Best Hackathon Themes: Experimenting with Gamification
Have you ever wondered what makes some hackathons not just good, but truly unforgettable? After years of participating in and observing numerous hackathons, I’ve come to realize just how crucial a good theme is to the success of these events.
A well-chosen theme not only energizes participants but also ensures that they learn something valuable, connect with colleagues, and stretch their creative muscles.
This post kicks off a series dedicated to uncovering the most dynamic and effective hackathon themes.
Criteria for a Successful Hackathon Theme
Here are some principles I consider essential for selecting a successful hackathon theme:
- Inclusivity: Choose a theme that welcomes participants from all backgrounds, avoiding overly technical topics that could exclude non-engineering participants.
- Educational Opportunities: Each participant should have the opportunity to learn something new, resulting in an expanded skill set and knowledge base.
- Well-Defined Scope: Themes should be specific enough to guide participants towards clear and achievable goals without being overly restrictive. Too ambiguous will lead to significant disparity in fidelity across teams.
- Accessibility of Tools: Ensure that all necessary tools for your chosen theme are readily available so that participants can jump straight into the hackathon without extensive prep work.
- Dynamic Host and Judges: Engaging hosts and knowledgeable judges who are passionate about the theme can greatly enhance the hackathon experience.
For our first theme, we delve into gamification, brilliantly suggested by my coworker Furqan Haq.
Gamification’s Path From Novelty to Necessity
Gamification, which integrates game mechanics into non-game environments to boost engagement, gained significant traction in 2010. By 2017, Gartner already moved gamification to the slope of enlightenment.
After less than a decade and probably billions of VC dollars invested, the enthusiasm for gamification fizzled out as it led to mixed outcomes. Poorly defined and executed strategies often resulted in gamification fatigue, where the novelty wore off and the techniques became less effective in driving long-term behavior change.
However, don’t dismiss gamification just yet! Successful applications like Duolingo demonstrate its potential. Duolingo’s gamification tactics have proven highly successful, driving substantial user engagement and retention.
The implementation of streaks resulted in a 20% increase in Daily Active Users (DAU), highlighting the effectiveness of maintaining user consistency. Personalized push notifications from Duo, the owl mascot, increased DAU by 5%, while the introduction of badges led to a 13% rise in in-app purchases and a 116% increase in friend referrals.
Similarly, my team observed a substantial increase in high-margin sales after implementing a gamification strategy for a major satellite TV company in Central America. Plus, I recently wrote an article about metrics for engineering managers that highlighted a successful implementation of a leaderboard on an engineering team.
When applied correctly, I remain a strong believer in the potential impact of gamification.
Why Choose Gamification for Your Hackathon?
Choosing gamification as a theme for your hackathon supports our key principles for an effective theme. Gamification fosters inclusivity, promotes educational opportunities, ensures a well-defined scope, requires minimal specialized tools, and benefits from enthusiastic hosts and judges. Let’s explore each of these principles is applicable to this theme:
Inclusivity
Gamification leverages the universal appeal of games, making this theme an inclusive playground for a hackathon. With a solid framework, which we’ll dive into later, each person’s unique knowledge of their domain becomes a valuable asset. This means everyone can chip in, share insights, and play a crucial part in our collective innovation. Everyone gets to participate, make meaningful contributions, and potentially change the game.
Educational Opportunities
A gamification hackathon is like hitting the refresh button on our approach to our work. Each participant gets to dive into how gaming elements can make your projects pop and spark innovation. It’s a hands-on way to experiment with a new perspective and potentially change how you approach work every day.
Well-Defined Scope
Many brilliant individuals have spent years thinking about gamification, resulting in frameworks such as Yukai Chou’s Octalysis (more on that later). It gives everyone just the right amount of direction to start off strong and keep the game fair.
Accessibility of Tools
Most gamification strategies can be implemented with minimal requirements regarding specialized tools or technologies, allowing participants to dive right into the experience without needing extensive preparations or background knowledge.
Dynamic Host and Judges
Gamification is a familiar playground for all, so you don’t need specialized judges. Your engineering directors and product managers make perfect judges, balancing technical prowess with creative flair. Remember, an enthusiastic host can elevate the entire event, making it unforgettable!
Harnessing Yukai Chou’s Octalysis Framework for Effective Hackathons
One of the reasons gamification can deeply engage participants in a hackathon is the solid frameworks that back it up. A shining example is Yukai Chou’s Octalysis Framework.
An acclaimed gamification expert and author, Chou is recognized for his pioneering work in applying game design principles to various non-game contexts. Employing this framework ensures that our gamification strategies are comprehensive and thoughtfully deployed.
Octalysis aims to break down human motivation into eight core drives, each influencing behavior in unique ways. This granular approach allows us to tailor gamification elements specifically to the psychological needs and triggers of different user groups, making our hackathon theme not just engaging but deeply resonant.
Chou bifurcates the eight drives into two dimensions: white hat vs. black hat and left brain vs. right brain. White hat techniques focus on positive motivations that create healthy and lasting engagement by utilizing elements like accomplishment and creativity. In contrast, black hat drivers such as Fear or Scarcity utilize urgent, addictive elements such as scarcity and fear of loss. They’re powerful for immediate action but may lead to user burnout if overused.
Left brain drives reference intrinsic motivators or internal satisfaction such as the joy of mastering a skill. These are ideal for fostering long-term engagement and self-determination. On the other hand, the right brain drives reference extrinsic motivators, commonly found in external rewards such as bonuses, trophies, or public recognition. These are effective for quick wins and specific goal achievement.
Understanding this dichotomy between these dimensions helps your hackathon teams craft solutions that are not only engaging but also designed to sustain interest and promote healthy competition.
Closing Thoughts
As we wrap up our exploration of gamification as a hackathon theme, remember that the power of this approach is its ability to not only entertain but also to drive innovation and collaboration. By integrating game mechanics into our work, we not only make the problem-solving process more engaging but also open doors to new ways of thinking.
I hope this post inspires you to consider gamification for your next hackathon and that you’re now equipped with the insights to make it a resounding success. Don’t hesitate to share how it goes.
Resources for Further Learning
- Deeper explanation by Chou and Chou’s Book if you wanna go crazy
- A great prerequisite for hackathon participants: Ted X Talk by Chou
- Dr. Kersten Oberprieler’s talk on gamification and her framework based on Reiss’s 16 basic human desires
