• a brief (1 or 2 paragraph) description of the project
• a brief (1 paragraph) description of the users of this project
• a brief (1 or 2 paragraph) discussion of why existing interfaces, widgets, or applications are inadequate (i.e., why is the project needed?). If no existing interface exists, mention this and justify the need for the interface.

Proposed User Interface Projects

The following lists of project suggestions are grouped by first name (in alphabetical order). Not all suggestions were made at once. Not all suggestions were made via e-mail.

The following were suggested by Brad.

• an interface that lets you put a sequential slide show together on the net to be seen by a basic browser
• a multimedia program that would let students practice writing their Russian characters
• something that does nothing, but just does it (interface for interface sake)

The following was suggested by Corey.

• a graphical interface for procmail

The following were suggested by David.

• a program to help manage links for a web site
• a program to convert mail archives into HTML pages multiply indexed and linked by date, subject, and author
• a program for managing a pizza business
• a program for helping manage group decisions (for groups of two or more people), with different types of decisions (establishing relative rankings, different types of majority rules (from one more than half to unanimous), and virtual auctions
• a program for helping beginning Linux users to configure their .fvwmrc files

The following were suggested by Jeff.

• a game like a game called Scorch (you launch missiles in a parabolic trajectory at your opponents)
• a CD player for a computer
• a utility to generate equations to be pasted in a word document
• a graphical interface for grep
• a graphical interface for chmod
• a remote text editor that runs on a local Microsoft Windows system and edits files on a remote system

The following was suggested by Quang.

• a simple wizard which functions as a tool for creating, sharing and collaborating Software Requirements Specification

Criteria for choosing a project

The following lists of project evaluation criteria are grouped by first name (in alphabetical order). Not all criteria were suggested at once. Not all suggestions were made via e-mail.

The following criteria were suggested by David.

• there should be users that have a clearly defined need
• the application should be novel (new or innovative)
• the application should be useful
• the application should be nontrivial (neither too simple nor too complex)
• the application should be explicable (we should be able to explain it and its utility with clarity)

The following criteria were suggested by Jeff.

• Can we write this program? (i.e. is the programming too complex, do we not have the development tools we need?)
• What platform should we use?
• Do we know anyone who will use this program?
• Are they willing to test our interface?
• Has the interface been done before?
• Can we do it better than any previous implementations?