Hackathon Workshop

 Hackathon Workshop

On the 10/11/2023 we had our first hackathon workshop. This is when we had members of "Bathroom and Kitchen Eleven" come in and present our brief. The brief was to find a solution/ innovation that would solve one of the issues the company was experiencing since covid. We had to get into small groups and present our solution to the class and industry workers.

We worked on a worksheet that allowed us to discover what issue we would be focusing on to solve. The issue we focused on was the aftermath of Covid-19 and how the interior design industry has found it difficult to showcase their designs remotely to homeowners who are looking to renovate their homes. Bathroom and Kitchen Eleven had been struggling with a lack in the quality of their customer experience which would eventually lead to a loss of clients. We also expanded on the other bigger issues that this would lead to, including:

• Competitive disadvantage. As competitors in this industry are focusing on detailed designs, a lack of it from Bathroom + Kitchen eleven may lead to a loss of customers due to their outdated designs.
• Decrease in new clients. As this company caters to a high-end client base, it must prioritize meeting their elevated standards. If Bathroom + Kitchen elevens lack of attention to detail deters customers, it will likely reduce recommendations, restricting its market reach and consequently harming its reputation.
• Reduced sales. Renovations are often seen as investments and a lack of detail may discourage potential customers from working with the company.

We then discussed multiple solutions and expanded 3 of them. This let us discover what would work best that we were all agreement of. The solution we landed on was a 3D design software. We expanded on this to include a platform (3D CAD, like 3DSMAX) that can be accessed through the Bathroom + Kitchen 11’s website. It would only be available to clients once an initial meeting is done so that the client could not take the design and go somewhere else with it. Each client would have a personal code/account that will allow them to access and edit designs (to a certain extent), as well as add comments. Each design will be pre-set to the client’s specific measurements and will have a rough mock-up design of the final bathroom/kitchen design and clients will only be able to edit colours/materials, but the positioning and overall layout of the design won’t be editable.

After this we then discussed why this would be successful in industry and came up with a few points; Superiority over 3D modelling software used in other companies, such as Ikea’s that lack textures and lighting, it ensures clients receive a realistic view of future designs, it helps customers visualize their potential kitchen or bathroom and make any necessary alterations by displaying lighting and texture in the modelling, If the annual cost is too expensive, there is an alternative programme called Shapr3D which is cheaper and provides the same level of detail as 3DSMAX. We made sure to mention that the software would be accessible for clients who are more unfamiliar with technology. It would create a seamless experience for them and would really be desirable for clients if Bathroom and Kitchen Eleven was promoted as an innovative company.

I found this workshop very interesting, and I liked the ‘real- life’ industry task. I found the skills this workshop helped me gain would be transferrable to when I work in industry. I was able to develop problem- solving skills. The worksheet that we were given at the start showed the progression of how to solve a problem, by coming up with many solutions and then filtering them down into one best solution. I will use this with future projects. Another skill this helped me develop was teamwork skills and communication skills. I was put in a group with people I had never spoken to before. We did have small bits of conflict when discussing our ideas, as I realised how passionate everyone would be about the project. I believe that expanding some of the ideas really helped us choose one as a group, which kept us all involved and happy. The conflict we faced would never explode but, through communication, we always came to neutral decisions. I believe that these skills are also very transferable in a workplace as I have experienced working with new people as I would do with colleagues in a new workplace.