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Challenge Summary

Welcome to the "CROWD FOR GOOD - YERC - EPIIC Platform Design Challenge Part 1". Topcoder and YERC (Yellowstone Ecological Research Center) are working together to create a new platform to monitor, understand, and improve the health of our planet’s ecosystems called EPIIC (Ecosystem Prognosis Impacts Information Cooperative). This collaboration is part of the “Crowd for Good” initiative (Topcoder's non-profit program) and we are inviting all Topcoder Designers to join and take part in this project to create a better future for our environment.

Read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. Let us know if you have any questions in the challenge forum!
GRAND PRIZES
  • 3 Yellowstone Guided Tour Packages (travel not included)
  • 5 Yellowstone Virtual Ecological Workshops 

CHALLENGE PRIZES
  • This challenge is a part of "Crowd for Good” program and don't have cash prizes, instead, we have the following prizes for members that participate in the challenge:
    • YERC Topcoder Points that can be collected in this challenge series to get the GRAND PRIZES once the project complete (1st place 1700 points, 2nd place 800 points, 3rd place 250 points)
    • YERC swag (hats and maps) for the top 3 winners
    • Topcoder TCO20 Points
    • Topcoder May Design Month Points
    • Every member whose submission used in the EPIIC platform will get credited on the final platform product in a credits page
    • Every member whose submission used in the EPIIC platform will get a certificate of participation from YERC and Topcoder

BACKGROUND OVERVIEW
  • This platform, called EPIIC (Ecosystem Prognosis, Impacts, and Information Cooperative), will be an open-source, collaborative effort built on scalable, cloud-based services, to be used by people around the world to help ecosystems around the world in need of protection and restoration 
  • For this initiative to succeed, it will require lots of data in a timely manner, a robust cloud-based infrastructure, and enthusiastic users of the data who will participate in modeling complex ecological systems
  • More information about this project background can be found from the following link: https://www.topcoder.com/community/member-programs/crowd-for-good/yerc/info

EPIIC PLATFORM DESIGN GOAL
  • Create the best possible User Interface and User Experience for the EPIIC platform that is able to provide and make accessible the data and models for building insight-generating models to drive better decisions
  • In this challenge, we will cover and create both UI/UX for Guest and EPIIC Member roles scenario

DESIGN CONSIDERATION
  • Design Simplicity to presented datasets information
  • Use colors or great visual contrast to highlight a comparison of important information.
  • Intuitive for the user; should never be left asking "what do I do next?"
  • Simplify the display for pages that may be over overcrowded with information

USER STORIES
Guest Role
  • Regular internet user, no sign-in required
  • Probably free access and used as a friend-raising function for YERC's EPIIC
  • The Guest saw an ad on Social Media or heard about this from a friend or colleague
  • Upon visiting the site I am impressed by its minimalist approach coupled to an organic design ethic
  • I see cleanly organized information and the layout of the app clearly conveys what I can and can't do without endless instructions
  • I'm impressed by the amount of research underway and the number of people who are part of the platform
  • As a guest I can do the following on EPIIC:
    • I want to know more about the team so I look for an "About" section that describes the mission and key researchers/contributors/leaders
    • I want to learn more about the projects that are hosted on the platform and what their status is.  For some projects, I'd like to subscribe to a feed for updates
    • I want to receive notifications on new data/projects coming up
    • I want to sign up as a citizen scientist observer to consider later contribution and use platform data
    • I want to register on the platform as a member, to share my affiliation with this topic, maintain a profile, interact with other members of the platform, etc

EPIIC Member Role
  • As a member of EPIIC, I want to join a social network of individuals who are interested in the research conducted by other EPIIC members and more generally the mission of YERC in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). This is like YERC's version of a membership where they gain access to EPIIC information and services and become involved
  • I enjoy this affiliation because the content keeps me apprised of current information streams on pressing environmental/ecological issues and research topics in the GYE and what people are doing
  • I am not necessarily a researcher, but I enjoy the outdoors and Yellowstone in general and participation on this site lets me feel like I belong to and am contributing to the cause
  • As a member I interact with the site in the following ways:
    • I want to join the community science team supported by the EPIIC platform and contribute and share data
    • I search for available datasets in the Amphora repository using a natural language interface providing keywords or phrases
    • By selecting a device from a pre-approved list and/or using documented protocols, I can also submit data to the EPIIC platform for sharing/collaboration with other members
    • Examples include water depth and temperature sensors, soil moisture probes, camera traps, or water quality samples
    • Using a dashboard I want to be able to view summarizations and/or trends of the datasets I am most interested
    • I want to be able to see summaries and access simple tools to see past trends and current conditions
    • I also want to be able to view any short term forecasts associated with the datasets I am subscribed to
    • I want to be able to monitor the costs associated with the datasets I have subscribed to
    • I can maintain my profile and record my basic contact information
    • I can record my credit card information to allow me to donate to research projects that interest me
    • I am able to interact in forums with other members of the platform 
    • I want to know what the API status of the platform is.  Is everything running?
    • I want to be able to subscribe to datasets in Amphora Data I am interested in so I can download them and/or receive updates to the data
    • I can also unsubscribe to data that I am no longer interested in

