Extended Workforce Website Design Concepts Challenge

Welcome to the Extended Workforce Website Design Concepts Challenge. In this challenge, we are looking for your design concepts for a website that acts as a marketplace for employees to post the task and the extended workforce to apply and work on those tasks.

Round 1

Submit your initial designs for Checkpoint Feedback

0. Registration
1. Login
2. Create a task
3. List of Tasks
4.1 Task detail page (Worker)
4.2 Task detail page (Employee)
5. Task Management Page

Feel free to add any other additional screens which are necessary to explain your concept.
Notes.jpg: Please note any comments about your design for the Client
Make sure all pages have correct flow! Use correct file numbering. (00, 01, 02, 03)

Round 2

Your Final designs for all the required designs with all Checkpoint Feedback implemented.

0. Registration
1. Login
2. Create a task
3. List of Tasks
4.1 Task detail page (Worker)
4.2 Task detail page (Employee)
5. Task Management Page
6. Task Forum / Messages
7. Payment Screen
8. User Profile

Feel free to add any other additional screens which are necessary to explain your concept.
Notes.jpg: Please note any comments about your design for the Client
Make sure all pages have correct flow! Use correct file numbering. (00, 01, 02, 03)

Professional services firms typically have access to an “extended workforce”: a large number of interns, alumni, those on paternity/maternity leave, or approved subcontractors.  Many in these groups would be prepared to work on ad hoc projects without the need for a permanent contract.  Perhaps they would appreciate the extra cash, would like to keep their mind engaged, want to demonstrate their commitment to the firm, would prefer a better work-life balance, would like to build CV points, or there might be a completely different reason.

Therefore, these firms would like to get access to motivated individuals who are:
a) available "on demand"
b) less expensive than in-house consultants or accountants, and/or
c) more skilled than those in existing offshore hubs.

To service this need we will create a marketplace to fulfil both supply and demand and provide a web app for support it. Examples of the tasks that this extended workforce would undertake are:

- conducting analysis on past financial and management reports
- writing sections of client proposals
- reviewing client deliverables to ensure quality
- creating tax returns prior to deadlines
- conducting market research
- pulling together PowerPoint presentations
- providing guidance and advice to projects which need specific local, domain or industry expertise
- assembling reports on the basis of multiple disparate data sets and information sources

For this challenge we’d like you to design concepts for a web application that would support this workflow.

Design Considerations:
- Looking for modern, intuitive user interface
- Focus on the design being a great user experience
- Give importance to the overall layout and think on how a user would interact with the content on the page.
- Show all the screens and provide a user flow/click-path, so we can see how the interactions fit together in the application
- Stock Photos: Feel free to use any images related to this site
- We would like you to have the design of size 1024px as width and height as required

Design and Branding Guidelines:
We would like you to follow the colors and branding from the given Appirio branding guidelines...

Scenario:
There are two sets of stakeholders and hence use cases.

As an employee of a professional services company I would like to:
- Identify myself as someone looking to commission a task
- Login and/or register (probably from a list of authorised users)
- Select the type of task
- Submit a short brief, to include: "context, description of task, timelines for both registrations and submissions, amount he/she is willing to pay, a job code (indicates where the budget will come from), types of skills required (possible tags)
- Promote the brief
- Answer questions with this in the extended workforce through a forum
- Collect, review and rate deliverables
- Approve payment on completion

As someone from the extended workforce who would like to complete a task, I would like to:
- Identify myself as someone looking to complete a task
- Login and/or register
- Create a profile which includes: "My skills (perhaps automated through LinkedIn), what group I fall within (e.g. intern, alumni, on paternity/maternity leave, approved subcontractor, other), contact information. bank details
- Review open demand to find a suitable task
- Register interest for a specific task and submit a short explanation as to why I am qualified
- Collect the necessary information/data to complete the task
- Ask clarifying questions with whomever set the task
- Submit deliverables when complete
- Receive payment for the task in question
- Solicit feedback and rating for the deliverable I created, in so doing improving my profile

Required Screens:
We need to design a web application with the following screens:

0. Registration:
- Provide a way for the user to register with the app
- Give two options for user type: Manager and Worker
- For manager type the user will have an invitation - give them a place to enter this code
- For worker type enable the creation of a profile to capture: "Skills (possible Linkedin connection), Skill tags (list for this challenge: Background Reports, Tax, Legal, Proposals, Market Research), Minimum Pay Rate, Worker type (Alumni, Intern, Paternity/Maternity Leave, Approved Subcontractor), Contact details, Bank Details"
- User will need to accept to "Terms and Conditions"..

