Group Project Proposal

Due on Wed, 01/22 @ 11:59PM. 10 Points.

Instructions

This group proposal is similar to the one you submitted for HW2, but ought to be more polished, and should incorporate the ideas of your entire group. In other words, your analysis of the problem space, related work, possibilities, and limitations should be more developed. In 500-750 words…

Problem & Motivation

Describe the problem that your project would tackle, and the motivation for why that problem is important and interesting. This paragraph should discuss the current state of the world (the problem), as well as how and why the world would be better if some aspect of this problem were addressed (the goal). You should convince the reader that this is a worthwhile problem space to explore.

Analysis

Analyze the problem to give the reader more background and context (in paragraph form). This should include:

An argument for why this problem is not yet solved and requires additional design work
How others have approached this problem (or related problems) elsewhere
A description of one or more ideas or initiatives which are already working that you would be interested in building upon and / or amplifying
Which aspects of the problem are conducive to an app / website (as Morozov argues, not all parts of a problem have a technical solution)

Design Hypothesis

Given that each of you likely already have ideas around solving this problem, describe one potential avenue for an app idea. Remember, this is only a first guess (before you’ve done your user research), so please treat your idea as a question versus a foregone conclusion.

Rubric

Please review the rubric below and make sure that your proposal has covered these items:

Criteria	Points
1. Problem & Motivation (this content can appear anywhere in the text)	3 Points
Identifies an actual problem Enough details are given where you can actually understand why the problem is a problem	2
Identifies a goal they’d like to reach to overcome some aspect of the problem	1
2. Analysis	6 points
Provides an argument for why this problem is not yet solved and requires additional design work (i.e. describes the obstacles) Reader needs to be convinced that this really a problem that is worth solving.	2
Describes related work: how have approached this problem (or related problems) elsewhere? Reader is convinced that the team has done their due diligence in researching the problem Well-known alternatives have been acknowledged (if applicable)	2
Describes which aspects of the problem are and are not addressable via computing technology Reader can understand which aspects of the technology can and cannot be solved by computing and / or data	2
3. Design Hypothesis	1 point
Describes an initial idea or hypothesis that you have for solving this problem. Note: ideally this emerges from user research, but given that you all already have implementation ideas, you may as well acknowledge them so that you can examine the assumptions that might be embedded in these ideas	1