SCREEN REQUIREMENTS
For this challenge, we are looking for the below screens to be created in your submission. The screen functionality details listed below need to be applied as much as possible. However, If there is a better way to accomplish the same goal, then feel free to take creative liberties:

01) Homepage (Guest and EPIIC Member)
  • Think on how to make this page become the front line to get people's attention and interest / Marketing the benefits to join and participate in the EPIIC platform
  • Needs to have a section/page contains information about the following: 
    • EPIIC Platform Team information, 
    • EPIIC Platform Mission, 
    • List of key researchers/contributors/leaders personnel
  • View a list of all projects that are hosted on the platform and what their status is (Read-only).  For some projects, non-logged-in user/guest can subscribe to a feed for updates (by entering their email)
  • Ability to see new announcements or notifications about any new data/projects coming up
  • Take information for the homepage from these pages:

02) Login and Register Page
  • Ability to Register/Sign Up as:
    • Citizen Scientist, Observer to consider later contribution and use platform data
    • Member, to share my affiliation with this topic, maintain a profile, interact with other members of the platform, etc
  • In order to be able to access more information about the datasets and contribute in it, the guest user needs to log in or register and become a member in the EPIIC platform
  • Ordinary login form (Username/Password/Submit button) should be available in this page
  • Provide error scenario when user not entering the correct credentials

03) Dashboard Page
  • View summarizations and latest trends of datasets list that all EPIIC members in the platform are most interested in
  • Show a summary of the costs associated with the datasets that the user have subscribed to
  • Ability to see past trends and current conditions
  • See latest forum discussions, ability to see notification related to the user, etc
  • Search for any available datasets in the Amphora repository using keywords or phrases
  • Subscribe to particular datasets in Amphora Data that the user is interested in so they can download the datasets and/or receive updates to the data
  • FYI, Amphora Data is a 3rd party data integration platform that combines data from multiple streams/feeds and makes it easier to manage and access. Amphora has a portal https://amphoradata.com/ that enables users to search for datasets and subscribe to them. Amphora will be integrated into EPIIC using Amphora API + SDK, This way, the user will be able to access Datasets from Amphora from one place, view/explore the data, or ecology models, and able to download and process the data. Outputs for the modeling process can also create new datasets that will be published back to Amphora for other users to access 

04) Datasets List Page
  • Ability to see all Datasets from Amphora
  • Ability to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to datasets that I am interested or no longer interested
  • Able to view any short term forecasts associated with the datasets I am subscribed to

05) Datasets Details Page
  • Ability to preview or view the dataset details/content  (depends on the file type, some datasets type/file might be too complex to be viewed directly, so might be better to show a preview or screenshot of the data instead view it directly in the platform)
  • Ability to download datasets and view it offline and/or receive updates about the data
  • User will be able to select devices from a pre-approved list and/or using documented protocols, they can also submit data to the EPIIC platform for sharing/collaboration with other members (Updating the dataset content)
  • View log history contains information about the recent updates for the datasets (username, date and time, content updates)

06) My Profile Page
  • User can set and edit their member profile and record their basic contact information from this page
  • Ability to record user credit card information that will allow the user to donate to research thrusts that interest them

07) General Forum Page
  • A simple forum where the user can have some interaction with other members in the platform to discuss about general topic or specific datasets

08) Platform API Status Page
  • Checking whether all API status in the platform is running or not

MARVEL PROTOTYPE
  • We need you to upload your screens to Marvel App
  • Please request for marvel app in the challenge forum 
  • You MUST include your Marvel app URL (in your marvel app prototype, click on share and then copy the link & share it with your notes/comment on this link while you upload)

