Hackathon rules of conduct (for those who want to win). International design hackathon of Sberbank: difficult conditions and effective solutions

The theme of the Days of Industrial Design-2018 - "Design projects, works, shapes" - precisely defines how the work of young designers is arranged and what impact it can have on the future development of the domestic industry. Over the course of three days, the hackathon participants - mainly students from the leading Moscow technological universities - had to work out solutions on terms of reference received from the residents and partners of the Skolkovo IC. The goal of the project is to establish links between the communities of designers and engineers and improve innovative products of domestic manufacturers.

In total, 76 developers in 21 teams took part in the competition. Students and recent graduates of the M.V. S.G. Stroganov, Russian State University named after A.N. Kosygin, Higher School of Economics, Institute of Business and Design, Moscow Polytechnic University, MSTU im. N.E. Bauman, British Higher School of Design and NUST MISIS, the Industrial Design Factory and vosq.design. There was also an opportunity for individual participation, which was used by 1 designer. The range of tasks that the startups set for the contestants ranged from educational games to cutting-edge developments in the field of transportation. TK was provided by 8 customers: Avrora Robotics (unmanned tractor), Anisoprint LLC (3D printer based on a robotic arm), NASTEC LLC (TAU tracker virtual reality glove), D.K. Orbital LLC (system satellite communications for Internet access), the engineering company LORETT (design project of a hardware and software complex for receiving images of the Earth from space), Sberbank PJSC (robot barista), SPUTNIX LLC (a designer for schoolchildren on the topic "Space") and TSURU ROBOTICS (graffiti drone).

The brainstorm was started in the early morning of June 26th. The participants had all the possibilities Innovation center and Technopark Skolkovo, with technical specifications they got acquainted in detail during the application process. From the very beginning, the teams were provided with direct contact with the customer. Most noted that the communication was excellent and they received constant support and feedback during the work. A positive customer experience has become a major asset for young designers. Their main wish is in the future to provide an opportunity to monitor the progress of work not only for the supervising startup, but also for competing companies, so that developers have the opportunity to get an interdisciplinary assessment of projects.

For designers, it has become a great advantage to be able to independently recruit a team of up to 5 people: as a rule, at hackathons, groups are formed spontaneously from among those who responded to a specific proposal. Interaction in a well-coordinated team allowed us to avoid time-consuming distribution of roles and to unleash the potential of each participant in the best possible way. The teams were guided in the work by the curator Alexey Yakimenko, lecturer at the Department of Transport Design, S.G. Stroganov. Despite the competition, the contestants unanimously admitted that the requirements put forward by each customer were absolutely consistent and technical capabilities, and the level of training of a young Russian designer, and the projects proposed for development can be introduced into production as soon as possible. In total, the specialists spent 23 hours on assignments.

On June 28, the projects were defended and the design hackathon winners were awarded. Within 3 minutes, the team had to not only present the future development and its visual solutionbut also describe the progress of preliminary research and the decision-making process. The jury, in addition to the representatives of the customer companies, included independent experts: Alexey Yakimenko (MGHPA named after S.G. Stroganov) and his predecessor, curator of last year's competitions, laureate of the RF State Prize Igor Safronov (Institute of Business and Design), Alexey Zharkov ("Studio Artemiy Lebedev "), Denis Garmash (industrial design bureau" Scale ") and Oleg Bazoev (ART UP STUDIO).

The winners of the competition were the teams "Stroganovka" and MAMI DESIGN (customer: Avrora Robotics), D.tech ("Anisoprint"), "Dodo" ("NASTEC"), "Futurists" (LORETT), Man & Technologies lab (TSURU ROBOTICS) , design bureau vosq.design ("Sberbank") and "Industrial Design Factory" ("SPUTNIX"). According to Elena Panteleeva, curator of the Industrial Design Days in Skolkovo project, the design hackathon always justifies its expectations: “This is the most lively and useful format of our project. Without exaggeration, the industrial design market is formed right here, at the moment when a technology startup decides to take to your design team, and every year there are more and more such solutions on the platform of the project "Days of Industrial Design in Skolkovo".

