The Written Project Proposal is your initial constitution and framework stating your design goals, planning, and implementation strategies collectively determined as a team. It should give you a solid foundation to embark from, but your project will almost certainly change as you actually develop and construct it. The best written project proposals will be comprehensive, specific, and well thought out, addressing the many design elements and considerations you discovered in your research. The written proposal must also include each student’s role in the team, a clear specific statement indicating each individual contribution to the project.
Written Preliminary Proposal will include:
- a capstone name
- define the need or problem this capstone addresses (consider including problem statement graphic?)
- Describe the design basics: Why(it matters)/What (it does)/Who (will use it)/How (it works)
- Project Plan: What are the steps that will allow you to complete the design you’ve described above? When will each of these steps be completed, and how will you gauge your progress? How will you reflect on your project experience and share those reflections with others? What form will your final product take, and how will it be shared with the URcommunity/the world?
- identify currently existing similar products that you could draw from or improve upon. Make sure your capstone is NOT redundant.
- identify your users and stakeholders (based on your research so far) and describe how you will proceed to work with your users (i.e. researching user needs, preferences, and level of interest; expectations and timeframe for deliverables) (POVs, Empathy Maps can be included here)
- a detailed work plan going forward, identifying 1) the specific skills and resources you will need to acquire, 2) how you plan to acquire them, 3) roles and responsibilities of individual team members and 4) a realistic six-month schedule for research, design, production, and marketing/promotion/launch. (include October, November, December – and generally Jan, Feb, March, April)
Please post to Blackboard before the start of the next class.
Here’s a link to the slide deck: Proposals
A reminder that the community partners also provided their slide decks.