1. Login:
- Provide a way for the user to login to the app
- What are the details do you think that need to be captured here..?

2. Create a task:
- Task creation is only available to Manager type user
- Provide the following task detail: "Type of task, Context, Description, Timeline for registration and submission, Pay Rate, Job code (this could be drop-down, you may use any dummy values), skills required (match skill tags used on Worker profile), option to add file attachments, user will have option whether NDA is required for this task"
- Need a way to launch/submit the task
- Note that creating a task will also create a task forum automatically.

3. List of Tasks:
- We need to show a list of tasks by default..
- How do you think we can show the open tasks, completed tasks, My Tasks (tasks that worker is currently working on), and anything else you suggest?
- Clicking on result should show task detail page.
- This screen enables both the Manager and the Worker to find and view existing tasks
- A worker will be able to work on any number of tasks in parallel..
- Provide a method to enter search terms and also pick tags
- Display search results as a list ..how do you think the search results need to be shown?

4.1 Task Details Page (Worker):
- Show task details - refer to list in task creation for fields given above..
- A worker will have option to apply for the task, while registering they will have option to have a cover letter (short text entry) to explain why they are suited for this job..
- If a worker has been selected to do a task this screen then they will see the Task management page (see below) that will have some additional functionalities and also allows them to download documents related to the task...
- Note that one task will be assigned to only one person.

4.2 Task Details Page (Employer):
- This page is similar to worker task details page but an employer will have more option than a worker!
- They will be option to edit this task..
- They will be able to view list of application that were received from the workers..employer will be able to see the cover letter along with each of the application!
- Employer will choose the best worker based on their profile etc.. and assign him the job, come up with ideas on how these need to be shown!
- When a task is complete: Allow the submission of any deliverables in the form of file attachments and provide a text area to support additional notes

5. Task Management Page:
- This page is similar to the task details but will restricted to employer and the worker to whom the task was assigned.
- Worker should be able to record the number of hours worked on a task, note that number of hours will be entered manually by the worker on a daily basis!
- When a task is complete: Allow the submission of any deliverables in the form of file attachments and provide a text area to support additional notes..
- Be able to view messages from the task forums, etc..
- Should we show the payments (use case given below) associated with this task in this screens..? feel free to show your ideas on how to bring a flow that gives best user experience!
- We are looking for your thoughts on how the task management screen will look like..

6. Task Forum / Messages:
Each task will have a forum created and each forum will contain:
- List of threads
- Click thread title for list of posts"
- Post New Thread (opens edit screen with Subject and Body fields and Post, Preview, Attach Files and Cancel buttons)..
- Reply option in thread opens edit screen as above..

7. Payment screen:
- Provide a screen to enable Manager to make a payment to Worker on task completion
- Screen should show the number of hours the Worker booked for the task..
- Enable Manager to give feedback and rate Worker on a scale of 1 - 5..

8. Profile screen:
- Show user details entered at registration. Allow them to be modified
- For Worker show task statistics: Open tasks, Tasks completed, Number of tasks applied for, Number of tasks accepted for
- For Manager show task statistics: Open tasks, Total tasks created, Tasks completed but not paid, Tasks completed

Judging Criteria
- How well you plan the user experience and capture your ideas visually
- Cleanliness of your graphics and design
- Your design should be possible to build
- Explain how user verification will happen
- How well you minimise the number of clicks required to complete the process and so get the user to the content as quickly and easily as possible

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, 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 colours. We may ask you to update your design or graphics based on checkpoint feedback