Form the Future CIC ran its first virtual hackathon, bringing young people together with professionals in the creative industries to shape the future of the organisation’s website.
In a move to an increasingly virtual delivery model, social enterprise Form the Future developed the interactive hackathon to invite students to use creative problem solving skills and consider what they’d like to see from a careers-based website.
To kick the hackathon off, students heard from David Allison, CEO and Co-Founder of The Talent People, who will be working with Form the Future on its website redesign. David challenged the students to consider what a website is and what makes a good website, and introduced areas to consider as the event progressed.
For the first workshop session, students were tasked with analysing Form the Future’s current website, looking at user experience, current functionality and design. The teams then fed their ideas back to a panel of judges, covering their likes and dislikes, and starting to consider solutions.
In the second workshop session, students began to build upon their analysis and design solutions for the current site, before presenting quick fire pitches to the judging panel.
The judges were wowed by students’ innovative ideas – from reconsidering the structure of the site and the journey the user takes, to redesigned menus, layouts, images and content ideas.
Many of the ideas will be taken forward as Form the Future looks to redesign its current website in its 5thanniversary year.
Throughout the day, the students were support by volunteers who were able to give their expert opinions as the hackathon progressed.
A student who took part in the hackathon said:
“The presentation at the beginning was great looking at other websites and to see how they cater to the target audience, it really presented to me how important that factor is. It’s not like anything I have done before and was a great experience and really insightful to see what designers take into account when building a website.”
Chloe Ambrose, Creative Marketing Consultant at The Creative Strides, said:
“What a bright bunch of students! On the day of the hackathon I joined in the breakout sessions where the students came up with some great suggestions for the website – the consideration of the user experience and the integration of social media as a way of advocating Form the Future to name a few. Overall it was great putting the power in these students’ hands and letting them run innovatively free.”
Gail Hoban, GAS Studio Founder, said:
“Facilitating an online group of students, was a great introduction to Form The Future. My main task was to ensure everybody’s opinions were included, as well as ensure there was a tangible output that the team could feel confident sharing. All students contributed well, were positive and focussed, working out a first design in a short space of time. I look forward to seeing the final outcome of the new version of the Form the Future website.”
Form the Future is recruiting volunteers for a series of careers events with local schools. More details can be found at www.formthefuture.org.uk/events-calendar
