Proposal

We’ve outlined a suggested structure for your proposal below. You are free to adapt this or use an alternate structure:

Introduction

What is your project and what are you trying to achieve. Domain/Problem Space: Identify and describe the domain will you be working in and the problem space will you be exploring. Support and illustrate your description with sources and insights from the combined domain research and any relevant additional sources.

Design Opportunity / Concept

Outline the specific design opportunity you have chosen to explore and the rationale behind it. Support and illustrate your description with sources and insights from the combined domain research and any relevant additional sources. Define the project aims and audience and identify how your idea is different from and/or improves upon other current offerings. Identify areas of social & mobile theory that apply to, will inform your concept & approach. Connect your concept with select key papers from Domain Research.

Plan of Work

Identify and describe the work to be done in order to achieve the project aims. This description should break the project into phases and should identify and describe the methods and approaches to be used for each. Draw upon the domain research work to identify suitable methods for further investigations & evaluations. A possible breakdown for phases might be:

• Initial Requirements & Design (Week 8)
• Prototype & Evaluation (Week 10)
• Iteration & Evaluation (Week 11 & 12)
• Final Prototype (Week 13)

To assist you in generating a plan of work: You will be aiming to produce a proof-of-concept prototype at the end of the semester. A “proof-of-concept” prototype balances function and simulation in such a way as to enable users to fully understand the interactivity, purpose and usage of your solution. When considering your prototype, you should frame it according to what you want to learn about your domain/problem space. At the end of the semester, your prototype should have undergone at least one evaluation with the target audience prior to final delivery at the showcase.

Team

Introduce the members of the team. Each team member should reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and describe what they hope to achieve through working on the project. It is not necessary here to list out skills & capabilities; rather each team member should be considering their aspirations & goals for their learning through the project. It is important to note that a team member’s strengths should not necessarily define their role or duties. This project is a learning opportunity and duties in the team should be assigned on that basis, not on the existing strengths of each person.

SCORE Analysis

The team should provide a SCORE analysis of the project and team. In conducting the analysis, you should be answering the question “What do we need to have this project succeed?” and should consider: Strengths within the team - in skills, knowledge, experience, access, attitudes, work ethic. This should look beyond the technical and design skills of the team. You are not your ability to code well in a particular language.

• Strengths around the project concept - ie. access to resources, user groups.
• Challenges within the team - what might prevent the team working together effectively.
• Challenges around the project - concept, domain, access etc
• Options - what opportunities & risks exist in the project concept, project workload or approach, team dynamics. Every opportunity is a risk, and every risk is an opportunity.
• Responses - how others might respond to the project