Spark ignites Hackathon: Teams on fire
On September 3rd, we were proud to host our first company Hackathon.
25 of our colleagues joined and formed 5 teams to try and solve a challenge in 8 hours: creating a tool that our Office Managers will use from now on to design and print personal ID cards for employees and guests in a simple and quick way.
After months of remote work, this Hackathon gave us a chance to meet in the office again (or even for the first time!), collaborate with different people, get away from our usual schedules for a bit, and also just enjoy a fun day together.
By the end of the day, 5 projects were presented, each with its own unique take on the main challenge: We had web and mobile solutions, integration with cameras, printers, and e-ink displays, apps that could write on NFC cards, and some teams also surprised everyone presenting a project mascot or even an app that barked.
In the end, the trophy was awarded to Gabi, Brian, Merve, Yakiv, and Eyad for providing a great demo on their simple yet functional solution. We’ll let Gabi tell you what it’s about:
“SparkCard” app is our team’s solution developed in the scope of the Spark Hackathon. We wanted to provide our end-users with an easy-to-use mobile application. We also wanted to offer platform flexibility, that’s why we chose to implement a solution for both iOS and Android.
From a UI/UX perspective, our goal was to have something intuitive, easy to use, and at the same time something that could be delivered within the available timeframe. In order to accommodate that, we went with a straightforward one-screen approach in which the user can both edit and preview the end result.
Once the user adds all the necessary content, a PDF file can be generated. The app doesn’t rely on any backend component, all the operations are performed locally.
Their app combines elements of free text input, images (both captured from the app or picked from the device’s library) with options to crop and apply filters, printing and sharing functionalities and even offers the possibility of writing the user info into an NFC card for an additional layer of security in the ID cards.
All in all, we loved seeing how committed everyone was to the challenge, and of course, sharing the celebratory drinks and music afterward.
We can’t wait to do this again!