The finalists' designs have every chance of being realized: in this way they will contribute to the commercialization of Skolkovo residents. As a token of gratitude and in order to strengthen ties with the developing design environment, Sberbank invited all participants who worked on their project to a follow-up meeting with corporate engineers and partners in the company's office. The contestants expressed a wish to attract teams from technological universities in other cities to participate in the next season and make the competition national.

Feedback from customer companies:

"A lot of impressions from the event, a huge number of worthy decisions - it was difficult to make a choice."
Vladimir Groshev, Avrora Robotics

"It was amazing to get the results in 3 days at Skolkovo, which usually take professionals several weeks to achieve."
Anton Fedorov, LLC "Anisoprint"

"I am very glad that there was a team that had the courage to choose a project from a young unknown startup against the background of significant competitors. We would like to continue cooperation."
Olga Gershenzon, LORETT

"This is not only our first experience of participating in the Skolkovo IC hackathon, but also our first experience of working with industrial designers in principle. One of the teams even managed to deviate from the set parameters and give us their own recommendations."
Alexey Eliseev, SPUTNIX LLC.

ABOUT THE EVENT

In the middle of summer, representatives of the design and technology community will gather for the third time at the Skolkovo Technopark site to discuss how to make the world more convenient and productive, without forgetting about beauty and ergonomics. The project "Days of Industrial Design in Skolkovo" sets itself the task of being an institution for the development of the formation of the industrial design market in Russia. Unique formats of interaction between participants (Design Hackathon, Client School, Design Dialogue) are aimed at effective networking.

Five main themes around which the program "Days of Industrial Design at Skolkovo" is traditionally built

Design for space and astronauts
Design for IT and robotics
Design for biomedicine
Design for the agricultural sector
Design for transport

"Days of Industrial Design at Skolkovo" will help participants - companies engaged in research and development and production - find a designer for a team, understand how to capitalize a business using a design strategy, and receive recommendations on accelerating products by increasing their attractiveness. For designers, this is an opportunity to find an interesting customer. For everyone, it is a clear illustration of the fact that humanity lives and works inside the world, the shell of which is designed by designers.

The Industrial Design Days in Skolkovo will start with the opening of the Design Hackathon, uniting startups, designers and manufacturers. The three-day workshop will be attended by 10 teams consisting of young designers and students of industrial design faculties of leading Moscow universities and design schools (BHSD, RUDN, Kosygin Russian State University, Polytechnic University, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, MISiS, Institute of Business and design, etc.). They will have to find optimal solutions in accordance with the terms of reference received from the start-up companies of the Skolkovo IC, based on real products and developments. For young designers, this is invaluable work experience and networking, for Skolkovo startups - an opportunity to get ideas for a qualitative change in their product.

The curator of this year's hackathon is Alexey Yakimenko, industrial designer, associate professor at the Moscow State Art and Industry Academy named after S.G. Stroganov.

Applications for participation from design teams and startups are accepted at: [email protected]

The key event of the second day is the "Client School" - a space for dialogue between leading industrial designers and startups. What's more important: product or packaging? How much does a design cost and why? How and by whom are the tasks for creativity and production formulated? What does the design of a deal for the sale and implementation of creative solutions look like?

These and many other questions will be answered by such industry leaders as Mikhail Vasiliev, general manager "Karfidov Lab"; Alexey Kutyaev, CEO of ART UP studio; Timur Burbaev, art director and industrial designer of the Art. Lebedev Studio, and others.

In 2018, the experts of the Client School are largely represented by the collective use centers of the Skolkovo Technopark, whose competence is in the field of engineering and industrial design services. These professionals know well how to improve appearance product, bring it to the market, increasing its cost, making it clearer for the consumer.

