Following on from my creative activities of last week and supporting the stock price of Newell Brands, the people who make Sharpies, this week has emphasized structure over creativity.

A key element in the TIKI DAO Whitepaper is the ability for a user to submit proposals for changes to the DAO rules and regulations. And as the second pillar in the TIKI DAO governance structure, it is important that I spend time on this.

Let me walk you through my thought process.

Step 1

My initial thoughts were, that the proposal would be a text entry form. We have seen and used these types of forms every day and there are multiple examples in many apps.

My thinking was to use a dropdown list to select the type of proposal and this would automatically categorize the proposal and modify the flow for the proposal accordingly.

We figured that this was not the easiest way to do this, as the proposer had to generate a lot of text.

Step 2

My next thoughts were on how we map the story of how a user would submit a proposal.

Step A

The user is looking at the rules and regulations governing the DAO and wishes to make a change. This is done by clicking on the Edit icon.

Step B

This presents the user with two options, to edit the rules or to insert a new rule.

Step C

This opens a “word” editable type list of the rules and regulations. The user clicks the highlighted edit or add rule and is bought to a specific page of their choice.

Step D

This opens the rules for editing and presents the text in a pre-populated proposal to include the amended text and an automatically generated TIP number.

The text field to be completed by the user is the reasoning behind the change.

When the user clicks the submit button the proposal is automatically sent forward to the selection process.

Step E

This is the option for the user to add to the rules and regulations. The user is presented with the full-text version of the rules and regulations.

Step F

This is the proposal generation page.

The first thing the user must do is to show the specific section where they wish to insert a new section.

This would lead to a pre-populated proposal with two text fields, one for the new section, and another for the reasoning behind the new proposed section.

Step 3

I realized that these were basic text entries and workflows. With this in mind, I moved the development to GitHub, as this is in effect product development for the TIKI DAO.

My thinking changed following more research; I realized that there were in fact three options for change for a user:

1. Strike out words, sentences, or paragraphs

2. Insert (or add) words, sentences, or paragraphs

3. Strike out and insert (or substitute) words, sentences, or paragraphs

I dealt with each other three in a slightly different ways:

1. Strike out words, sentences, or paragraphs

If a user is looking to strike out words, sentences or paragraphs they will need to click edit.

This will bring them to a set of rules and regulations (This is a good example, the Wikimedia Foundation Rules and Regulations.)

The text will appear in a blue editable mode.

The user will highlight any text that they wish to strike out. They will click a button that says Save Edit.

This will open a New Proposal page.

The New Proposal page form will be pre-populated with the following:

1. A sequentially generated TIP number

2. The date and time of the edit

3. The authors name

4. The Title will be "Edit section 12.6.1"

5. A summary of the change will be the section with the text struck out with a red line.

6. A text box for the reason for the edit to be completed by the proposer. This will be a max of 300 characters.

7. A proposed change will show the amended text (rule & regulations) with the struck-out sections removed.

8. At the end of the form will be a submit button

2. Insert (or add) words, sentences, or paragraphs

If a user is looking to add words, sentences or paragraphs they will need to click edit.

This will bring them to a set of rules and regulations (This is a good example, the Wikimedia Foundation Rules and Regulations.)

The text will appear in a blue editable mode.

The user will highlight any point in the text where they wish to insert new text. They will click a button that says Save Edit.

This will open a New Proposal page.

The New Proposal page form will be pre-populated with the following:

1. A sequentially generated TIP number

2. The date and time of the edit

3. The authors name

4. The Title will be "Edit section 12.6.1"

5. A summary of the change will be in the section with the new text highlighted in yellow.

6. A text box for the reason for the edit to be completed by the proposer. This will be a maximum of 300 characters.

7. A proposed change will show the amended text (rules & regulations) with the new text inserted.

8. At the end of the form will be a submit button

3. Strike out and insert (or substitute) words, sentences, or paragraphs

If a user is looking to strike out and add words, sentences or paragraphs they will need to click edit.

This will bring them to a set of rules and regulations.

The text will appear in a blue editable mode.

The user will highlight any point in the text where they wish to strike out and insert new text. They will click a button that says Save Edit.

This will open a New Proposal page.

The New Proposal page form will be pre-populated with the following:

1. A sequentially generated TIP number

2. The date and time of the edit

3. The authors name

4. The Title will be "Edit section 12.6.1"

5. A summary of the change which will be the section with the struck-out text highlighted in red and new text highlighted in yellow

6. A text box for the reason for the edit to be completed by the proposer. This will be a max of 300 characters

7. A proposed change will show the amended text (rule & regulations)with the struck-out sections removed and the new text inserted

8. At the end of the form will be a submit button.

Step 4

We had a discussion about this and decided that it was overly complex and that I simplify the three options into one single option. This is the final option.

Editing or amending words, sentences, or paragraphs

If a user is looking to strike out and add words, sentences or paragraphs they will need to click edit.

This will bring them to a set of rules and regulations.

The text will appear in an editable mode similar to a Word Doc.

The user will highlight any point in the text where they wish to strike out edit or insert new text. They will click a button that says Save Edit.

This will open a New Proposal page.

The New Proposal page form will be pre-populated with the following:

1. A sequentially generated TIP number

2. The date and time of the edit

3. The authors name

4. The Title will be "Edit section 12.6.1"

5. A summary of the change which will be the section with the struck-out to edited text highlighted in red and new text highlighted in yellow

6. A text box for the reason for the edit to be completed by the proposer. This will be a max of 300 characters

7. A proposed change will show the amended text ( rule & regulations)with the struck-out or edited sections removed and the new text inserted

8. At the end of the form will be a Next button which will lead to a new proposal selection.

This is the format that we have agreed on for the proposal submission section of the DAO App.

In conclusion, the TIKI DAO whitepaper allows users to submit proposals for changes to the DAO rules and regulations, which is a key element in the governance structure.

We have walked through the thought process and concluded that there are three options for change: striking out, inserting, or striking out and inserting words, sentences or paragraphs.

Ultimately we decided on a simple solution, and like all simple solutions it takes a lot of work to make it look so simple.

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
― Henry David Thoreau