The Financial Times hosted its second annual Hack Day on 20th and 21st May 2013, a 24-hour event that offers web developers from inside and outside the FT, and other interested staff, an opportunity to create prototypes for new digital products.

Making use of a mix of internal and external Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), 19 teams, comprising 74 participants, worked to find new ways to attract and interact with FT readers based on characters defined by the in-house research team.

Winners were selected for their ideas on how to engage different types of FT readers, as well as ‘Best Discoverability’, ‘Best Off-Message’ and ‘Best in Show’. Their inventions could qualify for user testing.

The judging panel included FT Group CEO John Ridding, FT.com managing editor Robert Shrimsley and editor of BBC news website Steve Herrmann.

“The FT Hack Day has been an invaluable exercise in supporting innovation. It gives staff the opportunity to demonstrate their talent and exceptional creativity, and see their own ideas come to fruition. The initiative brings together people from different departments to work on finding new ways to enhance the FT experience for current and future readers,” said John Ridding.

FT charity partner Code Club, an organisation offering coding lessons to primary schools, participated in the event alongside Pearson, Markit on Demand and Smartology.

View pictures from the 2013 Hack Day here.