My first design hackathon! It was a rewarding experience to build something from the ground up, and I'm glad I got to participate in a hackathon before graduation, and even be one of the winning ideas. I learned how to deal with uncertainty, since we produced a solution for an open-ended prompt that did not have the constraints of class grading or cut-and-dry specs.

Because of the time-constrained nature of a hackathon, our "iron triangle" of scope, time, and cost was crucial. I managed my time between processes: researching, brainstorming, designing, prototyping, writing, and presenting. I also learned what was pivotal in pitching an idea and what parts to flesh out in detail after the event. If this was a longer endeavor, I would have liked to do more qualitative interviews to pinpoint user needs instead of relying on quantitative patterns and intuition.

Striking a balance between designing for children and appealing to parents was difficult, and we initially struggled to manage these interests. Our purpose became clearer after I mapped out design values, which made me realize the important of having a solid foundation.

Ultimately, our biggest accomplishment was tackling such an important topic. Although prevention measures are difficult to put into practice, RedLine acts as a starting point in helping detect CSA. In an ideal world, child exploitation should never happen, but we hope our idea can open up channels for parent-child  communication around wellbeing.