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Proposal Memorandum

Prepare a one to two page memorandum to me, your professor, describing the prototype program you intend to develop as your project in CS 446.

Your memorandum should

1. Describe the real-world problem or application area you are addressing with your program.
2. Identify the type of users who will be using your program and user interface challenges expected with designing for this user group
   • To provide more consistency in grading, only six primary user types will be considered this quarter. Choose from one of the following primary user types:
     1. 2nd or 3rd graders
     2. Elderly
     3. Middle school girls
     4. Middle school boys
     5. Disabled
     6. Stay-at-home moms
3. Explain at least three examples of typical interaction tasks these users will use your program to accomplish.
   • Explain the tasks in terms of the real-world tasks; do not use as your examples low-level tasks like opening a file.
4. Describe your proposed software solution to the real-world problem or application area
   • Identify the scope of problems your program will handle and, in most cases, the types of problems your program will not handle.
   • To reduce the time or knowledge required to implement your prototype, identify major features that will be faked in your prototype.
5. Discuss any difficulties or problems you foresee and your strategies for dealing with them.
   • The difficulties should be related to designing the user interface and not related to programming issues.

Organize your memorandum into five or more paragraphs, at least one for each of the numbered items above. Begin each paragraph with a strong topic sentence.

Cautions

• A creative, elegant, and complete solution to a small project is better than a partial solution to an overly ambitious project.
• Your project proposal should be focused on user and task analysis, not on the implementation issues related to the project.
• The intent of the prototype project is to give you hands-on experience applying the concepts we learn in class.
  • Design your project to reduce or minimize the algorithmic processing of data to allow time for careful consideration of user interface design issues.
  • Design your project so that the intended users are narrowly-defined rather than broadly defined.
• The quality of your writing is important.
  • Correct spelling, grammar, sentence and paragraph construction is expected.
  • Clarity of expression and conciseness is expected. Given the choice between using a simple, short word versus a long, technical term; use the simple, short word.
  • As a general guide, construct paragraphs containing three to six short sentences and sentences between ten to twenty words.
  • Write using the active voice; avoid using passive sentences.
  • Start each paragraph with a strong topic sentence and ensure that the remaining sentences all relate to the theme of the paragraph.
  • You may ask someone to proof-read your memorandum to help spot spelling and grammatical errors.
  • You may wish to use Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar checker to spot obvious errors.
  • You may wish to use Microsoft Word's readability statistics to check average paragraph and sentence length.
  • Write your memo to me, your professor. You do not need to direct your writing to a general audience.

Draft Proposal

You will prepare a draft proposal, print it out, and submit it during class for three peer reviews. Revise your draft proposal based on the feedback from the peer reviews for the graded version.

Grading criteria

Your grade will be based on your demonstrated writing proficiency as well as the contents of your project proposal.

A scoring rubric will be used for assessing this assignment. You are encouraged to print this rubric and use it as a checklist for expectations, writing guidelines, and quality assurance.

Honor code: The work needs to be your own. You may wish to have someone proof-reading the final version to help spot problems, but the words and content contained in the memorandum should be your own.

Submission Guidelines

Prepare a Design Portfolio for presenting your work on the Prototype Project this quarter

• Use 1/2 inch, three-ring binder to assemble the assignments done this quarter
• Create a creative, artistic cover page for your portfolio that captures the essence of your project
  • Give your project a name and logo
  • Identify yourself as the developer of the project
  • Include a date on your cover page (Spring 2008 is OK)
• Use tabs inside your portfolio to make the sections of your portfolio stand out and easy to navigate
  • While you will be adding the content of the portfolio throughout the quarter, include a complete set of labeled tabs from the start
  • You will need five tabs: (1) Proposal, (2) Conceptual Design, (3) Physical Design, (4) Oral Presentation, and (5) Design Critique
• Inside the Proposal Tab include three printouts (in this order)
  1. Your final proposal memorandum (one to two pages in length)
     • Find a printer with adequate toner and print it out neatly
     • You do not need to include your draft memorandum
  2. Your time log that details and totals your effort spent on this phase of the prototype project
     • A sample Excel spreadsheet is available for you to use
  3. Your peer assessment of your teammates' helpfulness in peer-reviewing and providing feedback on your project memorandum
     • For consistency, use this peer assessment form [PDF] with each phase of the project