DOCUMENTATION
  • Two sample datasets from Amphora Platform: 
    • https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MHzEWtY-WSMfk34dBMPYLkNj6mQXMD4e?usp=sharing
    • "The WaterQuantity file" is a CSV file that contains the depth and temperature data from a sensor for May-Oct 2019.  The depth data is used by in rating curve formula for each site.  For this site, the rating curve formula is 36.18864474767676 + 159.27689683566635x where x is the depth value.  For example, on June 6, 2019, at 7:20 am, the depth was 2.018 and the discharge was 353.0927 cubic ft/s
    • "The NPP file" is a 64 x 110 GeoTIFF raster image where each pixel represents the value of NPP for an 8km square area in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).  NPP is generated from satellite imagery and measures the difference between how much carbon dioxide is taken in by plants compared to how much is put out by them. This difference is the total amount of carbon dioxide taken in by plants and is called net primary productivity (NPP).  In order to give you an idea of scale, the resolution frequently used for statistical modeling is 100 or 250 square meters.  So for the GYE, this dataset with 100m resolution grows from 7040 pixels to 45,056,000

BRANDING
TARGET DEVICE
  • Desktop: minimum 1440px width with Height adjusting accordingly

TARGET AUDIENCE
  • Guest Role: General Society/Regular Internet User that interested in EPIIC (In Scope)
  • EPIIC Member: Registered user in the EPIIC platform (In Scope)
  • EPIIC Scientist (Out of Scope)
  • EPIIC Steward (Out of Scope)
  • EPIIC Site Admin (Out of Scope)
  • EPIIC Field Biologist (Out of Scope)

JUDGING CRITERIA
  • Your submission will be judged on the following criteria:
    • Overall idea and execution of concepts
    • How well does your design align with the objectives of the challenge
    • Execution and thoughtfulness put into solving the problem
    • The overall design and user experience
    • Cleanliness of screen design and user flow
    • Ease of use

SUBMISSION AND SOURCE FILES
Submission File
  • Submit all JPG/PNG image files based on Challenge submission requirements stated above

Source File
  • All source files of all graphics created in either Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD, or Sketch and saved as an editable layer

Declaration File  
  • Declaration files document contains the following information:
    • Stock Photos Name and Source Links from an allowed sources
    • Stock Art/Icons Name and Source Links from an allowed sources
    • Fonts Name and Source Links source from an allowed source
    • MarvelApp share link for review 

FINAL FIXES
  • As part of the final fixes phase, you may be asked to modify content or user click paths

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.

How To Submit

  • New to Studio? ‌Learn how to compete here
  • Upload your submission in three parts (Learn more here). Your design should be finalized and should contain only a single design concept (do not include multiple designs in a single submission).
  • If your submission wins, your source files must be correct and “Final Fixes” (if applicable) must be completed before payment can be released.
  • You may submit as many times as you'd like during the submission phase, but only the number of files listed above in the Submission Limit that you rank the highest will be considered. You can change the order of your submissions at any time during the submission phase. If you make revisions to your design, please delete submissions you are replacing.

Winner Selection

Submissions are viewable to the client as they are entered into the challenge. Winners are selected by the client and are chosen solely at the client's discretion.

ELIGIBLE EVENTS:

2020 Topcoder(R) Open

CHALLENGE LINKS:

Screening Scorecard

SUBMISSION FORMAT:

Your Design Files:

  1. Look for instructions in this challenge regarding what files to provide.
  2. Place your submission files into a "Submission.zip" file.
  3. Place all of your source files into a "Source.zip" file.
  4. Declare your fonts, stock photos, and icons in a "Declaration.txt" file.
  5. Create a JPG preview file.
  6. Place the 4 files you just created into a single zip file. This will be what you upload.

Trouble formatting your submission or want to learn more? ‌Read the FAQ.

Fonts, Stock Photos, and Icons:

All fonts, stock photos, and icons within your design must be declared when you submit. DO NOT include any 3rd party files in your submission or source files. Read about the policy.

Screening:

All submissions are screened for eligibility before the challenge holder picks winners. Don't let your hard work go to waste. Learn more about how to  pass screening.

CHALLENGE LINKS:

Questions? ‌Ask in the Challenge Discussion Forums.

SOURCE FILES:

  • Layered PSD files created in Adobe Photoshop or similar
  • Sketch
  • Adobe XD
  • Figma

You must include all source files with your submission.

SUBMISSION LIMIT:

Unlimited

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