We carried on work started by others to create real, useful, important products. The one I worked on was the mobile app for Crisis Checkin, which is a tool volunteers can use in disaster areas to assist in organizing their response. 

For more info on the project, to see more of these files, or to contribute, visit github.com/HTbox

 

I am a UX guy. How did I contribute to a hackathon? Well, in the way I do for any project, and not by intruding on the project but because I was asked to. 

I ended up being in charge of much of the organizational work, creating an IA diagram and task flow, as well as more UI design work than we were able to get to. This was critical work, so I encourage designers to participate in your local hackathons when you see them come up. You are needed. 

Plus, they feed you!