3DSystems - Cubify Cartridge Page Color Selection Design Concepts Challenge

Welcome to "3DSystems - Cubify Cartridge Page Color Selection Design Concepts Challenge". In this challenge, we are looking for the Topcoder community to explore potential ways for our customers to explore color in relation to the filament/cartridge purchase processes. We are looking for innovative, fresh idea and out of the box design concepts solution to tackle our problem. Looking forward to see your innovation for the new page color creation!! 

Round 1

Initial color wheels/picker/pages innovation design for client review

Round 2

All requirements as stated in challenge details with client feedback applied

In this challenge, we are looking for the Topcoder community to explore potential ways customers can explore color in relation to the filament/cartridge purchase processes.  Cubify will double available materials and colors in the next year and we want to provide customers with an aspirational and creative space to select, explore and visualize color choices in relation to their cartridge selection.

We will provide a summary of the current cartridge pages system and a few examples of how color palettes and choices can be visualized in a web experience. (See provided color list) Although we are offering a set number of colors currently..we are looking for you to build a color picker that is scalable and can grow as we add more colors to our cartridge offerings. 

The main focus of this challenge is to explore a fun and interactive way that our users can use to select colors and see how their color selections might apply to their 3d printing experience. The desire is to create a new space that is unique to the 3D experience, by combining color theory, methods of choice, visualization and selection in a way that makes sense to 3D printing as offered by Cube 3 and Cube Pro color filaments.

Your solutions should focus on 2 concepts. Consider showing storyboard screens to demonstrate how a user is interacting with your interface. We want to see the steps of how a user is interacting with your solution.
 
1. Color Picker: 
Spend some time referencing the creative inspiration and examples and come up with a unique interactive interface that a user can use to view color possibilities and make selections. This should be engaging, playful and invite exploration.

2. Color Visualization:
This one is up to you. How can a user visualize the application of their color selection? Are they able to preview what their colors look like on 3D objects? Are there color choices represented more abstractly? What is the best way to show added functionality and value in how a user interacts with the color picker and makes choices that lead to filament purchases?

Project Overview 
Cartridges and filament are the lifeblood of Cubify sales – the most important source of recurring revenue and the focus of much of 3D Systems technology and innovation. Where, in the past, customers were restricted to a handful of colors available for printers that could print in only a single color at a time, as of 2014, the baseline Cubify printer prints in two colors, with professional grade printers printing in up to three. In 2015, Cubify plans on releasing multi-color printer that may support several colors at once.

In order for customers to understand the choices available and visualize what colors bring to the 3D printing experience, we believe an exploratory space is needed on Cubify.com that not only showcases available colors, but allows users to play with color choices and color selection to explore possibilities of cartridge color selection and perhaps even visualize results.

Design Guidelines
- Font, colors, style : Since this is a UX design challenge and not UI specific, please use plain fonts and neutral color presentation. The Cubify font is Myriad Pro. 
- Create it for Desktop : 1024px width with height adjusting accordingly. 
- Above the fold, please : Unless a really great idea absolutely warrants it, more credence will be paid to solutions that keep users above the fold and reduce scrolling down into the browser's nether-regions. Because we all know that's not appropriate.
- Keep things consistent. This means all graphic styles should work together, All of the graphics should have a similar feel and general aesthetic appearance and look like the 3D Systems brand.
- Make sure create all design assets in graphic 'vector' format (buttons, icons, etc.)

Creative Considerations 
- We have run some previous challenges for 3D Systems and want to supply you with those creative assets for you to use in this design challenge. 
- We like the general look and feel for these and want to see how you can apply this to this challenge. We're not looking for you to copy these challenges. We’re looking for a fresh take for this challenge. The important take aways that you can get from these previous explorations is the use of color. It's also important to note that "Myriad" is the font that we want you to use for your designs. 
1. OpenHaptics 
2. Touch SDK 
3. 3DSprint Brand 
4. Community Sample Sites 

UX Challenge Scope/Requirements :
In scope of Challenge, things we'd like to see : 
- a new ideas on color browsing: Palettes? Color wheels? Chromatic Polyhedra? What may be some striking and new ways to select a particular color from the infinite hues available?  Photoshop style color pickers can be dry and uninspiring, not to mention complex for some users. 
- Color browsing as a playful experience : We want this experience to be FUN – how do we make this experience engaging, perhaps addictive? How does the visual presentation invite interactivity and make an appealing play for the users’ attention?
- Color and 3D printing: What makes color play experience relevant to the physical world, 3D printing, and the User's own experience with each?
- Color selection and suggestion: How can the system recommend color styles and examples?  How do we serve users selection on color sets and color packs that are refreshed seasonally?
- Narrowing Not Constricting: In relating the fun & games of color engagement, how does narrowing to selecting Cubify filament cartridges not feel restrictive or confining?
- Content Refresh & Updates: How might we periodically update the experience with new content to allow for a fresh presentation?
- Scalability: The experience should allow for the addition of new colors and new materials ad infinitum (or just short). We plan on building for the future.

Out of scope of Challenge, things that we're not looking for :
- Purchase flow optimization: While color play should have an eventual output towards a purchase, providing the best flow to cart isn't necessary here – the scope of the challenge should be the experience of color selection and how this experience may narrow to a selection of carts to move on towards purchase. 
- A Standard "Store": We realize not all customers will want the full blown color play experience, and are planning on offering a more standardized purchase matrix for users who know what they want to get to it much more quickly. That's rather boring and easy – we want you to focus on the fun stuff.

Important
- Make sure to read 'references.zip' for more details about challenge requirements.
- Keep things consistent. This means all graphic styles should work together and follow iOS best practice.
- All of the graphics should have a similar feel and general aesthetic appearance.

Research Inspiration
- You'll need to look at the existing Cubify site and printer pages at www.cubify.com
- Here's a few inspirational links to web apps that provide exciting examples of color exploration. None are 3D printing specific, but do demonstrate a level of playfulness and creative excitement that shows how color can be exciting and inspiring :
* Adobe Color CC aka Adobe Kuler 
* Paletton 
* Multicolor Search Lab powered by MulticolorEngineColor 
* Color 
* Here is a google drive contains mood board with creative sample of color pickers (ONLY FOR REFERENCES!!) : https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5pMhoyHTg-Ifnl1SEduVGpJOFpaeXlzOWJfS21zUXRjV2EwS3FYZW9NOFFTMUpuR3V0WWs&usp=sharing
* More References : http://www.creativebloq.com/colour/tools-colour-schemes-12121430

Documentation :
- documentation.docx, contains additional explanation about expectation for this challenge.
- filament_colors.xlsx, contains excel file for all colors that needs to be provide in your color picker and visualization design.

Target User
1. Aspirational Stylemakers :
- Including fashionistas, design enthusiasts, technophiles, idealists. 
- They set trends and influence culture, spreading it down to the practical mainstream.

2. Practical Mainstream :
- Including DIY families, Hobbyists, Geek Culture
- They wait and see before jumping on a trend, when their need and want meets affordability and usability

3. Early Adopter :
- Professional and Educators
- They've used 3D printing in their work life for years. They're leading the way bringing 3D Printing into schools, giving students tomorrow's skills today.

Judging Criteria
- How well you plan the user experience and capture your ideas visually.
- A good understanding of the content considerations and the types of heuristics that are relevant to 3d printing and its possibilities.
- Though we do want to focus on deliverables for desktop, additional consideration will be given to solutions that don't include roadblocks toward a port to mobile.
- Cleanliness of your graphics and design.

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