Hackathon
Quaran-time
The Challenge
General Assembly organized a Hackathon and put us in teams with a mix of UX designers and software engineers from their training program. We had 24 hours to design and execute an app concept relevant to the current pandemic.
Hackathon Topic: Pandemic Living
Suggested Problem Spaces:
Safety
Health
Education
Organizational Tools
Digital Identification / Contact Tracing
Remote Communication
The Summary
My team designed an app that would help someone who recently tested positive for COVID-19 get through their 14 days of quarantine with different recommended activities. The recommendation algorithm was generated from the users' field of preferences.
My Role
Research Synthesis
Analyzed data gathered by team members post interviews through affinity mapping
Wireframing
Collected insights from design studio and built concept app in figma
Product Design
Created color scheme and design layout for the final product
Used figma to create a prototype to present to the judges
Tools
Miro
Figma
Marker/pen
Paper/Whiteboard
Jamboard
User Interviews
My design team reached out to friends who recently tested positive for COVID-19 to find out about their daily routine and to know more about their quarantine lifestyle. We conducted 3 interviews. Our team quickly realized that those cooped up inside for 14 days needed different activities to occupy their time.
“I’m running out of things to do! I can’t go for a walk, and the activities I can do started feeling mundane by the 3rd day.” - User 2
Key Findings
During quarantine, users were less likely to leave the house if they had a constant feed of new activities.
Users are unlikely to seek out new activities if they are preoccupied with their health and recovery.
By finding a way to help users automatically get a new list of activities from the comfort of their own home, the spread of COVID-19 might decrease.
Synthesis
Our team was able to build a persona keeping in mind some of the key points gathered from our interviews.
The Design Process
For design inspiration we looked into some of the already available Quarantine tracker apps. We found some that were close to what we were trying to accomplish.
These apps gave us a good blueprint to work from since, given our time crunch, we could not conduct Mid-Fidelity.
High Fidelity Results
Users would be able to create a profile
Users had the option of selecting 3 of their high priority interests
Our software could start recommending different activities for the user
The Panel
While we did end up losing our Software Engineering Team Member because of the deadline and related stress, our team still managed to work together and finish our prototype and presentation. Our idea was very well received and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
“Super original and fantastic idea. Solves a real problem and yet so simple.” Judge 1
“Y'all crushed it with that presentation. Definitely kept my attention. Love the UX that y'all came up with. Super user friendly." Judge 2
“This is such a great idea for something that is very needed right now!” Judge 3
The Results
2nd Place Overall
Most Funded App
Best Persona
Key Takeaways
This Hackathon taught me:
How the design process can be very unpredictable
The importance of compromise, respectful communication, and finding common ground with your development team
That pushing on despite obstacles can result in a great product