Your project proposal must go beyond a technology-centric proposal of a webpage, phone application, or interaction. Instead think about the problems that people face in their lives, how we can approach those problems, and the role for interactive computing. This first project assignment is your opportunity to think broadly about identifying a problem. Subsequent assignments will provide opportunities to focus on designing a specific technological solution to a specific set of tasks.
You should identify and consider goals and activities that are important to people, within the project theme. Potential goals include:
I ask that students consider how people might learn outside of the classroom. Potential examples of informal learning experiences include, but are not limited to:
Do not start with a focus on concrete one-time tasks (e.g., logging into your account). Instead identify problems & tasks in long-lived activities that span many different social or technological contexts. If you want to help people learn about the history of the museum, do not immediately propose a website that addresses one specific task. Instead consider the range of other opportunities (e.g., personal mobile devices, shared family computers, point of sale systems).
Focus on creating or improving a specific application or service that addresses the issues of specific people. You must be able to create and evaluate a design within the timeframe of this course, so consider whether you can reasonably gain access to the necessary people.
I encourage you to think big, expanding your thinking to include new ideas for interaction techniques or technology platforms. Do not feel constrained by current devices, but instead aim to explore an exciting design that could potentially motivate the development of new enabling technology. For example, see how Artefact presents the Dialog concept. This concept has not been implemented, and might not even be immediately possible. But it has been developed in substantial detail, understanding implications for design and implementation:
Finally, the project theme requires that your proposal present some opportunity for learning in the wild. But you will ultimately follow your design process where it leads you. Focusing on problems and opportunities, rather than specific design features will leave room for your design to emerge and be refined in the course of this project.
I will select a subset of submitted proposals for sponsorship. Sponsored proposals will be posted, and students will then bid on the projects they want to pursue in this course. Your proposal is thus an effort to convince both the professor and your classmates that a problem is interesting, tractable within the timeline and constraints of this course, and worthy of investigation.
Propose and analyze a problem that forms the basis of a design project for this class (keep in mind the project theme).
In one paragraph, describe the design problem and motivation. This description should convince the reader that this is a difficult and interesting problem, worth spending a semester considering. State what the problem is and why it is a problem, or describe a new idea and why it will enhance an existing application or practice. Creativity is very important at this stage!
In another paragraph, analyze the problem or idea to give more background and context. Do not just focus on the negative aspects of the current situation, but also identify some positive aspects that may be beneficial to retain. A few salient examples from existing systems or practices could be used to support those claims. If appropriate, you may conduct this analysis by describing a scenario that illustrates how someone might encounter and resolve the problem.
Ensure your report is appropriately clear and easy to read. This includes:
Be sure your presentation looks good:
Be prepared to pitch your project idea to the class.
Remember, this course changes slightly from year-to-year, so pay attention to the assignment details!
Examples from external versions of this course include:
No more than one page of text (approximately 500 words).
Images do not count against your page limit, and are therefore effectively free. You should embed images throughout your proposal, keeping them near the text that references them. The limit applies to the approximate amount of text you would have if all images were removed.
Create a new page on your Github User page to host your individual project proposal. Post the link (with the project title) to the appropriate Slack channel.
This proposal will be graded on a scale of 5 points:
All/most deliverables for the course project should be contained inside this single Github website that is easy for someone else to clone.
No more than one page of text (approximately 500 words).
Images do not count against your page limit, and are therefore effectively free. You should embed images throughout your proposal, keeping them near the text that references them. The limit applies to the approximate amount of text you would have if all images were removed.
The main submission of your group proposal will be a website that all team members have the ability to modify (i.e., a beautiful-jekyll project page with teammates added as collaborators is preferred).
This proposal will be graded on a scale of 20 points: