Challenge Summary
Welcome to the Seto "IT Services Employee Portal" Design Concepts Contest. Seto is looking to solve design and usability issues they have with their "IT Services Employee Portal". They are looking for a new portal design but they are also looking for design concepts/solutions on how to make it easier for Seto employees to find and access their internal "IT Services" information and answers.
Round 1
Initial Design Concepts for Milestone Review
- Your design concepts for the user interactions for the Employee landing page
- Your design concept for a "Section" secondary page (for example, "Mobile Access", "Remote Access" "Google, Wiki & Collaboration")
Notes.jpg: Any comments about your design for the Client
Round 2
Final Design Concepts
- Your final designs/screens
- Any additional requirements from the Milestone phase
Contest Details
Seto is a large manufacturing company with offices around the world. IT resources are limited, so IT would like to provide as much self-help content online as possible. The "IT Services portal" is accessed through the company's employee intranet.
Design Problem
Seto is looking for fresh design concepts on how to present their "IT content" and "Self-Service" offerings. With the exception of the current "Looking for Help" or "Get Help" options, employees must navigate many pages to obtain services or locate information, which they cannot find or requires multiple navigation attempts (no clear path).
Issues can be attributed to:
See attached screenshot (Seto-IT-Services-homepage.jpg)
1) The current design does not emphasize the services that employees need to access. The most popular services are contacting the Service Desk staff to resolve a problem, downloading software and requesting a new IT service (e.g., setting up a new PC, getting an account for an application, etc.)
2) The navigation labels are not intuitive to employees; the navigation that appears in the left column requires users to click to see what that section contains.
3) White text on black or turquoise background is difficult to read.
4) IT Service request forms are standardized but self-help content is created by different teams so the format, content and quality vary.
5) The knowledgebase is not very comprehensive; users may get better results by using the general keyword search.
Contest Objective
Propose a new "design concept(s)" for the "IT Services Employee Portal". Your concept needs to make it easier for Seto employees to find and access" IT services and service requests" they need as well as find helpful or important IT-related news and announcements.
Additional Challenge
Is there a way to organize the IT Services by user type? The user types that IT identified were
- Administrative Assistant
- Traveler
- Manager
This is not a requirement but we are wondering if anyone has an alternate design concept that could include this idea.
Attachment Notes:
IT-Services-homepage.jpg
- Current design and branding
- This design doesn't emphasize the services that employees need to access
- The navigation labels are not intuitive to employees - the navigation that appears in the left column requires users to click to see what that section contains
- White text on black or turquiose background is difficult to read
Seto-IT-Services-mockup-no-global-nav.png- Initial mockup/attempt to address the design/layout problems
- There are concerns that the content sections appear too equal in weight/importance
- Users will still be required to click to do anything
- All the icons may just clutter the page rather then make it easier for the user to find what they need
Seto-IT-Services-catalog-mockup.png
- Planned sample design of new sevices catalog
- All "IT Service Requests" will be organized into a new Service Catalog
- Users will still be required to click to do anything
Seto-IT-Services-Dec-2012.pdf.
- This pdf file contains Seto IT Services hierarchy, including navigation from horizontal menu and left sidebar.
Design Guidelines
- The horizontal main menu and header is fixed and may not be modified
- There are no restrictions on the area below the horizontal menu other than the colors and fonts must be consistent with the current design
- Icons usage are okay
- All of the graphics should have a similar feel and general aesthetic appearance.
- Keep things consistent. This means all graphic styles should work together.
Page Layout
- Research existing "IT Self-Service applications"
- Think about what the user is trying to do - Find help, Find answers and ideally solve IT problems themselves if the information is available
- Plan your design grid - what is the best way to design for this kind of information?
Secondary/Section Pages
- Section" pages ("Mobile Access", "Remote Access" "Google, Wiki & Collaboration")
- Current Section pages use the same template as the homepage - we would like to see your design concept on how this page would work once someone clicked into a section.
Color Scheme
See attached screenshot (Seto-IT-Services-homepage.jpg)
- Turquise(#009999), Black(#000000), White(#FFFFFF), Gray(#666666), Orange
- Recommend to us how the colors should be used (combination) and we will provide additional feedback at the Milestone
Navigation
- Based on provided IT Services Hierarchy above - how do you propose the portal navigation be designed?
Target User
- Seto Employees
Judging Criteria
- How well you think and plan out your "IT Services Portal" design concept
- Cleanliness of your graphics and design
- The new design must leverage User Experience for Seto Employee
Submission & Source Files
Preview Image
Please create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024px JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi and place a screenshot of your submission within it.
Submission File
Submit JPG/PNG for your submission files.
Source Files
All original source files of the submitted design. Files should be created in Adobe Photoshop and saved as layered PSD file.
Final Fixes
As part of the final fixes phase you may be asked to modify your graphics (sizes or colors) or modify overall colors. We may ask you to update your design or graphics based on other winning placements.
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.