Challenge Summary
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants your help to design an Android app. There's a big problem in U.S. waters called cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. These are widespread growths of tiny aquatic plants (algae) that degrade the quality of the water for humans and wildlife. High concentrations of cyanobacteria pose a serious threat, and the lower concentrations are just gross. The EPA is asking TopCoder to build an app that will help environmental planners and scientists to browse and compare satellite images of cyanobacterial blooms. What will the app look like and how will it feel to use it? That's where you come in! We're asking you to propose visual concepts for the app to guide the next stages of software design and development.
Round 1
Submit a design concept for the Android app.
Round 2
Revise and refine your design concept in response to checkpoint feedback.
Overview
The EPA is the U.S. federal agency charged with protecting the environment. They are concerned about the proliferation of cyanobacterial blooms and they want a tool that will help environmental policy makers and scientists to view satellite images of actual and potential bloom events. A bloom is a significant concentration of cyanobacteria that may grow in size and density until it threatens other life forms by poisoning them and starving them of oxygen.
The attached zip file contains sample images from different places and times. Users are interested in performing various actions:
- survey a large map for cyanobacterial blooms
- zoom in for a closer look
- compare current images to past images
- compare one location to other locations
- scan rapidly through space and time in search of bloom events
- examine detailed information for a location: what are the geographic coordinates and what is the level of cyanobacteria here?
- mark locations of interest for future study
- import alternate imagery (see the attached files) and superimpose them on the primary satellite images; alternate images may be the same size as a satellite image or they may be much smaller
Doing all of these highly visual actions on a small screen poses a significant challenge to user interface design. That's why we're looking to you, the graphical wizards of Studio, to take the first steps in the app design process. We want you to use your illustration skills and visual imagination to propose attractive, effective usage concepts.
Requirements
We're soliciting concepts for the look and feel of the app. What exactly does that mean? Well, it's pretty open-ended. The amount of work we expect you to do is roughly the same as for a storyboard contest, but you have a lot more freedom in the style and content of your design. What we are not looking for is a UI kit or a final set of app screens. We're expecting a visual document that will guide our technical software designers when they start to precisely define the business requirements and work flows of the app.
You can deliver sketches, diagrams, annotated screen mock-ups, maybe some interesting UI elements that you've dreamed up. You don't have to write a substantial amount of text, but a label or two would help. Arrows and icons are fine substitutes for words. You can make a cartoon. You can make a chart. Make whatever graphics you feel are necessary to convey your idea of what the app should look like and how people are going to use it.
We've told you the basic functions of the app. Now we're asking for creative ways to make it happen on a phone. It's up to you!
Target audience
In order of importance:
- Local decision makers
- Federal policy makers
- Scientific community members
Judging criteria
Look: Does your submission offer an attractive design scheme?
Feel: Are you proposing good ideas for navigating the app and viewing satellite imagery?
Pocketability: Is your concept well suited to the screen of a mid-sized phone like the Nexus 4?
Awesomeness: Are you inspired and innovative?
What to submit
Submission: PNG images of your design concept.
Source: Source files.
Preview image: 1024 x 1024 screenshot in JPEG or PNG format.
Final fixes
You may be asked for minor changes to meet the stated requirements of this contest.
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.