UX Day Design Challenge

Abstract

Hackathons have become a popular method for group design ideation and conceptual development for practical design challenges in a variety of technology domains. Perhaps the most common is software development and a common application is for social entrepreneurship, as a way to assist worthy causes in a short amount of time and at low cost. Companies also use hackathons as a source of new ideas for challenging design objectives or to audition potential employees and contractors. One of the major benefits of the hackathon model is that they are exciting and engaging because of the time pressure, competitive environment, and often intrinsic motivation. This usabil-athon session will leverage each of these by assigning an unknown design challenge that solves a real-world problem, in a team-based challenge, with extreme time pressure, using rapid design ideation methods, with tangible rewards, among and against valued peers, and with a live audience. This session continues the model of User Experience Day to introduce new session formats to the HFES Annual Meeting and attract User Experience Practitioners who may not otherwise attend the annual meeting.