Also on this day:

Design Dialogue "In Zero Gravity". How they come up with spaceshipsValery Tokarev, cosmonaut, mayor of Star City, and Mark Serov, test cosmonaut of RSC Energia, will talk.
Discussion "Attack of drones", the main topic of which is the design of unmanned aerial systems. Participants: Igor Belov, Dronstroy; Oleg Ponfilenok, Copter Express; Andrey Mamontov, general director of "Aerob", and others.

Discussion "Design as a cure for pain". Round table medical design leaders are moderated by industrial designer Sergey Smirnov, head of SmirnovDesign, member of the expert council of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. Among the participants: representatives of the companies "Motorica", "ExoAtlet", Kleiber Bionics, "VIT Medical" and others.

The main day of the project is full of lectures, case sessions and discussions in the main and parallel programs.

The day will open with a plenary session "The Power of Design in the Industry 4: 0", during which such issues will be discussed as: "Designocracy as one of the probable models for organizing the society of the future", "The role, share and cost of design solutions in the automotive industry", "What design tasks posed to us by artificial intelligence? ".

As always, the project "Days of Industrial Design in Skolkovo" organizes meetings with unique specialists. This year's guests are Dutch designers from The Row, who 3D printed the bridge in real size for one of the cities. The topic of their lecture is "New materials: from rubbish to a 3D printer".

Also on this day:

Discussion "Is the route built?", The experts of which will discuss the transformation of the usual transport. Among the participants: Svyatoslav Sahakyan, transport designer, founder of the slava "saakyan design studio; Anton Kuzhilny, designer, art director of the transport design studio; representatives of KamAZ, MADI and others.

Discussion "The future - human face? ", dedicated to design in robotics, as well as models of interaction between people and robots. Among the participants: Albert Efimov, director of the robotics center of Sberbank; Vladimir Konyshev, general director of Neurobotics; Alexey Yuzhakov, general director of Promobot; Andrey Neznamov, head of the Research Center for Problems of Regulation of Robotics and AI, and others.

Lecture by Sergey Smirnov, head of SmirnovDesign, member of the expert council of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, on the role of design in business and life.

Case session - "Big Data in the Fields" - about innovations, ergonomics and design at AgroTech.

Lecture by Vladimir Yudanov, co-founder of the Yo-Programma design studio on the topic "The influence of design on the development of industrial and urban space".

Traditionally, the third day ends with the defense of design hackathon projects and the awarding of the very best for whom the Industrial Design Days project will become a career lift.

For detailed information see full

Dmitry Volkov, co-founder of the international Internet holding SDVentures, shared with Rusbase his expert opinion on the importance of hackathons for business and participants, about typical mistakes teams and future trends.

Hackathons: what are they?

The word "hackathon" was formed from the confluence of the words "hacking" and "marathon". Hacking is, of course, not understood as computer fraudsters, but IT technology lovers who take pleasure in research and search for extraordinary solutions.

The first in the world took place in 1999. It was conducted by the developers OpenBSD OS in the city of Calgary (Canada).

A group of researchers gathered there, who had to solve a difficult task: to find a legitimate workaround for the restrictions imposed by the United States on the export of cryptographic products from the country. They called the event “hackathon”, and colleagues immediately liked the term.

After 10 days at the conference JavaOne company Sun Microsystems held a similar meeting, where she suggested that a developer create a Java program for Palm V to exchange data between the gadget and the Internet via infrared.

A focus on success, a pleasant friendly format, simultaneous communication and competition - all this made the events of a new type attractive for participants and investors. So hackathons got a start in life.

Why does business need hackathons?

In 2016, according to hackaton.com estimates, 3450 hackathons were held in the world. The first on the list is now the USA - 1568 events per year, followed by the UK (470 hackathons), Canada (230), Germany (223), France (196). A wide variety of specialists took part in them: developers for the web (36%), mobile systems (36%), hardware platforms (15%), robotic systems and AI (8%).

Russia is not on this list. Because, according to this source, only ... one event was held in Russia in 2016.

