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GR0: Project Proposal

Due at 12:00pm, Friday, February 15th, 2008, by email.

The heart of this course is a semester-long project, in which you will design, implement, and evaluate a user interface. User interface design is an iterative process, so you will build your UI not just once, but three times, as successively higher-fidelity and more complete prototypes. In order to have time for these iterations, we need to get started on the project as early as possible.

Each project group may consist of 2, 3, or 4 people. You have a lot of freedom in choosing your topic. Here are some guidelines to help you pick a good one.

Your project must have a substantial user interface. A program that merely plays an MP3 file is not enough; a player that allows the user to browse and organize an MP3 collection would be better.
The user interface must be interactive. A web site that is merely a static collection of web pages would not be acceptable; an e-commerce web site with product search and a shopping basket would be better.
Creative, original projects are preferred. There are countless MP3 players and e-commerce shopping baskets out there. If your project falls in a crowded field like that, you should look for a problem in the area that isn't well handled by existing solutions.

Most projects will probably be desktop or web applications, but you can propose other kinds of UI if they are appropriate to the problem you're trying to solve: e.g., speech, gesture, handhelds, or ubiquitous computing. It must at least be possible to simulate your project on the desktop, since one of your prototypes will be such a simulation. Don't overextend yourself; if none of your team members have any handheld programming experience, for example, you may want to think twice before proposing a project that requires it. The teaching staff can help a little with alternative UIs, but we don't know everything.

Your project might be connected to research that you're doing outside the class. If you or someone in your research group has a system that needs a good user interface, that may be a possible project. Projects have also been inspired by other groups or activities around campus that have specific software needs: dorms or living groups, sports teams, activity groups, classes.

Previous years' projects on the wiki may provide some inspiration.

What to Hand In

For this assignment, you are to pick your group and hand in a proposal for your group project (one proposal per group).

Your proposal should be about one page long, and include the following parts:

Problem	Describe the problem(s) that your project will seek to solve. Take the user's point of view. Consider what the user's goals are, and what obstacles lie in the way. Note the project ideas above are not problems—they're solutions. For example, "build a customizable remote control" would be an unacceptable answer to this part.
Target Users	Characterize the user population that faces the problem you're trying to solve.
Solution	Describe a possible solution to the problem—i.e., the interface that you envision, and how it will address the problem. You aren't absolutely committed to your solution, since you may find after building and evaluating some prototypes that a wholly different solution will work better.
Group Members	List the members of your group. Students who are not registered for the class are not permitted to participate in the group project. All members of your group must be registered by the time this assignment is due.

Email your proposal as plain text (in the body of the message, no attachments) to 6831handin@csail.mit.edu and include GR0 in the subject line.