only for technologists. As all solutions require nowadays, a good business brain — and in many cases a good designer too.
Why UX Designers play such a vital role in Hackathons
Most often that not, teams are only given 24–48 hours to deliver a demo. Hence, it’s almost impossible for developers to deliver a fully functional working app/website or digital product.
This is where UX designers come in to fill the gap. We translate ideas and insights discussed by the team into prototype, facilitate design thinking among the team to better solve problems and tighten communications and goals.
Benefits of participating in a Hackathon
1. Meaningful network
You meet people who aren’t only passionate about the same thing as you are, but you’re in an environment that everyone has chosen to be a part of. There is a natural high you get from networking and forming a team with others around a united project and goal. Everyone has something to offer, and from a networking perspective this is the most exciting thing.
2. Time Pressure
Hackathon forces you to work under pressure, and that is exactly what we require to be at our best. Time limit creates a uniquely productive atmosphere that forces participants to distil their visionary concepts down to actionable solutions that solves a real problem in a form of a prototype. All this increases the chance of finding innovative fixes to persistent problems. A clear direction, path is often required to drive momentum. This eliminates a lot of distractions which otherwise follows in a normal daily routine.
3. Watch Innovation as it happens
Hackathons are an innovative proving ground for new ideas. They stimulate the creative juices of participants and foster problem-solving and risk-taking in a casual environment. The diversity of participants guarantees a multitude of perspectives, example the demo of other teams and see how they built unimaginable things that cover a broad range of skills and technologies. That will give you a lot of insight and opportunities to learn about new cool things that other programmers and designers are using and/or exposition to new areas.
4. Discover yourself in the midst of diversity
One of the best way I put myself in uncomfortable situation is getting myself out there. Participating in hackathon means learning to work with new people from different disciplines and all walks of life to collectively collaborate on building a product that solves a real problem. The struggle and intensity to prototyping a solution with such a short time have helped me learn a lot about my shortcomings, my strength and contribution to the team and how I can manage my mental emotions under intense pressure.
5. Demonstrate what you’ve built
Presentation to the judges and the rest of the participants at the very end is really exciting and yet nerve-wrecking. You are only given (x) amount of time to demo your idea and if the judges have doubts about your idea, you will be questioned. I have to be honest with you, till date, I’m still battling that little nervous self in me whenever I go up the stage to present but on the flip side, I enjoyed every second of it as it has taught me to be a better listener, a better communicator and how to keep compose at stressful situation.
As a UXer, I believe what makes you a successful designer is that you’re able to sell your craft. Quoted by Marc Hemeon:
Success = 80% sell, 20% design — Talking and selling your design work is just as valuable and important as the actual design work — Marc Hemeon
Here are are some tips and resources for starters
5 Best Practices
- Empathy
business languages and goals are equally as important as understanding user goal. Listen carefully to their business concern to craft out the features that glues the required business model together with the user expectation - Challenge Statement
I can’t emphasis enough on the importance of listening carefully to the objective and what the judges are looking for in the competition. The challenge statement serves a “First instance” to guide all decision-making..
3. Ask Questions
“How to identify smart people: They ask you questions. When you answer, they ask you more. When you start using big words, they ask for clarification. When they can’t understand anything you’re saying, they ask for you to explain it to them as if they were a five-year-old. When you say something intriguing, they write it down in their notebook or phone. These people are not naturally more intelligent. They’re better learners which makes them more intelligent. Why do they learn better? They’re genuinely curious and ask questions from a humble standpoint. I’ve met highly successful people who’ve said, “explain it to me as if I were a five-year-old.” This simple phrase has changed my life when it comes to learning. It comes back to the famous Chinese proverb: “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” As soon as you stop asking questions, you stop learning. As soon as you stop writing down ideas, you forget them. The hardest part of becoming intelligent is not bullshitting yourself about what you know; it’s being humble enough to ask questions. If you can do this, then people will see you as intelligent, too.” — Jeffrey Tiong
4. Avoid using Jargons
How well you will work in a team depends on your communication with your team and whether they understand what you do. Help your team understand your role and value you can bring to the table.
5. Minimum Viable Technology (MVT)
Adapting the prototype mindset. The prototype is meant to answer questions, so keep it focused. You don’t need a fully functional product — You just need a real-looking facade to which customer can react.
But wait, as cliche as it sounds, what’s the definition of a prototype
We define prototype as any representation of a design idea, regardless of medium — Stephanie Houde
Fake it till you make it. Let’s be honestly here, it’s not so much about what you know, but what you show to the judges
Demonstrate a prototype (It’s about getting the idea validated before building a real one) so as long as your product in the hands of your customer, you will know whether your product has solved a real problem.
What can be more convincing then a quote by a Creative director from Google Venture. it goes as such
The ideal prototype should be “Goldilocks quality.” If the quality is too low, people won’t believe the prototype is a real product. If the quality is too high, you’ll be working all night and you won’t finish. You need Goldilocks quality. Not too low, not too high, but just right. — Daniel Burka
“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”. — Christopher Priest
Resources
Some of the books I’ve read significantly helped me in sprints during Hackathons are as followed:
Here are some of the books I would recommend you to strongly read.
In conclusion
Hackathons have enabled me to be more sensitive of the challenges the different domain of businesses face and through it all, it has definitely opened my eyes to different dimensions of how a problem can be solved. I wish you all the best in hackathons and I hope you’ve enjoyed the article as much as I love writing it.
Remembering your roots.
1. Creative freedom over the work I do. Most clients’ project I’ve taken on do not involve much creative and innovative thinking process which I think is still important today, It reminds me why I wanted to be a UX Designer and never to forget that solving a real problem is so important.
Here are some of the meaningful relationship I’ve made while participating in Hackathon
