Hack for Inclusion
Designing a virtual hackathon to develop solutions for equity and inclusion
Facilitation / Training & Mentoring / Project Management
How might we redesign a three-day human-centered design hackathon to be virtual and accessible across time zones?
Over the course of three-days, teams of participants tackled 12 different challenges to broaden access, reimagine work, and strengthen community. Four virtual design sessions integrated into the first two days taught participants how to apply equity-centered and human-centered design and provided activities / tools to solve their designated challenge.
A design roadmap provided participants with a guide for using design thinking to solve their challenge with their team.
A virtual design guide in Miro provided participants with tools to walk through the design roadmap with their team.
A design home kit sent to participants offered pre-read materials, community guidelines, and equity mindsets to use during the sessions. Photo Credit: Ashely Rivenbark
Problem.
MIT’s Hack for Inclusion initiative began in 2018 with the mission of addressing biases thwarting equity and inclusion. This effort creates space for meaningful dialogue, learning, and solutioning with the intention of developing prototypes to take forward. Our three-day hackathon event brings together diverse teams that collaborate and employ human-centered design to tackle challenges provided by a variety of organizations.
Until 2021, the hackathon had been a live, in-person event with 250+ participants. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the event either needed to be canceled or turned virtual. I took on the responsibility of recreating the hackathon design sessions to be virtual and interactive over the three-day event for 500+ participants dialing in from across the world. Additionally, the MIT student leadership team requested the facilitation content be in a video format to increase flexibility and inclusivity, enabling teams to work at their own pace, across time zones.
Process.
Discover | Develop | Design | Deliver
My Role.
Lead Design Facilitator & Project Manager.
Leading a team of two designers, I managed the project plan and activities, led ideation sessions to define the vision, developed 6 of 8 modules, and mentored teams during the live event.
Duration.
2 months
Discover.
After meeting with Hackathon leadership to clarify goals, I conducted research with prior design facilitators to understand the previous method, identify opportunities for improvement, and incorporate lessons learned. I studied equity-centered design processes to modify the traditional human-centered design process and researched tools for building the solution.
Methods & Tools.
Desk Research
Interviews
Ideation
Equity-Centered Community Design
Liberatory Design
Equity-Centered Design Learning.
I referenced equity-centered design resources to modify the human-centered design process.
I studied Equity-Centered Community Design and Liberatory Design frameworks to understand how to modify the human-centered design process for more equitable and inclusive solutions. The design of the sessions was heavily informed by these two guides and their materials were referenced throughout.
Define.
I led an internal ideation session to define a design roadmap and modules for the hackathon. Using this vision, I led the team in defining the agenda, creating a plan to build out the solution, and managing deliverables for on-time delivery.
Methods & Tools.
Visioning
Roadmapping
Prototyping
Design Session Planning.
I led the team in defining a design roadmap for the event, a vision for each module, and an agenda for each session, which informed the design of the virtual design guide.
Roadmapping.
Our team worked together to brainstorm a new roadmap of the design process to defining the participant journey through the hackathon, incorporating lessons from liberatory and equity-centered community design methods. In this process, we defined the modules participants would complete during the design sessions.
The roadmap expanded the traditional human-centered design process by adding in components of equity-centered design to have individuals notice their biases and reflect on the implications of their work.
Agenda Setting.
Using the outputs from our visioning session, we translated our roadmap into the previously established three-day schedule. We crafted four design sessions with a high-level agenda and time allocation for each module.
Visioning.
We brainstormed and refined the modules within the participant journey, clarifying the objective, key outputs, and potential activities to support teams in reaching target outcomes. We used our initial research to inform our selections.
Visual Design Framework.
Using the new agenda, I supported my teammate in developing a visual design framework for our virtual design guide. I provided feedback on the usability and shared the design with potential participants for feedback.
The feedback gathered resulted in a specific milestone section at the bottom of each module for participants to document their key outputs and for facilitators to track team progress.
Develop.
Using the roadmap, I developed six of eight design modules to lead participants through the design process virtually. For each module, I crafted a detailed agenda, developed an introduction video, and built activities in Miro to walk through the process. The modules aimed to foster full group participation and encourage consensus to ensure all voices were heard.
Methods & Tools.
Storyboards
Storytelling
Miro
Video Making
Prototyping
Testing
Solution Development.
We developed our solution, creating home kit materials, videos, and the design guide to test with users for feedback.
Home Kit Development.
All registered participants received a package of materials sent to their home. Our team included community guidelines to set expectations, spaces for participants to write and sketch during their activities, and Liberatory Design Mindset cards from the Stanford d.school to establish critical perspectives for equity-centered design. These mindsets were discussed in each module to make equity-centered design feel more tangible and lead to more inclusive solutions.
Module Development.
I designed detailed agendas for six modules, defining key learnings needed to understand the process and activities to empower participants to achieve the desired outputs.
You can view the Miro board here.
Video Facilitation.
I developed presentations to facilitate each module, outlining the purpose and intended outcomes; explaining key concepts and liberatory design mindsets; and posing questions for reflection.
I recorded videos of each presentation to enable asynchronous and flexible working. My teammate turn each recording into a video for our sessions.
Design Guide Development.
I developed Miro board sections to walk participants through each module, embedding the video to introduce each section, providing instructions and materials for each activity, clarifying key deliverables, and sharing resources to answer questions and offer additional support.
Testing Iteration.
Through user testing, we learned that the number of activities may lead participants to feel stressed about completing everything in the short amount of time allotted.
Our goal for the design sessions was not only to enable equitable solution development, but also to teach these practices to others. As such, we still wanted to provide the resources for participants to learn
As a result, we changed the design to prioritize key activities for participants. This allowed participants to streamline the process by tackling only the most important activities with their teams if they felt short on time.
Deliver.
Using the facilitation tools, we led the design sessions of the three-day hackathon. Given the self-guided facilitation approach, I spent my time mentoring five teams through their challenges. I jumped between virtual rooms, working with teams to answer questions, provide encouragement, and pose thought provoking questions to help the team move forward.
Methods & Tools.
Virtual Facilitation
Mentorship
Virtual Facilitation.
Our team successfully delivered our virtual design sessions to 45+ teams of participants, mentoring teams over the weekend to design equitable, human-centered solutions.
Photo Credit: Nihara Kurian
Impact.
First Place Mentor.
I mentored the 1st place winning team in developing a human-centered solution to create safe, engaging spaces for teen girls in a digital world; the solution was later implemented
Solution Implementation.
The design sessions successfully enabled 45+ teams to reimagine work, broaden access, and strengthen community; participating organization implemented solutions designed
Resource Reuse.
The resources developed continue to live on through participants who requested the materials for continuous learning and future personal / professional use