Of course, this data is not valid. They only reflect the fact that the hackathon as a format for the development of an innovative economy is still growing in Russia. And although the world still knows very little about hackathons in our country, the real state of affairs is much better than Western statistics.

So, according to the IT-dominanta portal, every month in 2016 in Russia there were 8-10 different events of this type. And in April 2017 alone, 19 major hackathons were held.

Perhaps hackathons would have remained a local phenomenon if large companies, investors, and "angels" had not paid attention to them. They assessed the potential for growth.

Instead of the tedious approvals and revisions that one has to deal with when completing ordinary projects, hackathons proposed a new format for creating prototypes when minimum costs... Within a few days, the organizers receive several solutions at once. technological challengethat stands in front of them.

On the other hand, companies are attracted: here you can not only meet strong developers, but also immediately test them in action. Finally, an important advantage of hackathons is networking with potential partners and promoting your own business.

What is the interest of the participants?

According to hackaton.com, public hackathons today are attended by specialists (42.8%), students (21.1%), “amateurs” (18.9%), entrepreneurs (9.6%), as well as those who are looking for work (7.6%).

The hackathon theme is announced immediately, but the goals are not always announced, which adds mystery to the future event and attracts especially adventurous participants. This is done in order not to interfere with the birth of the result right before our eyes. "Miracles" can also happen with the prize fund.

So, at the final stage of the Design Hackathon, which was held in Moscow at the end of July 2016 and Sberbank-Technologies, the initial prize fund was announced in the amount of 200 thousand rubles. However, the results of the hackathon impressed the organizers so much that the prize fund was increased to 500 thousand rubles.

The winner then became the Dream Team. She proposed a “smart voluntary health insurance solution” based on DNA test data. Experience, knowledge and initiative made it possible to achieve an excellent result.

As experience shows, participants, in addition to the declared prizes, are interested in several points in hackathons:

Employability in leading Internet companies and the prospect of getting to know the "necessary" in professional development people.
Testing the strength of the development team in a non-standard situation: time is limited, adrenaline is at the limit, competitive spirit does not give rest.
Academic interest. As a rule, in this case we are talking about teams that work independently, that is, they do not seek employment from the organizers. They are interested in checking the hypotheses that they have born to solve a particular software problem.

Hackathon rules of conduct

At first glance, becoming a winner is easy enough, but many fall for mistakes that cannot be made.

Mistake 1. Failure to comply with the ratio of speed and quality of project development

Many participants try to complete the project as quickly as possible, without taking into account that the most important thing for the jury is the result. Mistakes during hackathons are inevitable and should not be feared. But the idea that will be demonstrated to the jury must be worked out in detail.

Mistake 2. Inability to work in a team

This is especially true in situations where you need to quickly get results. At the hackathon there is no time for long arguments, you need to be able to correctly assign roles and make compromise decisions.

Mistake 3. Forgetting real goals

And perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that the solution proposed by the team must have real practical application. As we remember, business is interested in working ideas that the company will be able to implement tomorrow and get the desired result.

What will happen next?

If the hackathons had no plans, there would be no point in talking about them.

Subject shift. Until five years ago, almost all hackathons were conducted with the aim of developing mobile applications. However, already last year, the topic of hackathons shifted towards the creation of systems related to artificial intelligence and virtual reality. There is no doubt that these topics will become top themes for future hackathons.
Intracorporate events. Today the main trend for large companies becomes an emphasis on innovation and the development of creative connections within companies. Holding intracorporate hackathons allows you to form temporary teams within companies and bring people with different expertise to such projects.

My name is Alice and I'm a senior designer at Touch Instinct. We are an outsourcing company. Speed \u200b\u200bis one of the most important criteria for evaluating our work, along with quality. Sometimes, to prepare an offer for a new client, you need to study, come up with and implement an application concept in just a couple of days. In such situations, there is no room for error.

