My First Hackathon — Creating a Contactless Check-in with Octagon
So what’s a hackathon you say?
Well, I called a good friend to ask and he said,
“Think of it as… that movie…… Gladiators!”
Now, yes…picture Russell Crowe… armed…sword in hand… as one single drop of sweat drips down the side of his brow, preparing for battle.
(Dramatic pause)
The tides of fate, life or death flash before his very eyes
And the reward (shall you be victorious) is……
street cred…..
Now I’m totally kidding….. And in all seriousness the hackathon was nowhere near the Ridley Scott film.
But, my joke about street cred… accurate.
Truthfully speaking and to set the record straight
A hackathon is a (week long) endurance event of the mind to create a solution to a problem in an intense short amount of time
No sharp objects…. No tigers
Good, clean, fun.
After this funny, maybe not so funny, only I think it’s funny intro
You might be thinking…
What was this hackathon about?
Problem Statement
The event was put on by General Assembly, where I graduated from their UXDI immersive program. They partnered with Octagon, the largest sponsorship consulting practice and leader in athletic and entertainment event management.
Since in person events have suffered in spite of COVID, they asked if participants would be able to find a way for consumers to provide a contactless “check-in” for future onsite events.
Challenge accepted.
The Team
I had the pleasure of working with 3 talented GA alumni
Danielle Medellin- Data Scientist
Sally Hung- UX/ UI Designer
Stephen Burnett- Software Engineer
Our team created focused questions, evaluating
- What would be the best method for checking in consumers onsite?
- How would this method alleviate COVID concerns and make the experience easier to “check-in”?
- How does it scale across multiple check-ins and how can we optimize consumer touch points with multiple experiences?
Research: Screener Survey
We created a screener survey to curate a targeted audience. We determined which events people used contactless check-ins (pre-COVID) the most and examined their tolerance and comfort levels of what would make them feel more safe (if and when) things start opening back up again.
Check out our google form survey here
Research: User Interviews
We spoke with our participants focusing our objective to discover,
- Current experiences interacting with contactless check-ins
- Disadvantages/ Advantages
- Walking through the process of purchasing, entering, and existing events
See our discussion guide here
Affinity Mapping and Insights
- Users feel like their tickets need to be valid and secure in order to be admitted to venues
- Users want to enter venues quickly and easily
- Users want to purchase multiple tickets for their friends
- Users don’t know where to find venue amenities (check-in spot, stage, bathrooms, exits)
Persona
We created a persona, Rob, our MVP, based on our insights in order to represent the different users to distill the perspective of the customer profile.
Our Focus
People are looking for a safe way to enjoy concerts post COVID. Rob loves attending concerts, but is weary of how venues will regulate and enforce safety precautions before, during, and after the event. Our UX team wanted to focus the attention on regulating and avoiding long lines to prevent over crowding.
In order to maintain social distancing, How might we provide a safe and staggered approach to event lines that make Rob’s check-in experience fast and easy?
We had two options to tackle this problem
Using QR codes or Visual Validation tickets?
We leaned on our Data Scientist, Danielle, for insights who could collect and pull larger pieces of structured data, current trends, and statistics to help determine which option was best for this particular study.
Research: Data Science
Based on our persona, Rob, we asked ourselves
Which system would be faster? and how could people avoid long wait times and crowded lines? Which option was more reliable and secure?
We chose Visual Validation and here’s why
- QR codes, while faster than physical tickets are slower than visual validation (source)
- “QR codes / barcodes can be scanned at readers; however, that generally involves higher capital costs and longer installation times. .” source
- “QR codes can easily be duplicated and shared, and so are not typically a good solution for anti-counterfeit or other sensitive applications.” source
- Data collected from a subreddit called “r/Coronavirus” from a Pushshift API was used to gauge public opinion. Folks were concerned over a second wave and that people will be weary about gatherings in the future and spending money on new technology installations might be a mistake for businesses source
Features
Based on the insight that:
Users feel like their tickets need to be valid and secure in order to be admitted to venues and Users want to purchase multiple tickets for their friends
- We developed a “Day-of-Show Selfie” to ensure valid identification and if people needed to re-enter an event they could do so
- We created a live pulsing check mark to indicate the ownership of the ticket, which can hold multiple tickets, similar to the MTA transit system, ensuring an active legitimate indication where it couldn’t be duplicated or screenshot.
Based on the insight that:
Users don’t know where to find venue amenities (check in spot, stage, bathrooms, exits) and Users want to enter and exit the venues quickly and easily
- We developed on boarding screens (with tips and pinned key locations) — pop up message/map with pins on where things are
- The app will give you a window of time to enter the venue to eliminate overcrowding, a staggered approach to efficiently and safely enter and leave the venue.
Design: How it works?
On the day of the event a pop up messages will appear with a brief expectation when to arrive with crucial info about the venue. You’ll be asked to take a “Day of Show Selfie”, which would be seen as a payment verification and used for reentry.
You will be notified of your assigned time of arrival to avoid overcrowding, long lines, and ensure social distancing
There’s a timed check-in and count down, so users don’t click “check in” (until everyone in their party has arrived)
Next steps
As data continues to be collected from the pandemic, we can gain a clearer analysis of current COVID related data to make future iterations
Conduct user testing — A/B testing for specific features of the app and continue moderating our systems
The Verdict
Out of 8 other teams were placed 2nd runners up!
Not bad for a first time, aye?
Now, it wasn’t as gory as Gladiators, but it was pretty epic to say the least, striving to create solutions to real life problems — Now that’s worth fighting for ;) and why I love UX.
Check out our Figma Prototype HERE!
