Engaging 500 hackathon attendees through design
Hack Western • Co-director & Design Lead
Role
Co-director and Design Lead
Team
2 Designers
7 Developers
Timeline
Feb - Nov 2023
Status
Shipped
Context
Hack Western is Western University's annual student-run hackathon, bringing together 400+ attendees for 36 hours of creation and innovation. As one of the largest and oldest hackathons in Canada, Hack Western has a large scope of design requirements, from web and mobile products to physical merchandise design.
How I added value
I led a team of 26 as co-director of Hack Western, overseeing all aspects of the event, including the development of Hack Western 10's brand and products (website, application portal, and live site for event attendees). My goal was to effectively brand the event to attract corporate sponsors and create a seamless user experience for event applicants and attendees.
Goals
Design a brand identity for Hack Western 10 to celebrate 10 years of hacking. Attract event attendees and corporate sponsors.
Research and inspiration
Reflecting on past iterations
My team and I looked to the themes of previous years for inspiration, which was particularly important considering we were designing for our 10th anniversary.
Analysis of comparable large tech events
We looked at the brands of large student-led hackathons in North America and noted which concepts we liked and how we could design a theme that would stand out.
Moodboard in FigJam
My team and I combined our visions.
Final product and brand concept
Welcome to our Overnight Campfire
Kindling 10 years of memories at Hack Western over the campfire :)
Concept execution
The Hack Western 10 brand was represented in the designs of our website, application portal, and live site for event attendees, as well as physical merchandise (signage, t-shirts, nametags, etc.) and social media.
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Key Learnings
Addressing Context Edge Cases
I became more familiar with the prevalence of edge cases while shipping three web products on web and mobile. For example, users in a fast-paced hackathon environment want to find event info on quickly mobile: how can I prioritize my design iterations with this context in mind?
Organized Figma Workspace
I practiced keeping an organized Figma workspace for our design team, making it easier to find old work, and communicate where assets were located across many areas of design, from our websites to signage for print.
Design Leadership
Leading Hack Western as both Co-director and Design Lead was a transformative growth experience. I learned so much about leading a large team, communicating effectively, and cross-functional alignment.
Impact
Hosted 400 attendees in-person from across Canada, including students, mentors, project judges, and sponsors from November 24-26th, 2023 at Hack Western.
For a summary of the weekend please see Hack Western 10: Kindling a decade of memories and visit hackwestern.com for the latest hackathon updates :)
Hack Western Memories 💜
From Hack Western 9 & 10
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