Day 1 | Design Observation and Problem Exploration (Saturday 9/15)
Designathons bring together designers, engineers, and storytellers to address complex challenges and envision new scenarios and futures. Designathons enable rapid, condensed forms of HCD (human-centered design), which focuses on addressing the needs and core issues of the people for whom a design is intended. This is achieved through insight, empathy, observation and inclusion, followed by rapid stages of ideation and simple prototypes to ensure the correct problem is addressed. Designathons are intended to serve as the starting point for hackathons; the combination produces a rapid demonstration of a product, service, or policy that fits the real needs of real people in real-world situations
Day 2 | Rapid Prototyping (Sunday 9/16)
Building on top of insights and inspirations of Day 1, participating teams bring to life their ideas in forms of visual, animated or interactive prototypes, using their preferred medium, tools and components.
Day 3 | Expert Input, Iteration, and Pitch (Monday 9/17)
In the morning, participating teams share their stories and prototypes to delegates from leading private and public sector organizations for feedback. Using those inputs, teams further refine their proposed solutions for the final judging in the early evening.
Private Sector: DENSO, Ford, Bose, PMP, Dentsu, Toshiba Memory Corporation, Hyundai, IDEO, Huawei, BCG, Piaggio Fast Forward, Publicis, NHK, Nomura Research, Toppan, NTT Data, Yokogawa Electronics, and Steelcase
Public Sector and Non-profit: LEGO Foundation, Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, City of Cambridge, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Department of Transportation (DOT)
CHALLENGE CATEGORIES
- Life Mobility: How might we make active mobility—walking, cycling, skateboarding, scooting, ferrying, etc.—a universally awesome experience? How might new forms of active mobility enable new ways of travel in the city, for not just individuals, but also for lovers and families, and people of all abilities, needs, and incomes?
- Socially Intelligent Robots: How might we make machines socially and sensorially empathetic to enhance the wellbeing of people and to enable more trusting, productive, and sustainable relationships? How can machines better interact with people on the move—riders, pedestrians, cyclists, etc.?
- The New Street: How might we reimagine streets and urban infrastructures in response to emerging challenges associated with new technology and changing modes of consumption and production? How might we facilitate sustainable community development while prioritizing the human experience?