GRID 110 - Hackathon
Hackathon created by the DTLA incubator, GRID 110
24-Hour challenge to develop a wearable tech product
A small device affixed to the cap or back, to track swim speed and timing in tandem with an app.
ROLE:
PROJECT:
CHALLENGE:
SOLUTION:
UX Research & Design
Develop a viable swim wearable product for swimming hobbyists
Ensuring that the wearable does not exist in the marketplace and designing a product that is a solution for swimmers.
Ideation
The prompt was simple: Anything, as long as its a wearable. Usually Hackathons have a problem prompt, but this was enough to start. Carmela spearheaded the product idea for swimwear: Speedo discontinued their line and only Garmin was limited, she knew this coming into the hackathon. Mallyce was enthusiastic about this idea of swimming wearables, given that it was her current background, so she understood the demographic for us to execute on.
Research
While Carmela oversaw the project flow, I spearheaded the tech research and landed upon the Anduino chip that could communicate with a phone through Bluetooth. Furthermore Mallyce reinforced this with user surveys to really push for the viability of the product.
Production
I was still wrapped up in verifying research while the team was assembling market viability, use-case scenarios, personas, and the UI of the companion app. When I was confident in what we had, I moved on to assisting in the formatting of the pitch deck and the UI.
Presentation
For the presentation, we considered using an intro footage of one of my team members using the app, but we scrapped it last minute. We have 5-minutes to present and we received the interest of some of the judges. We did not win the Hackathon, but we really believe in the viability of the product at the point we reached in 24-hours.