GA Hackathon
February 2.21.19 - 2.22.19​
Goal
Use data For Good
Judging criteria
Informational
Organizational
Analytical
Fun/Historical
Team
Kayla Paredes, UX Designer
Will Burroughs, UX Designer
Nhu Trinh, Software Engineer
Quiwaan 'Q' Little, Software Engineer
Veronica Giannotta, Data Analyst
Duration
16 hours
THE PNW WE LOVE
How we can leverage data for good?
After a team brainstorm, we agreed upon the importance of using data to show how the Puget Sound water quality affects the local salmon population over time.
I created the following mood boards, designed to reminisce on the iconic PNW landmarks we adore, as well as inspire and encourage everyone to be mindful and do their part in keeping our waters and environment clean allowing us to continue enjoying its beauty.
Pollution in PNW
This is a glimpse into PNW pollutants that can spread if we don't take action
Meet Jeff
To show how this data impacts us here in The Puget Sound by adding a real-world consideration to this conversation Jeff was constructed, a born and raised Seattlite whose mission is to keep our Puget Sound waters clean while raising awareness of how pollutants can drastically affect our waters.
Jeff's Goals & Motivations
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Goals
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Raise awareness of how water quality affects marine life in Puget Sound
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Decrease the amount of litter in the water
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Increase efforts to clean up Puget Sound
Motivations
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Clean water to kayak and swim in
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To make sure local seafood is sustainable and clean
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Help make Seattle a greener city.
Seattlite Born & Raised
“ There is something about the water that I am just drawn to, one of the many reasons I love living in the PNW “
Supporting Data
Based on research I created a digestible infographic chart representing
Puget Sound pollutants that affect water quality which ultimately harms our salmon
Design Studio
A design studio was conducted including all team members, a data scientist, and two engineers.
The goal of this exercise was to establish core ideas and visual layout as a team.
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This helped generate many ideas and concepts as well as save time and focus our energy on content.
User Flow & Mockup
A user flow was created to communicate steps a user takes to achieve a meaningful goal
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Mid-fidelity mockups were created for developers to construct for hackathon completion.
The Final Product
A website designed to monitor, inform, bring awareness, and share data enabling people to get involved with what's happening in Puget Sound waters.
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Providing visual proof of how it affects our Salmon and PNW livelihood.
Results
We didn't win the hackathon this time but we did learn a lot about what can be created in one day. If I had the chance to redo this I would suggest a more complex website that is an interactive experience and educational about pollutants while encouraging site visitors to sign up and take action
Our team was able to generate a site that was functional and an embedded video of fish swimming on our page!
We were able to incorporate informational data spreading awareness for good,
Mission accomplished and a fantastic experience.
Last thoughts
In order to accomplish design goals, it was critical that communication with developers and data was clear, concise and visual, to ensure we were all working towards the same goal. I found that drawing pictures and showing instead of just telling ideas and thoughts helped bring our team to understand design intentions and goals.
I look forward to pushing the limits of what can be produced in my next hackathon, time permitting A more complex and in-depth site could be constructed as seen below. During the brainstorming, process ideas were generated and the plan was constructed based on time constraints and what could be produced in limited time.
I am thankful for the opportunity to work with a talented multi-disciplinary team, at the beginning of the hackathon we created an environment where any and all ideas were welcomed which was refreshing. We established team goals, communicated pathways and channels to which we would communicate on, communicated skills and what would be feasible to construct due to our time constraints, and broke down all barriers that arose accomplishing our goals.
