Hi friends,
This week, I’d like to share my experience participating in Hackweek, as well as a poor user interface I encountered recently!
Work-related thoughts:
Winning second place in a recent Hackweek was a huge confidence boost, especially after the challenges I’ve been facing at work. I also did well in a smaller Hackweek last year, and both experiences reminded me that I still have a good instinct for product design, which feels great.
This time, I participated in Hackweek remotely, which had its downsides. I missed the in-person discussions and brainstorming sessions with the team, and it was hard to keep track of what everyone else was doing. I also didn’t enjoy it when someone tried to ask me to direct me to follow their approach; I prefer to work in my own way.
But putting aside what I didn’t like, I want to share what I loved:
First and foremost, the time constraint. One week!
In just one week, we went from research and brainstorming to building prototypes and presenting. It was quick, focused, and straight to the point—unlike the usual back-and-forth at work where we try to please everyone. With limited time, we had to focus on solving the problems and just get things done.
The engineers quickly built a working model, and I provided the design prototypes. We had to work within technical constraints, which actually made decision-making clearer and more straightforward. I really liked that—we had to be decisive, and there wasn’t room for endless revisions. And for those who love to think big, there was still space to dream up a future vision and include it in the pitch.
Another cool part of Hackweek was getting to know how everyone works in a short time. Since we all chose our own projects, it was interesting to see what each member brought to the table. The different perspectives made the discussions engaging, and everyone’s solutions were unique.
I also liked how focused we were on solving real user problems. While our daily work also aims to solve user problems, it’s often framed by business goals or metrics. During Hackweek, we tackled real issues and focused solely on them, which was very satisfying.
Lastly, I really enjoyed the whole process—from listening to everyone’s pitch ideas and joining a team, to watching the final presentations, each limited to just 2 minutes. It was a great reminder of how many problems are out there waiting to be solved, and how many different ways there are to approach and present ideas in such a short time. It was a great learning experience. I felt confident when I realized that many of the projects I had selected actually won prizes. I hope to bring this learning into my daily work—just a week to identify problems, build prototypes, and create presentations, so I’ll have tons of ideas ready to pitch for the next quarter.
Design finding not work-related:
Something I ran into recently that really bugged me: My relative was visiting New York, and I wanted to buy a ticket for her for the Metropolitan Museum of Art before we headed out. But no matter how hard I tried—on my phone or on the website—I just couldn’t check out. The checkout button was disabled with no explanation. It would’ve been so much better if there was a message saying why I couldn’t check out, but instead, I was left in the dark. Even now, I still have no idea what went wrong, and honestly, that’s just bad user experience.
Long
嗨，讀者朋友們，
這週我想和大家分享今年參與駭客週的心得，與生活上發現很糟的使用者體驗！
工作相關想法：
這次駭客週拿到項目第二名，被肯定的感覺一掃最近工作上的不順與疲憊感。去年參加的小型駭客週也有得名，讓我感受到自己在產品設計上的敏銳度依然存在，真的非常開心。
這次駭客週是遠端參加，遠端參加的缺點是不容易有團隊的感覺，討論和腦力激盪的效果也不如現場快速和直接，同時，我也常常不確定組員到底在幹嘛，如何分工的，事後才了解到大家其實都參與了很多案子。也不太喜歡初次認識的組員指使我做事，我對自己感興趣的事情會非常投入，而不是被當作他人的助手。
然而，我喜歡駭客週是：一週的時間限制！
在一週內，我們能從研究、發想，到製作模型、完成簡報與錄製兩分鐘的影片發表，所有的流程都非常快速。與平時的工作項目相比，駭客週的時間限制讓我們只能專注於現有的目標。
工程師們迅速製作出可操作的模型，而我同時提供設計模型，讓工程師有依據。在技術限制下反覆討論，做出的設計決策也是在這些限制中找到平衡。對於那些喜歡天馬行空的組員，他們也可以製作一版未來願景，放入提案中。
我也在這週快速了解了每個人的做事風格。由於我們都是自己選擇主題加入的組別，因此能夠在短時間內看出每個人的貢獻及切入角度的不同，討論過程非常有趣，解決方案也各不相同。
另外，也喜歡這種圍繞解決用戶問題的一週。雖然日常工作中也是要解決用戶問題，但大多時候為為商業導向，感覺不是真正的在解決用戶問題。駭客週則是專注於解決真實的用戶問題，在短短一週內提出多種解決方案。
最後，除了自己做案子之外，我也很喜歡駭客週前後：聽大家提案找組員的時候，發現原來有這麼多問題等待解決，而在最後的投票環節中，聽完大家的發表，也學到了許多不同的解決方式與發表技巧，而自己投票選中的項目也都獲得了好成績，真是大大增加自信心。希望在工作中也能有一週找出各種用戶問題，快速做出模型並提出方案，這樣在下一季提交提案時就不怕沒點子了。
生活上的設計發現：
最近發現了一個很糟的使用者體驗：因為親戚來紐約，我想在出門前幫他買大都會博物館的票，結果無論是在手機還是網頁上，都無法完成結帳。如果介面能給出為什麼不能按結帳的提示就好了，但無論是網頁還是手機，只是簡單地把按鍵禁用，至今我還是不知道為什麼無法結帳…
Long