New Site Design

Here's a rough design of the new site. Keep in mind this is just to give me an idea what pages need to exist, and what features I want. I reserve the right to change any of this if it makes sense later.

Front Page

First time visitors still need an explanation of what the site is. That'll be in the text that initially shows in the body.

Returning visitors need a way to see what's new. There should be a list of current and recent contests somewhere, so that a visitor can quickly go to a specific contest.

Visitors will fall into one of several classes: non-members(1), members(2), contestants(3), judges(4), contest administrators(5), site administrators(6). The numbers in parentheses will be used to show which features are accessible to which class of visitor. In general, higher classes can access whatever lower classes can, so if I mark something as (1) to show it's accessible to non-members, then everyone else can also see it.

The front page should have the following links: Sign In (1), Sign Out (2), My Profile (2), My Contests (2), Admin (4), Forums (2).

My Profile

Each member will have some profile information they can fill out. Things like their name, email address, etc. This is private information that can be seen by contest administrators and site administrators only.

My Contests

This page will list all the contests the currently logged in user is in. This could be none.

If the member is participating in more than one contest, this will display a list of the contests with a link to click on to see the contest page. If the member is part of only one contest, the contest page will automatically show.

Contest administrators count as participating in a contest, so they'll see the contests they are administering on this page, too.

Admin

This is the site administration area. Things the site administrator can do here include: creating new contests, modifying user info, seeing site stats, etc. I'll leave this deliberately vague until I see what I actually need in the way of site administration features.

Forums

I may or may not have public forums for the site. Each contest will have a forum specific for it. Due to the site working with kids under 18, the contest sites might be restricted to contestants of that contest. For that same reason, the site-wide forums may be restricted to contestants from any contest.

Contest Site

Each contest will have a site of its own. Each contest site will allow other contestants to see the blogs for each contestant, a snapshot of current work, etc. Each contest site will have a results page that is publicly accessible, that will show final results and links to download games when the contest is done.

Judges will have a section for putting in their ratings for each game in the judging categories. The contest administrator will be able to set judging categories. Winners will be calculated automatically based on judging data.

Each contest site will have a link for applying to be part of that contest. Contest administrators must accept applications before the person becomes a contestant. Contest administrators can specify what information an applicant must provide.

Member Flow

With so many different types of members, it's worth talking about how someone gets to be each type.

A visitor is simply someone visiting the site who hasn't logged in yet. This is the lowest access level.

A member is someone who has created an account on the site, but is not involved in a contest. Someone who is a member in relation to one contest might be a contestant in another, so this is somewhat context dependent. A member has the same access to contest sites as visitors, but may be able to post in public forum areas.

A contestant is a member who has been accepted into a contest. Contestants can see other contestants' blogs and can see the contest specific forum.

A judge is someone who has been invited to judge a contest. They can see all the contest site and the contest specific forum. They also get access to the judging forms for each contestant.

A contest administrator has total control over the contests they run. They can accept applicants, invite judges, etc.

A site administrator can create new contests and assign contest administrators, and has total control over the entire site.