Review of Proposal : “Demigod”

Proposal author: Matthew Smith (artintal@unm.edu)

Reviewer: Kellen Zelle (kzelle@unm.edu)

Part 1: Proposal restatement

The purpose of this project is to create a web application that users can use to keep track of and challenge themselves in the areas of physical fitness, nutrition, and mental acuity. The mission statement is “...every person should be able to reach the level of a ‘demigod’.”

Part 2: Reviewer reaction

This is a great idea to help increase the overall health of people. Combining various other app functions into a single webapp definitely increases desirability due to the convenience of it. The major problem that I have with this proposal is the sheer size of the task at hand: the companies that developed the apps mentioned in the proposal took way longer than a mere 11 weeks to develop. Also, it appears that this app would run purely on the ‘honor rule’ in which users have to be extremely honest to the app, and with themselves, to actually make use of the app in the way it was intended: It would be way too easy for user to cheat. There is also no convenience in the way of tracking, especially when it comes to physical activities, especially for running: users would most definitely need a fitness watch to keep track of distance traveled and speed. Another thing that I feel iffy about is the mental acuity tracking; it occurs to me that this is rather hard to do, especially if you’re only taking into account GPA/courses complete/Languages known etc. There needs to be some kind of standardized measurement, and deciding on what that is will be a large debate/challenge itself.

Part 3: Quantitative Scores

Format: 4

Formatting is good. Not much else to say.

Writing: 4

Writing is good overall; there are a few spelling/grammar mistakes.

Goals and tasks: 4

The goals are stated clearly and tasks are laid out in the timeline.

Scope: 3.8

It is clear what this product is meant to do. Though it should be more detailed on communication with other applications, and hardware such as fitness trackers.

Plausibility: 2.8

This would be a very scary project to undertake in 11 weeks if your life depended on it. There are so many facets of this this project that, if not fully fleshed out, will only detract from the overall product from shoddy functionality. The sheer size of what needs to be done really makes me think that this should be a project that has a timeline of a couple of years to bring everything up to a polished, user friendly state.

Novelty: 5

If this app is successfully created and polished, it will be the only one of its kind.

Stakeholder identification: 2

You should have a section on stakeholders. Sure, you mentioned users, and other developers, but you should have them in more detail that specify their relations to the project.

Support and impact: 3.5

Good detail on initial support plans: with asking for donations and having ads on the webapp. Though one thing you should consider is having a one-time donation/subscription to remove ads for that user.

Evidence: 3.5

Some use cases would go a long way in providing how a user would use the product.

Challenges and risks: 4

Good detail on possible challenges and technological limitations.