Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T09:57:35.084Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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, [email protected]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

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

References

Artiles, J.A., Wallace, D.R. (2013), “Borrowing From Hackathons: Overnight Designathons as a Template for Creative Idea Hubs in the Space of Hands-On Learning, Digital Learning, and Systems Re-Thinking”.Google Scholar
Ball, L.J., Christensen, B.T. (2019), “Advancing an understanding of design cognition and design metacognition: Progress and prospects”, Design Studies, Vol. 65, pp. 35–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2019.10.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birbeck, N., Lawson, S., Morrissey, K., Rapley, T., Olivier, P. (2017), “Self harmony: Rethinking hackathons to design and critique digital technologies for those affected by self-harm”, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 146–157. https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025931CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2006), “Using thematic analysis in psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oaCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briscoe, G., Mulligan, C. (2014), “Digital Innovation: The Hackathon Phenomenon”.Google Scholar
Cardoso, C., Badke-Schaub, P. (2009), “Give Design a Break? The Role of Incubation Periods During Idea Generation”, International Conference on Engineering Design. ICED'09, Stanford, USA.Google Scholar
De Oliveira, C.M.C., Canedo, E.D., Faria, H., Amaral, L.H.V., Bonifacio, R. (2019), “Improving Student's Learning and Cooperation Skills Using Coding Dojos (In the Wild!)”, Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2018.8659056CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreyfus, S.E., Dreyfus, H.L. (1980), A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition: Defense Technical Information Center, Fort Belvoir, VA. https://doi.org/10.21236/ADA084551CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, M., Golob, M., Maklin, D., Herrera, M., Tucci, C., Al-Ashaab, A., Williams, L., Encinas, A., Martinez, V., Zaki, M., Sosa, L., Pineda, K.F. (2018), “How can hackathons accelerate corporate innovation?”, Advances in Production Management Systems, Production Management for Data-Driven, Intelligent, Collaborative, and Sustainable Manufacturing. APMS 2018. Springer, Cham, pp. 167–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99704-9_21Google Scholar
Flus, M. and Hurst, A. (2021) “Design at hackathons: new opportunities for design research,” Design Science. Cambridge University Press, 7, e4. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2021.1.Google Scholar
Frey, F.J., Luks, M. (2016), The innovation-driven Hackathon - One means for accelerating innovation, in: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. https://doi.org/10.1145/3011784.3011794CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackathon.com. (2018), [online]. Available at: https://www.hackathon.com:443/ (accessed 10.7.20).Google Scholar
Hölttä-Otto, K., Niutanen, V., Eppinger, S., Browning, T.R., Stowe, H.M., Lampinen, R., Rahardjo, A. (2018), “Design sprint for complex system architecture analysis”, ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2018-85774CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kannengiesser, U., Gero, J.S. (2019), “Design thinking, fast and slow: A framework for Kahneman's dual-system theory in design”, Design Science, Vol. 5, No. 10. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2019.9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Komssi, M., Pichlis, D., Raatikainen, M., Kindstrom, K., Jarvinen, J. (2015), “What are Hackathons for?”, IEEE Software, Vol. 32, pp. 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2014.78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richterich, A. (2019), “Hacking events: Project development practices and technology use at hackathons”, Convergence, Vol. 25, pp. 1000–1026. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856517709405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saravi, S., Joannou, D., Kalawsky, R.S., King, M.R.N., Marr, I., Hall, M., Wright, P.C.J., Ravindranath, R., Hill, A. (2018), “A systems engineering hackathon - A methodology involving multiple stakeholders to progress conceptual design of a complex engineered product”, IEEE Access 6, pp. 38399–38410. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2851384CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schön, D.A., 1988. Designing: Rules, types and worlds. Design Studies 9, 181–190.10.1016/0142-694X(88)90047-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R.P., Eppinger, S.D. (1997), “A Predictive Model of Sequential Iteration in Engineering Design”, Management Science, Vol. 43, pp. 1104–1120.10.1287/mnsc.43.8.1104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, N., Clarke, L., Skelly, M., Nevay, S. (2018), “Strategies for engaging communities in creating physical civic technologies”, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174081CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Design Council. (2005), “The “Double Diamond” Design Process”.Google Scholar
Truyen, F., Taes, S., Colangelo, C., Wyns, R. (2016), “Getting Creative With Europeana: Innovative Strategies & New Tools For Education”, Edulearn16: 8th International Conference On Education And New Learning Technologies, Edulearn pp. 6606–6614.Google Scholar
Tsenn, J., Atilola, O., McAdams, D.A., Linsey, J.S. (2014), “The effects of time and incubation on design concept generation”, Design Studies, Vol. 35, pp. 500–526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2014.02.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodworth, R.S. (1938), “Experimental psychology”. Holt.Google Scholar