AlexanderI've been judging Hackaday contests since early 2017; not as one of the celebrity judges but as a community member brought in to help with the crushing number of entries every year. Keep in mind this is my personal opinion, and these are not the official Hackaday judging guidelines or anything like that. Each judge will look for different things, but I wanted to share what I look for in hopes of encouraging more people to start entering projects, and knowing what judges generally look for. I've gotten (I like to think) pretty good at being able to size up a project in about 30 seconds. I can tell right away whether I am going to need to spend time reading and analyzing all their content and code, or whether to disqualify them right away.
That second choice -- immediate disqualification -- happens so often it's starting to become routine. Why do projects get disqualified or get low scores? Here's the top reasons:
- Incomplete page/project
- Seriously, finish your project if you're going to enter! At least make an attempt to have a working prototype before the deadline. Nothing gets the point across like a working example.
- No photos/video
- This will lose you a lot of points. We want to see your project, not just read about it! Projects with many photos and videos are excellent. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million!
- Theory or description only
- This sort of falls into the incomplete project category, but so many entries are just theoretical projects that they want to make, or a brief description of an idea. Don't enter something that isn't an actual project you've created!
- The same project over and over
- We don't need another personal assistant robot. We don't need another quadcopter flight controller. We don't need another home automation controller (no matter how much electricity you think it will save). We don't need another weather station. These projects are absolutely fun and educational to build, but don't enter them into the contest -- you are extremely unlikely to have differentiated your version enough to get past even a cursory inspection. If you've had a revolutionary new approach, or completely turned the idea on its head -- then definitely enter it. But if it's yet another x, then think carefully.
- Project stuffing
- This really, really angers me. A certain small number of people think quantity over quality will get them a spot on the podium. Some people submit 5, 10, 20, even 30 or more projects that are either very basic variations of the same thing, or they simply submit every single project they have on their Hackaday.io profile, even if they have absolutely nothing to do with the contest. If you do this, know that every time we open a project page and see your name as the author, we're going to let out a sigh and look upon it disfavourably, no matter how good the project might be. Don't stuff projects! It wastes everyone's time and simply will not work.
- Too much advertising/blatant spam projects
- Sometimes it's obvious that a corporate marketing department has decided that trying to win the Hackaday prize might be great free publicity, and so they enter a bunch of projects with little merit but lots of links and SEO optimization. This will get a similar reaction to stuffing. This isn't to say we discourage people from advertising their project (we encourage hackers to link to their Tindie pages or other pages where you can buy the project on display), but keep in mind we are there to judge the quality of your project, and too much marketing-speak can get in the way of that. This mostly applies to obvious spam projects, where it's clear the creator doesn't actually participate in our community, and is just looking for some free marketing.
Alright, so we've gone over what not to do. Want some ideas to make your project stand out?
- If the contest has a theme, stick closely to that theme!
- Trying to shoehorn a project that doesn't really fit into a theme can make it look half-hearted and incomplete. Start a fresh project that does fit.
- If you have built a relay-logic based vacuum cleaner, don't enter it into the Internet of Things contest! Instead, enter your wi-fi connected automatic fluffing pillow.
- We really, really like projects that encourage citizen science, or that could be used for real research and development!
- A few projects come to mind, even after the thousands of projects I've seen - the Intelligent Bat Detector, the TrillSat, Notable Board Books (an amazing project). Why did these score so well? They fit their category; they were innovative or creative; they solved an actual problem or enabled science to be done; the projects were completed, and had working examples.
- Be bold, but don't bite off more than you can chew
- We really like projects that are innovative, different, or completely off-the-wall; but this ties back into the things to not do -- don't take on so much that there's no way you can possibly complete the project before the deadline. Break your project down into smaller pieces if needed.
- Here is an example of a bold project done right: Metabolizer. This seems like a huge project that would be infeasible in the amount of time for a contest. However, this was something this hacker already had some experience with; it was a project they were working on/likely to create anyway, and they had the skills and tools to actually make it. And the most important part: they actually built it! If that project had been submitted as just a theoretical description, it would have been given a very low score; but they actually built it and demonstrated it! That goes a long way when we are judging your project.
- Collaborate and extend!
- So many times I've seen projects submitted where the person has gone to great lengths to reinvent the wheel. It's painful judging these projects, because all the energy they've spent re-creating something that they could have instead extended or improved upon seems... almost wasted. If you are going to build something, take a good look around in the open hardware/open source space and see if there is something you can extend or use in your project. This enables you to put your hard work where it counts -- on the heart of your idea. If you want to create a drone that samples water, don't spend 90% of your project creating the drone! Get an off-the-shelf drone and hack it.
- This applies to working with others. Some of the best projects I've seen have been group efforts, where many people from a hackerspace (or even across the world) work together, each taking on a piece of the puzzle. This can really improve the quality and creativity of your project, and we love seeing people collaborate and work together!
- Don't worry if English is not your first language!
- Just make your best effort at translating. Ask for help if you need it! Hackers are a friendly bunch (I promise we don't bite) and I'm sure, if you asked, someone would be willing to look over your project for spelling and grammatical errors. One of the recent projects I judged was created by a hacker in Montenegro. I was so impressed with the technical aspects of their project that I ended up subscribing to their YouTube channel, despite their heavy accent and basic English skills. Hacking bridges cultures and language barriers!
- Have a sense of humour!
- If you screw up, be able to laugh at yourself. Even if the project ends up failing or it destroys itself upon first use, that's not a reason to dock points or disqualify you. Document your construction process and what you learned, and make sure to include photos or videos of the carnage! Don't take yourself too seriously -- we're all here because we love hacking, and it should always be a positive, fun experience.
That last point is super important -- you should be having fun! Don't worry about winning or losing the prize -- just focus on making a cool project that others will be interested in. Make careful note of the do's and don'ts above (especially the don'ts!) and remember to update your project page as your project comes along. Show your effort to us! We want to see the work you've done. Often, I see projects that probably took a lot of effort to build, but the documentation is incomplete and the project page is bare. When we look at your project page, we want to see every step of the process! Feel free to go into detail if it applies to your project -- we are hackers and geeks too, and we love reading about cool new things!
And in the end, win or lose, remember that it's about learning & spreading knowledge above all else. If you've learned something new, or developed a new skill, then you HAVE won.