In March, I performed at a hackathon that we organized with the Food Party. She told the participants how to do well in a short time. Based on the lecture, I prepared a memo article. It will be useful for team members who plan to participate in hackathons, as well as for novice designers.

Time is our enemy

It doesn't matter how brilliant the idea is in your head. The only thing that matters at a hackathon is time. Think, will you have time to implement your plan? If not, simplify and safely cut off functionality you are not sure about.

Did you make a scooter? Great!

At the end you should have a product that can be launched and shown to the jury. So that they have a complete idea of \u200b\u200bwhat it is and how it works. Nothing spoils the presentation like "don't look now, then we will have here ...". But don't forget that we are making a product for users.

Let's figure out how to make a quality product in a day.

# 1 Build on context

What are your user's goals?
Under what conditions will he use your product?
At what point will the product be accessed?

It is worth discussing these issues with the team from the outset.

Let's take a step-by-step cooking app as an example.
The main limitation in this case is busy or dirty hands.

There are several ways to make it easier for the user to communicate with the application:

Put all the information you need on one screen. In this case, the screen should not go out.
Use audio and video track.
Use voice control in steps of the recipe ("next", "repeat", "one step back")

# 2 Cut off excess

« Everything should be presented as simply as possible. But not more" - Albert Einstein.

You can see many ways of developing your product, the main thing is to highlight the main idea and choose which part you can run in the first version. Focus on the solution one tasks or problems. Let your product solve just one problem - but the main thing is that it works.

# 3 Build on best practices

Before starting work, you must familiarize yourself with competitors' products and highlight their strengths and weaknesses. So you will save yourself from other people's mistakes and, possibly, complement your interface.

If you create mobile app - use guidelines and popular libraries. This will speed up your development, and the user interface will be more familiar.

Another tip is to draw on the experience of large companies. Perhaps you have a completely different subject matter, but you can borrow something from the style.

Some examples of successful products: Instagram, Dropbox, Notion.

See what they have in common: white background, just one accent color, clean and tidy interface without unnecessary features.

# 4 Design - today

Use the one night rule - work today not only the structure, but also the UI. In the morning with a fresh mind, you should look at your product. Thoughts on how to improve the user experience or visual part will appear for sure. Don't forget about empty states and error handling.

# 5 evoke emotions

It doesn't really matter what you develop on the hackathon - a mobile app, chatbot, or something else. Design is communication with the user.

Let's take a look at what tools we have in our arsenal.

Text. Write clear and simple text. Decide on a style direction - it should be inherited throughout the application. Do not overload the user with unnecessary information. Be friendly - give tips and tricks.

Font. Try to use no more than two fonts. Don't use small, unreadable text - follow the guidelines.

Colour. Choose one accent color that sets the mood.

Photos. Use only high quality photographs in one style. Think about how the cap for the photo block will look.

Illustrations. Illustrations work very well in onboarding and empty states.

Animations. If the team has a designer, great. You can experiment with onboarding or work out microinteractions.

Good example work with emotions - Rocketbank application. In the navbar, the support has a heart icon. In correspondence with a bank employee, you can attach a document, photo or send love. Love is sent as a heart sticker. And what's more, the sticker upload spinner is also heart-shaped. A very loving bank.

Your product must be friendly. Conquer hearts like Rocketbank.

# 6 Simplify

During the development process, do not forget about critical thinking - constantly ask yourself the question "how can this be simplified?"

If the screen needs comments and detailed onboarding, this is a bad screen.
The interface should be intuitive and shouldn't raise questions.
The best interface is no interface. Try to keep the number of steps necessary for the user to complete the main case, to a minimum.

I have put together a small selection of home screens with one function or clear focus.

Shazam
Probably everyone is familiar with this product. When you enter the application, the emphasis on the button is set not only by its size, but also by animation. Ideal when you want to quickly find out the artist - you don't have to look for a button that starts a search for a long time.

