Reflections on Yahoo!’s Hack Day

Yahoo! Bangalore recently had a Hack Day – A day where one can Innovate and present Ideas. It’s a competition where people have to work the whole day –make a prototype and present it in the evening.

There were amazingly 92 presentations at the end of the day. Being from a non-coding background does add some handicaps but it thankfully gives a broader spectrum for thinking. I’m saying this after watching most of the ideas done by coders/engineers.

One think that I figured out was that “Engineers design systems for themselves or for other Engineers”… “Geeks designing for Geeks”.

Though they must be very good in what they do; but they forget the basic Principle of Design – Design is for “others”.

Making a process simpler from messaging from Windows to Linux is cool. But there are bigger issues that need to be solved for common people. That’s I guess the basic difference in the Point of View of Engineers and Designers.

Engineering Education should include the aspects of design. The day Engineers change their perception about design…we designers won’t be needed.

And yes my idea also made it through the top 10 :)