NJBest Mobile Design Concepts Challenge

Welcome to the NJBest Mobile Design Concepts Challenge. For this exciting challenge we will be taking the existing NJBest site and give it a refresh to make it more appealing to it’s target market. This is a site that is geared towards people who are looking to make an investment in a college education. Parents, Grandparents, and students can browse NJBest content and sign up/ apply to open an account. They are presented with a wealth of content that keeps them informed on their investment decisions as well as the advantages and benefits of investing with NJBest.

The site is informative and the navigation is intuitive. There are many social “sharing” options for the content and the site makes it easy for users to find what they need. The user has a high opinion of NJBest because the brand, tone, and imagery relate to the site user. The clean modern design speaks to the target market and the message makes an emotional connection with the site users driving them to apply/ sign up for NJBest.

Round 1

Submit your design for a Checkpoint feedback
1. Home/Landing Page.
2. Learn (How to Save for college) Landing Page.
3. Go (About NJBest) Landing Page.
- Required features section.
- Readme.jpg : Provide notes about your submission.
- Make sure all pages have correct flow! Use correct file numbering. (00, 01, 02, 03)

Round 2

Final Design plus Checkpoint feedback
1. Home/Landing Page.
2. Learn (How to Save for college) Landing Page.
3. Go (About NJBest) Landing Page.
- Required features section.
- Readme.jpg : Provide notes about your submission.
- Make sure all pages have correct flow! Use correct file numbering. (00, 01, 02, 03)

Challenge Description:
The current site is dated and we are looking for a design refresh that makes the site more consumer focused. 

NJBest is looking for ways to connect more with it's target users (Parents and anyone looking to create a savings plan for college education) We are looking for a site that creates a greater connection to the target audience thru imagery, content, tone, testimonials, and social channels.

Branding Guidelines:
- Design Direction (NJ-Best-UI-Design-Challenge-Design-Direction.pdf.zip)

Design Concept Goals:
- How should this mobile application look?
- Read the user story and decide what should the priority features be (what is the priority navigation for this user?)
- How quickly the user can find what he wants?
- The application should be easy to use.
- Think simple but effective solutions! Have fun creating this - let us know how you think it should work!

Screen Sizes:
- Tablet: 1024px x 768px

Make sure you create graphic in 'shape' format, so when resize for retina versions, graphic still look sharp! It will be great if you can provide the landscape version.

Use Case Scenario:
Parents:���
- Mike and Jan are good parents. They want the best for their two children’s future. They’re kids are still young, but Mike and Jan know that the cost of college tuition is going up all the time and they want to start a plan to help them pay for their kids college education.
- Jan one day notices that her friend Marcy has liked NJBest on her Facebook timeline. Marcy has shared this link with Jan because she has spoken with her about how to start saving for college. Jan decides to click on the link and read more about NJBest.
- Jan lands on NJBest.com and right away she feels like the site is speaking to her. She’s presented with targeted content to parents who want the best for their children. Jan browses thru the site and is presented with helpful content and useful tools to inform her on how she should start saving for her kids’ college tuition. After discussing it with MIke, they decide to apply for a Growth Portfolio and fill out an application.
- All the forms and documentation are stored in their user profile and they can have access to their documents and have support an contact information for NJBest.

We have provided a design direction document to help you get started, please make sure that you DO NOT COPY the given screens as is...if you do, all submissions will look similar. Reference examples only for functionality – these should not constrain your design but are to be used as a basic functional reference.

Required Features:
- Add social element – how can we better incorporate the NJBEST twitter feed (@NJBEST529) inside the pages.
- Rethink the top line navigation of the current site and how it can fit into a streamlined navigation structure such as (Learn, Plan, Go)
- Tell a Friend – add functionality, tools, and social media for people to refer a friend or a family member. Here are a couple of examples of how other 529 plan encourage referrals and gift:
-- https://www.nysaves.org/nytpl/literatureforms/tellaFriend.do 
-- http://www.uesp.org/Gift-Notice.aspx 
-- The links are provided so you can see what data is presented; we are not crazy about the designs here, we want something more creative and attractive.

Required Screens:
- We would like you to suggest features/screens that this app should incorporate in addition to the required screens listed below:
1) Home/Landing Page:
- This is the home/ landing page for NJBest.
- Users have come to this page either from a search, social feed such as Facebook, an email campaign, or direct marketing campaign. Based on their target demographic and how they found the site...they are served targeted content and imagery. The landing page/ home page has a robust top level overview of NJBest and provides links and calls to action that lead to more detailed content within the site. There is a lot of rich content that showcases NJBest stories as well as user testimonials and comments that add credibility to the NJBest Brand.
- The navigation is simplified to three actions:
1. Learn (How to save for college)���
2. Plan (Tools & Calculators)���
3. Go (About NJBest)

2) Learn (How to Save for college) Landing Page:
This is the landing page for the Learn section. This page has a detailed overview for how site visitors can LEARN how to save for College. The user is presented with high level content and calls to action to more detailed content of the Learn section of the site. A user can “share” content with their social networks, and there are several ways a user can start the apply process with the site.

3) Go (About NJBest) Landing Page:
This is the landing page for the GO section of the site. The GO section has all the content that explains everything “about” NJBest. The user has a strong sense of the NJBest brand from this page. The messaging and content provide the user with the benefits and advantages of working with NJBest. This informative section allows the user to learn more about NJBest and helps htem make a more informed decision about their education investments.

Important:
- Keep things consistent. This means all graphic styles should work together.
- All of the graphics should have a similar feel and general aesthetic appearance

Target Users:
- Majority of users are likely to be parents
- Family and friends of future college students
- Anyone looking to start a savings plan for a college education

Judging Criteria:
- How well you plan the user experience and capture your ideas visually
- Cleanliness of your graphics and design
- Can your design easily translate into a responsive design for tablet and mobile?

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
Please include ALL original source files for the submitted design. Files should be created in Adobe Photoshop and saved as a layered PSD file, or Adobe Illustrator as a layered AI 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 checkpoint feedback.