Hear
Application that converts sounds that come from a microphone. Basically, it's just a bunch of sound filters that you can swipe. Nothing extra.

Boomerang
A small application from Instagram - a camera that allows you to make looped mini-videos. A couple of camera controls and an archive are all that's needed.

They look laconic.

# 7 Write clearly

Errors in the interface are very striking. Try to check the entire text for literacy. Use short headlines. No dots are needed in headings. Think over the text of the buttons, the user must understand what happens when pressed. Use language that the user understands.

Examples of how to write is not necessary:

Be careful with foreign words (for example, "device"). Will your audience understand them?

Read the advice about stop words in the interface from Bureau Gorbunov.

# 8 Take breaks

It is very important to rest at the wild pace of the hackathon. At least not for long. Let yourself be distracted. It is desirable that these were not social networks, but a change of scenery. Go to make tea or coffee, go outside for a couple of minutes.

You can use the technique if you like Pomodoro... It consists in dividing working time and rest time into periods: you work 25 minutes on a specific task and rest exactly 5 minutes. If this luxury is not permissible due to tight deadlines or knocks you out of the state of the flow - determine the time for your team and general breaks. For example 55/5.

Why is all this necessary? The look will not be blurred. A short break will give you some strength. You may see a solution to a problem or an error that you ignored.

Remember

The most important

You are making a product as part of a hackathon. Your task is not only to do something working, but also to interest everyone with your idea, to be remembered.

Do not forget to rehearse before the defense and try to show the full amount of work done.

On July 30-31, 2016 Polylog Consulting Group organized an international design hackathon for Sberbank Technologies in Moscow. In this article, we will tell you about the features of this format and share some of the solutions that we used when organizing and conducting the hackathon.

For those who don't know: a hackathon is a marathon for developers software... In our case, the hackathon brought together designers and UX specialists who were to develop solutions based on the Unified Frontal System (EFS) - Sberbank's global IT platform, which is being developed to provide multichannel customer service in a single window.

We planned our work on the preparation and conduct of the hackathon in four areas: attracting participants, technical support of the site, work with the program, PR support.

Attraction of participants

Immediately after making the decision to start working on the project, we realized that it would not be so easy to gather participants: it is easy to find a programmer, it is not easy to find an interface designer and UX specialist. Unfortunately, there are no contact databases for people with such a specific profile on the Internet. Our participant search algorithm included several components.

We contacted our partners, Digital October and Habrahabr, posting information about the hackathon on their websites and sending mailing to their databases. We also created a database of the most reputable digital agencies and design studios in Moscow, St. Petersburg and several other cities with a population of over one million, which provided more than 400 contacts for making calls.

The next block is professional associations and communities. We sent information about the hackathon to Russian Association Electronic Communications (RAEC), Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies (ROCIT) and Apps4all. In addition, invitations to participate in the hackathon were sent to schools and design studios: British graduate School design, Netology, Center "Specialist", Redmadrobot, etc.

The polylog did not pass by the headhunting agencies in the invitation campaign: SuperJob and HeadHunter. We also sent information about the hackathon to institutes and universities, but this channel of attracting participants did not work in this case: July, all students are on vacation.

Technical support

DI Telegraph was chosen as the venue for the event, where it was possible to comfortably accommodate teams of designers and programmers. Bearing in mind that one of the features of hackathons is continuous work for a long time (in this case, 48 hours), we have provided both full-fledged three meals a day for the participants and a special refueling zone where participants could find tea, coffee and snacks at any time of the day or night. We also took care not only of the food intake, but also of other aspects of the designers' comfort - when calling after registration, Polylog employees recommended that participants take a change of clothes with them. For the rest of the participants, sofas and ottomans were provided. Everything was planned, but the weather intervened: the last weekend in July was very hot. And then it turned out that the DI Telegraph building had no air conditioning. All windows were urgently opened, all fans were turned on, but unfortunately this could not greatly reduce the temperature of the already tense atmosphere of the competition. So the next time we are preparing an event in the summer, be sure to check the condition of the air conditioning system.

