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EXPERIENCES OF DESIGN AT HACKATHONS: INITIAL FINDINGS FROM AN INTERVIEW STUDY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2021

Meagan Flus  and
Ada Hurst
Meagan Flus*
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
Ada Hurst
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
*
Flus, Meagan, University of Waterloo, Management Sciences, Canada, mhvflus@uwaterloo.ca

Abstract

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Hackathons are short design events at which participants collaboratively progress through the entire design process. They pose opportunities for design research, but the existing research is limited, as is the understanding of design activity at hackathons. In our study, we summarize the hackathon design process of 10 interview participants from varying disciplines, levels of experience, and hackathon events. The summarized account reveals a decreased emphasis on the beginning phases of the design process, mainly problem definition, but an increased emphasis on the end, specifically the pitch portion of the event. These differences are mainly due to the limited time frame. We further assess the effect of time limitations at hackathons by comparing hackathons to other instances of design, emphasizing the impact of time constraints on iteration. We conclude our discussion with an exploration of the role expertise has on the design process by comparing the accounts of designers and developers.

Keywords

HackathonDesign processHuman behaviour in designExpertiseCollaborative design
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 1: ICED21 , August 2021 , pp. 1461 - 1470
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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