From Zero to Zero+1 — My Journey from Hackathon Fresher to Mentor

Trân Nguyễn Hương Bảo
5 days ago
3 min read

In 2022, I decided to join the UI/UX Hackathon as a fresher who understood the theory, but had never truly “gone to battle.” I knew the UX Process, I knew how to conduct research, and I could recite Empathy–Define–Ideate by heart — but all of that lived only in slides, group assignments, and simulated school projects.

So when I heard there was finally a playground dedicated to UX/UI — with attractive prizes on top of that — my two close friends and I signed up instantly. We even joked: “Let’s join and see if we can ‘wipe out our debt’.”

But because we joined with the intention to learn and have fun, we ended up giving the competition far more than we expected. No pressure, no exaggerated expectations — just one rule: Do it properly. Do it wholeheartedly.

The Preliminary Round – TickĐ: naïve, but incredibly passionate

Contrary to what many people assumed, TickĐ was not an assigned topic.

It was a topic we chose entirely on our own. Post-pandemic, all three of us shared the same question: “How much medical waste do people throw away every day? And what can we do about it?”

Fresh out of months of masks, gloves, and disinfectant bottles piling up on streets,

we wanted to create something that could “change the world,” even if just a tiny corner of it.

That was how TickĐ was born — simple, practical, and rooted in the hope of making medical waste sorting easier and clearer for everyday people.

It was not a perfect project. It was the project of three young students wanting to do something meaningful. And that self-chosen project taught us a truth we never forgot: UX isn’t about making things pretty — it’s about solving real problems for real people.

MyFPL — The final-round challenge, and the project that made us grow

In the final round, all teams received the same task: redesigning MyFPL. This time, it was a true test — because it directly affected the student experience, including our own.

For the first time, everything we learned about UX was used exactly where it belonged:

Interviewing classmates
Reading user reviews
Gathering real insights
Rebuilding the information architecture
Designing a clearer, more intuitive dashboard
Prioritizing usability over “making the submission look pretty”

MyFPL was the project that pushed me from someone who understood UX in theory →

to someone who finally practiced UX the right way.

2025 — Returning to the stage, but in a different seat

In 2025, I returned to the FPT Polytechnic UX/UI competition, but this time not as a contestant — I came back as a mentor and judge for NextGen 2024.

It was a strange feeling, both familiar and new at the same time. Familiar because of the hackathon atmosphere, the intense energy, the hustle, the rushing timelines. But new because I was now sitting in the very seat I once looked up to.

Listening to students pitch, watching them struggle through user flows, wireframes, and prototypes brought me right back to my own early days. I genuinely wanted to help them shorten the “chaotic stage” I had gone through — to understand the problem more clearly, to avoid getting lost in UI too soon, to know when to simplify, and when to keep creativity alive.

I tried to support them not with the tone of a “senior,” but with the real experiences of a fresher who had walked that exact same path not too long ago.

Behind “Zero+1”

Lesson / Mindset	What It Means to Me
UX/UI = Not just about visuals, but about thinking and user experience	It reminds me to design responsibly and keep the user at the center of every decision.
Do it, fail, learn — don’t be afraid of mistakes	Every mistake is a lesson, and every lesson makes me grow.
Sharing knowledge helps strengthen the whole community	Mentors learn too; supporting others is also a way to sharpen my own craft.
Always keep learning and expanding your mindset — because UX/UI never stands still	It keeps me curious, creative, and grounded, and prevents me from being complacent.