$2000 MIT Climate Collaboratorium Storyboard design Tournament (R2)

The MIT Climate Collaboratorium is a new site being built to crowd-source climate change policy. The envisioned platform will allow people to construct, debate, and vote upon plans to address climate change. All of these user activities will informed by the use of runnable models that will be used (by users) to predict climatological, ecological, economic, and societal impacts of human activities. This storyboard contest is intended to develop the overall look & feel of the site, and to make the platform as inviting and easy to use as possible. This contest will be run in the Studio Tournament format. Please read the contest specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this contest. It is important that you monitor any updates provided by the client or Studio Admins in the forums. Please post any questions you might have for the client in the forums. Tournament Format This Studio competition will be run as a two-round tournament with a total prize purse of $2000. Round 1 At the end of Round 1 we will choose five (5) Round 1 winners, each will win $100 and a Design Review. These winners and any member who had a passing submission in round one will be eligible to compete in Round 2 for the additional $1500 in prizes. Round 2 Round 2 will start with the announcement of up to Five (5) $100 Round 1 winners and their design review.
We are now in Round 2 Congratulations Round 1 Winners on your $100 Prizes: 22074 - iamtong 22067 - Pohnczek 22071 - abedavera Round Two Additional Requirements For round two, and in addition to comments left to the individual winners in the forum, the following requirements will be modified: Stock art: It is TopCoder's policy to only allow stock art from IStockPhoto, and that any included art should have the IStockPhoto watermark (this includes any artwork that was included in the wireframes or is available in the prototype). We are allowing stock art, so please abide by this policy. Stock Photography Requirements Watermarked stock photography from istockphoto.com is allowed in this contest. You must follow these instructions or your submission will fail screening: 1) You must include a completed Third Party Content worksheet. It belongs in your Submission folder/zip file -- NOT your Source folder/zip file. 2) Only use photos, and only use them from iStockPhoto. Other iStockPhoto artwork is not allowed. 3) Be sure to keep the watermark intact. If the image is cropped in such a way that the watermark is not visible, please be sure to include the entire image in your source files so we can see that it is a comp image from iStockphoto.com. Thanks to all for your hard work, and good luck in round two!

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Challenge The MIT Climate Collaboratorium is a new site being built to crowd-source climate change policy. The envisioned platform will allowpeople to construct, debate, and vote upon plans to address climate change. All of these user activities will informed by the use of runnable models that will be used (by users) to predict climatological, ecological, economic, and societal impacts of human activities. Our hope is to have a working site with an initial community that is generating useful content by the UN Climate Summit at Copenhagen in Dec. 2009. The goal of this storyboard contest is to develop the overall look & feel of the site, and to make the platform as inviting and easy to use as possible. The primary specification for this contest is contained the wireframe that is attached to this contest. Some elements of this wireframe are fairly concrete, but some elements are merely suggestions, and we would hope that contestants would offer creative solutions for these elements. Given the technical nature of the site, we are interested in designs that "invite" users, and can reduce any percieved austerity of this technology. At the same time, we only seek to invite users that are serious about their involvement (regardless of their opinions about climate change), and we stand by the technology we have to offer. Thus, any "softening" of appearance should not come at the cost of appearing technically vaccuous or less than serious about our goals. Judging Your submission will be judged on the following criteria:

• How well your storyboards address the required functionality in the wireframes and in the details provided below.
• How well your storyboards present usable solutions for areas that have only been loosely specified in within the wireframes.
• How well your storyboards invite a diverse community of users into the system, without seeming either overly technical or technically vaccuous.
• The degree to which your storyboards improve the usability of the site.

Background The Collaboratorium has been under development as a concept for some time, and has gone though several TopCoder contests. References to background material are compiled here, and should be used to inform your solutions. Note that the information contained within these references cover far more material than the attached wireframes. You are only responsible for the specifications embodied by the attached wireframes at notes presented here.

• Prototype - A prototype of the Collaboratorium may be found at http://cognosis.mit.edu:8081/climate-collab/. You may register and explore the site. Note that we intend to move away from flash to all HTML / Javascript (posibly with small Flash pieces for purposes of visualization).
• Vision - To understand our overall vision and the users we seek to serve, please see the article:http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/itgg.2007.2.3.15.
• Conceptualization Contest - It may be useful to look at the specification for the conceptualization contest at http://www.topcoder.com/wiki/x/dI0sAg, The forum also generated several interesting discussions; see threads from the Milestone Reviews here:http://forums.topcoder.com/?module=Thread&threadID=647901&start=0 and here:http://forums.topcoder.com/?module=Thread&threadID=647904&start=0
• Plan Comparison Wireframe Contest -http://studio.topcoder.com/?module=ViewContestDetails&ct=1001071
• Model Widge Wireframe Contest -http://studio.topcoder.com/?module=ViewContestDetails&ct=1001056

Specific Contest Details The wireframes provide the intended page organization and flow through the site. Generally speaking, you should feel free to reorganize content within pages and change the wording on buttons or in order to make the site easier to understand. For instance, if page frames should be organized horizontally instead of vertically, or if the word "filter" should be used instead of "search" please feel free to make such changes. There are some places where we have specific ideas, and some places where we invite creative solutions. Please read the notes attached to the elements in the wireframe, which highlight some of these areas. Additionally:

• Please provide a site logo.
• You may suggest an image, interactive widget, movie or other functionality for the front page, but we require a solution that can be implemented by September. Interactive solutions that might work would be a known google maps mashup, or available flash globe animation. More advanced interactions may be proposed, but if this is done an interim solution should be provided.
• The main access points on the home page - view & run models, view & vote for plans, view & participate in debates - must be present in any design. It should be easy to add or change other links on the home page should we desire.
• Please use the logos on the home page of the prototype. The CCI logo should be availble on the home page of your storyboards. The additional logos might be moved to a "support" page if there is not enough room on the home page of the prototype. Please provide a solution for adding additional logos as more funders contribute.
• Within a plan, the tabs must not be changed or re-ordered.
• Within a discussion summary page, you may reorganize the page layout; please specify how scrolling takes place and realize that there will probably not be more than 10-15 "positions" (currently placed in the column at left).
• Please provide login / registration pages. Registration will require a screenname and email address, and that is all.
• We are aware that look & feel in the wireframe is not consistent, and that navigation is slightly broken. Your storyboards should offer solutions.

Tournament Round 1 (minimum requirements - more will be appreciated):

• Home page
• Draft versions of Plan Comparison and the Internal Plan View pages.
• Notes.txt (A file that explains your design and solution and intentions)

Tournament Round 2:

• All screens as finished and completed design solutions.
• Notes.txt (A file that explains your design and solution and any recommendations for the client)

Source files must be built as layered Photoshop PSD files or layered Illustrator AI files. Contest Submissions Requirements You must submit all requested deliverables to be considered for prizes - you may submit more pages if necessary to show your design. Submission & Source Files Preview Image Please create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024 JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi and place your submissions within it. You are free to resize or crop your submission to fit this size, but do not add any filters or elements for dramatic effect, such as drop shadows or reflections. Submission File All requested Contest Deliverables in JPG or PNG file format in RGB color mode at 72dpi. plus your notes.txt file Source Files All original source files of the submitted design. Files should be created in Adobe Photoshop, Gimp, Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and saved as layered PSD files, AI or EPS files. Final Fixes As part of the final fixes phase you may be asked to modify fonts (sizes or colors) or modify overall storyboard colors.