Challenge Summary
It's time to get ready for the 2013 TopCoder Open! We're very excited of our annual event. As the premier TopCoder event, TCO sites has exciting websites that showcase the event, the details, and all the fun stuff that goes along with it. For TCO13, we need a professionally looking website that will be used for this year's TCO and for the coming TCO sites.
Round 1
1) Initial submission design with all the features mentioned in the Requirement section.
2) Any note for the client about your submission
3) Number your submission (01, 02, 03, etc...) for easy client's review
Round 2
1) Final submission design with all the features mentioned in the Requirement section.
2) Any note for the client about your submission
3) Number your submission (01, 02, 03, etc...) for easy client's review
Primary Goal & Design Considerations
The 2013 TopCoder Open website is the first glimpse of the exciting tournament that TopCoder members, sponsors, and prospect clients have of this exciting event. Each year, we strive to make the site more exciting and visually different BUT this year forward, we want a professionally looking website that will look good on any Logo design. At the end of this contest, your design will replace temporary design at http://community.topcoder.com/tco13/.
Design Considerations
The design should be totally new and fresh but at the same time it will look professional. We want the same basic page layout such as: Tabbed navigation (secondary and tertiary), Sponsor side-bar and the features outlined below. We don't want to see the TCO website looking anything like it did this year or the last previous TCOs.
Requirements
For this contest you will be designing the main tournament page for TCO13 and some additional pages.
The pages to be designed in this contest are:
Below are the major UI elements need represents in your submission:
-
Logo
- the logo is out of scope in this contest, use a logo placeholder or logo area within your design
- logo is the one main thing giving this website personality so it should be the most prominent and not too small
- your design should look good on any Logo design -
TopCoder Logo
- The Topcoder logo must be included in your design, secondarily to the TCO13 logo placeholder.
- DO NOT change the colors or proportion of the logo. Please re-use tc-logo.ai. -
Sponsor Logos
- Sponsor logos must be placed within a sidebar on every page
- You may position the sidebar however you like. Please provide twelve (12) blank boxes showing the placements.
- Six (6) of the boxes should be suitably larger in size than the other six (6).
- DO NOT USE ACTUAL LOGOS FROM CLIENTS/SPONSORS!
- DO NOT add any additional logos, including the TopCoder Studio Logo. -
Navigation - You must include the following navigation:
- Primary Navigation for all tracks (refer to the temporary TCO13 site). We are looking for new icons, ones that fit with the new design. These track icons will be used all over branding materials.
- Secondary and Tertiary navigations: Both should be kept in the same format as shown on the TCO13 website. Do not create drop-downs or other forms of navigation. You may skin this navigation however you like as long as the functionality can remain the same when coded.
- Multimedia Navigation/Icons: You must also show a navigation or icons that include the following elements:- TCO Program
- Blog
- Photos
- Movies
- Sponsorship
- We need these icons to be present on ALL PAGES. You're encourage to enhance the icons, but still have same meaning.
- You should include examples for each navigation area (primary, secondary and tertiary) in both "on" (marks the page you are currently on) and "off" mode. - Navigation must be text-based. The background of these text-based navigations may be graphical however you like.
- Also we'd like you to improve Forum Post or Blog Categories text link in the sidebar. -
Sample Text
- Your page title should be in editable text and not a graphic.
- Show us best practices Font Typography of page title, sub page title, bold, strong, text link, paragpraph, bullet list, etc... should look like.
- Please use placeholder/dummy greek text to show where main content will be placed. -
Sample Table
- Show a sample table, including headers as shown in Studio Rules page. -
Register Now
- You should create "Register Now" button that can attract user to click
- This button should be very obvious that can be seen at first glance -
Carousel
- We want a carousel on the home page, this can be on the side, middle, or wherever.
- This will serve for the purpose of sponsor logos and top news.
- Show a sample of how the Sponsor looks like in this carousel. (USE ONLY PLACEHOLDER FOR THE SPONSOR LOGO)
- Show a sample of how top news will look like (see TCO12 site for your reference) -
Twitter Carousel
- We want a carousel on the home page for twitter stream
- This will serve as twit stream with hash tag #TCO13. -
Colors
- use TopCoder colors
Branding Guidelines
- Fresh and New design that will look good on any Logo design
- Think of website that can be use on any TCO site (TCO13, TCO14, etc...)
- use TopCoder colors
Target Audience
- TopCoder and Studio members
- TopCoder's Clients and Sponsors
- Potential Member
- Potential Client and Sponsors
Judging Criteria
- Usability: Will this design be easy for all users to find what they need? Does it call out important information?
- Concept: We're looking for something new and fresh!
Submission & Source Files
Preview Image
Create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024 JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi and place a screenshot of your submission within it.
Submission File
Please upload PNG/JPEG images in a zip file with all requested contest requirements stated above.
Source Files
All original source files of the submitted design. Files should be created in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and saved as layered PSD/AI files.
Final Fixes
As part of the final fixes phase you may be asked to modify your graphics, images (sizes or colors) or modify overall colors.
Please read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. 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.