Hackathon Portal
An end-to-end event management platform tailored specifically for hosting large-scale hackathons and innovation challenges.
ROLE
UI/UX Designer
DURATION
3 months
TEAM
1 Designer, 3 Engineers
PLATFORM
Web Application
OWNERSHIP & SCOPE
Platform Architecture · Participant Dashboard UX · Judging & Scoring Interface Design · Visual Identity & Branding integration
DESIGN STACK
THE PROBLEM
Managing team formations, project submissions, and live judging for 5,000+ participants manually was prone to errors, bias, and delays.
MY ROLE & CONTRIBUTION
A sleek, engaging platform that excites developers to participate while providing organizers with robust management tools.
Designing a dual-sided platform that needs to be "hype" and engaging for developers, while being rigidly structured and data-heavy for organizers and judges.
TARGET USER
Participant — Highly competitive, values aesthetics and smooth UI.
CORE FRICTION
Team formation logic (finding teammates with complementary skills) Handling massive spikes in traffic during the final submission hour
BUSINESS DRIVER
The client, a major tech community organizer, was running 50+ hackathons a year using a chaotic mix of Google Forms, Slack, and Excel, leading to administrative nightmares and poor participant experiences.
KEY CONSTRAINTS
Team formation logic (finding teammates with complementary skills)
Handling massive spikes in traffic during the final submission hour
Creating an unbiased, rapid-fire judging interface
Evidence & Insights
Approach: Surveys to 200 past participants. Prototype testing with 5 potential judges. Interviewed previous hackathon organizers and past participants to map the 48-hour event lifecycle.
USER INSIGHT
Developers care deeply about showcasing their tech stack and GitHub profiles.
DESIGN IMPLICATION
Create a "Tinder for Developers" team matching interface.
USER INSIGHT
Judges usually have less than 5 minutes to review a project; the UI must present the video/repo immediately alongside the scorecard.
DESIGN IMPLICATION
Implement a centralized announcement timeline.
USER INSIGHT
Gamification (leaderboards, badges) drives engagement.
DESIGN IMPLICATION
Design a streamlined, rubric-based digital scorecard for judges.
Core Architecture & Trade-Offs
Every major interface decision was evaluated against real enterprise constraints, user cognitive load, and accessibility standards.
DECISION 01
Enforcing strict URL validation (GitHub/Video) early in the form to prevent broken links during judging.
A visually striking, dark-themed platform that feels energetic and deeply rooted in developer culture.
EXECUTIVE IMPACT SUMMARY
The portal completely modernized the client's event operations, creating a scalable product that could be white-labeled for other organizations.
WORKFLOW SIMPLIFICATION
Transformed a multi-screen, multi-step provisioning process into a guided 3-step wizard with progressive disclosure.
ACCESSIBILITY & OBSERVABILITY
Redesigned status indicators with shape, color, and text — meeting WCAG 2.1 AA and eliminating ambiguity.
SYSTEM SCALE
Contributed storage-specific UI patterns back to the global HPE GreenLake design system.
Senior Practitioner Insights
Designing a submission form that is completely idiot-proof for developers who have been awake for 48 hours.