Working with the program

Special content for the hackathon - marketplace technologies, machine learning, Big Data, smart scenarios for information processing and models of working with clients - was developed by Sberbank Technologies, and the task of the Polylog consulting group was to adapt and integrate it into the event program. In addition, the development of the program itself (time plan, etc.) fell on our shoulders. Having dealt with the specifics of the content and adapted it to the format of the event, we held rehearsals for the opening of the hackathon, the main events during the event, and the award ceremony for the winners. It should be noted that the customer had new wishes in the course of the event, and, therefore, we had new tasks. We quickly implemented these wishes: for example, before the awards ceremony itself, we changed the names of the nominations so that they were more consistent with the results achieved by the participants.

PR support

The main difficulty Polylog faced while preparing PR support for the Hackathon was the need to simultaneously work with three different types of media: IT publications, banking media, publications for mobile developers. To do this, we have developed different approaches to working with them, which made it possible to involve all three types of media in covering the event. Polylog CG entered into information partnership agreements with Interfax, RIA Novosti, Bankir.ru, Analytical Banking Journal, PC Week, Apptractor.ru and other media. As a result of the hackathon, more than 100 messages were published.

Outcome

Despite the very tight schedule for the preparation and holding of the event, the international design hackathon of Sberbank-Technologies was held at a decent level. 40 teams were registered, 16 of them went to the face-to-face tour, the best solutions were awarded with cash prizes and gifts.

22 Aug 2016

We continue to dispel the myth that hackathons are only for programmers. Still, the word has the root "hack" - here involuntarily there is an association with hackers and stern bearded coders. Well, once upon a time, hackathons were really just for them. And by them.

Things are different today. A hackathon is a format that brings together specialists from a wide variety of industries. Programmers, designers, marketers, managers, entrepreneurs (and sometimes even musicians, doctors, journalists, civic activists ...) - all gather in teams, stock up on food and oxygen in order to launch their project on a tight schedule. Often pushed to the limit, intercepting several hours of sleep right on the battlefield. But if you only knew how much pleasure the realization gives: we did it!

So, designers have several reasons to go to the hackathon.

Reason 1. Call

In fact, only such work can be considered true "interface design". In general, the first reason why a designer should try going to a hackathon at least once is a chance to throw himself a professional challenge. And win.

Reason 2. Good company

As one HackDay contributor recently said: “first and foremost, it's a great alternative to a weekend at home. ” By and large, there is nothing to add to this.

Hackathons have a special atmosphere of a seething "intellectual cauldron" - and it itself contributes to the birth creative ideas and correct design decisions.

Reason 3. Useful acquaintances

Do you often get a chance to meet hundreds of people who think the same way, are interested in about the same, excited by the same ideas?

It is especially useful for freelancers to make acquaintances with projects that will probably need the work of a designer later.

In addition to fellow developers, you can talk with experienced players in the startup market (they are invited as mentors) - their advice is often more useful than all business books combined.

Reason 4. New project in portfolio

Reason 5. Teamwork in a real startup

Yes, the hackathon is a test of strength. It's not for nothing that we distribute t-shirts to the participants “I survived on HackDay” :)

But, if you had thoughts to move on to do something of your own, you can fully taste the everyday life of a startup. In fact, it is an unforgettable experience.

Reason 6. Ability to implementyour idea

Evan Spiegel, one of the co-founders of Snapchat (the one Zuckerberg wanted to buy for $ 3 billion) is an industrial designer by training.

The last reason is enough reasons

In general, we are one hundred and forty-seven percent confident that designers can find use for themselves on HackDay (and any other well-organized hackathon). You need to understand that this is not a competition where designers are fighting with coders for the right to call their application the best. This is a collaborative teamwork that gives the right results and opens up a lot of opportunities.

Therefore, we invite, wait and believe in you. We believe in you specifically. Come to HackDay and do a cool project. Come on!