Assignments > P1. Project Proposal

Due on Sun, 02/07 11:59PM.

During the last five weeks of the course, you will be designing and implementing a final project of your choosing. The parameters of the project are described in detail in the final project guidelines.

Instructions

This group proposal is similar to the project pitch you did for Lab 3, but a bit more detailed. Please answer each of the questions below (and feel free to use screenshots to communicate your ideas):

1. Problem & Motivation

[1-2 Paragraphs] Describe the problem that your project would tackle, and the motivation for why that problem is worth pursuing. When writing the section, please ensure that you’ve:

• Identified an actual problem
• Given sufficient detail so that your reader can actually understand why the problem is a problem
• Identified a clear goal / set of goals that you’re hoping to address

2. Analysis of Related Work

[1-2 Paragraphs] This section should give your reader a lay of the land, including:

• The current status quo: how are people currently accomplishing the tasks you’re hoping to support?
• How have others tried to innovate in this area (consider both “technical” and “non-technical” innovations) and what solutions currently exist?
• What are the strengths and limitations of existing approaches?

3. Design Hypothesis

[1 Paragraph] Describe your current idea for addressing the problem. Explicily state how your idea, specifically, could address some aspect of the problem described in part 1.

Note: This is only a first guess at a possible solution (the point of the class is to go through a process of validating some of your design ideas and assumptions).

4. Describe your potential users

[1 Paragraph] Who are the potential users of your system? If there are multiple categories of users, describe the relevant categories. For instance, in the case of Yelp!, you may consider reviewers, restaurant owners, and advertisers (though there could be others as well).

5. Describe the interactions you’re hoping to support

[List them] Given the overarching goal of your system, list between 3-5 interactions that you hope to design and implement. For instance, if your’re creating something like Yelp (a massive system), you might choose to scope your project to a few interactions that most interest you and your team. For instance:

• A way for a restaurant owner to promote their restaurant.
• A way for a customer to browse a restaurant by one or more categories.
• A way for a customer to review a restaurant.

You don’t have to have all of the details figured out, but you should have an idea in mind of the types of interactions you hope to support.

6. Describe the data / information resources that your system will interact with

[1 Paragraph] Describe the data your system will be interacting with. Some questions to consider here:

• Where will this data come from?
• How many collections / tables do you anticipate having?
• Will you be implementing search or browse interactions?
• Which will you be creating, and which will be coming from third-party APIs?

7. Are you planning to integrate ML functionality into your system?

[1 Paragraph] Not all data-intensive problems are best solved through ML, but you are encouraged to think through whether and how various ML methods might be brought to bear on the problem.

• Are you planning to use any ML methods in your system (yes / no)?
• If so, how do you see ML supporting the interactions listed above? Note that you don’t have to implement the ML piece, but you do want to come up with ways of testing the effectiveness of an ML-powered interaction.

8. What resources / tutorials will you be using to help you?

[1 Paragraph] Given your design and implementing plans, what resources (e.g. APIs, libraries, tutorials, design tools, etc.) will you be using to help you make progress on your ideas?

9. What will you have made when you’re done?

[1 Paragraph] Be specific (# of screens, description of basic functionality). You will break this down into steps below.

10. What will your first deliverable be?

[1 Paragraph] Just give a high-level description of the first thing you hope to build. Give it your best guess. See the list of potential interactions to get you thinking about scoping.

11. What will your second deliverable be(your best guess)?

[1 Paragraph] Again, give it your best guess.

12. What will your third deliverable be (your best guess)?

[1 Paragraph] Ditto.

Rubric

You will be assessed based on evidence that you put some time and effort into thinking about what you want to accomplish and what it might take to make it happen. You will be assessed on:

1. Completeness
2. Demonstrated attention and thought to the scope, nature, and breakdown of the tasks.
3. Evidence that you did some legwork to explore what kinds of examples, tutorials, and web resouces are out there.

What to turn in

Please submit a link to a Google Doc (make sure it’s shared!) or as an uploaded file (e.g. Word Document).