Catalyst Proposal Assistant [SDA]

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

A proposal assistant that uses game-like proposal writing & assessing experience, resulting in a proposal collaboration space that focuses on ‘quality’ over ‘quantity’.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Founder Social Design Academy [Website] 24 yr. UX/UI [Li], Instructional Designer & Digital Governance Innovator. Funded F6: In-wallet Onboarding for ADAholders; Combining utility, education, and hospitality in a chat-like interface, making Cardano ready for family and friends

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Where are we now?

The current funding rounds are stressful for proposers because it keeps them from doing their work efficently. Every three months they need to switch or disrupt their activities because there is a funding round coming up. 

The linear and competition-based Catalyst process of proposal writing, assessment, and voting, silos people in the Catalyst ecosystem [1], making it even harder for groups to collaborate.

“For years, the application of user-centered and human-centered design advocated by so many has often separated people from ecosystems. Now, designers must start to address people as part of an ecosystem rather than at the center of everything. This means designing for two sets of values: personal and collective.” — Fjord Trends 2020 (Fjord, 2020) [1]  

Ideascale has no built-in collaboration tools. This forces proposers to use tools like google docs and other collaborative text editors, creating a lot of extra overhead.

The outcome of this silo-ed design approach is that we separate people into groups (proposers, assessors, and voters) blocking our potential to boost collaboration between stakeholder groups. The user-centered and human-centered design doesn’t work for this kind of system, we must see people as part of the ecosystem, and not the center of everything.

“A full 80% of respondents believe systems will interact seamlessly with humans, and 78% think these systems will embrace the way humans work.” — Accenture’s Future Systems (Burden, et al., 2019) [2]

This is the main reason why we will use System Design for the Proposal Assistant, as it connects Catalyst members in meaningful ways.

Where do we want to go?

Imagine a gamified Proposal Assistant that allows you to do meaningful sessions that last 5-10min instead of weeks to progress towards a quality proposal.

UX Storyline Example - Input for an iterative design session

• You open up the Proposal Assistant app and see that 5 people have graded your problem statement.
• You swipe right to open up the results and see an overview of feedback.
• You see 4 text replies and 1 audio message.
• You spend ‘x’ amount of time with 1 friend and 3 anonymous community members to improve the problem statement. (you bounce your problem statement through the network)
• You rate the feedback you received and the support received by the anonymous community members.
• You move on to work on the next section of your proposal with the same steps.

Note: Above is an example of input for iterative design work. By using this input to show visual design iterations to all actors in the network, we slowly progress towards a quality system.

A new Iterative Design process makes people part of the system design. 

The above-mentioned process is called an Iterative Design process and it results in a proposal writing and assessment system with an interactive workflow that benefits all stakeholders at the same time. After a session, the work is done, and no artificial work, tools, or external systems need to be used to progress.

The Iterative design process tracks and rewards collaborative efforts of all actors, and combines writing, assessing & voting into one seamless experience. 

The result - A stress-free safe and collaborative environment where all actors (proposer, assessor, and voters) come together, raising the participation of all stakeholder groups and driving adoption of the Cardano ecosystem.

Catalyst is in serious need of System Thinking while introducing serious play for better results.

New Incentive Models

Another important factor in creating a collaborative environment is finding proper incentive solutions. For creating an incentive structure, one or more elements in the value pyramid will be taken into consideration.

Based on the live class findings, we iterate the UI designs.

We will research the following topics for our iterative design approach using:

• IDENTIFY PRODUCT SEGMENTS - To be able to design effectively we need to identify the different segments that make up our application, this is ongoing work during the iterative design process. (Eg. Homescreens, Proposal Modules, Grading modules, ...) 

• INCENTIVE RESEARCH - In our live classes we will conduct incentive brainstorms that meet the demands of the participants. We will use the value pyramid to channel the thought process.

• WRITING RESEARCH - We take the current Ideascale proposal templates and break them down into proposal modules that support your writing effort.

• GRADING RESEARCH- We link specific grading modules to proposal modules (Simple -5|+5, open feedback, quality sliders for example), by doing rubric desk research for proposal segments.

• INSIGHT DOCUMENTATION - We take the output of the research work as input for the next iteration of our UI design. We document insights gathered in social design sessions and create a visual progression of our UI design on a Miro board and in Invision, a visual collaboration tool link: http://invision.com

• Potential Proposal Assistant Features:
• Setup your team (Preselect co-writers)
• Build-in grant writing tips
• Focus on quality not deadline
• Dynamic 'continuous feedback’ on specific proposal building blocks (eg. feedback based on impact, feasibility & auditability), so everybody can help teams write better proposals.
• Export into IdeaScale with 1-click
• Create social collaborations around proposal writing through the proposal Assistant app in the Social AppStore

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

We believe that we can improve the user experience in the Catalyst ecosystem in the following areas:

• Increase adoption by introducing new incentive models, and 5-10 minute sessions.
• Reducing stress by increasing quality feedback loops that can be picked up by people in downtime periods.
• Reimaging collaborative proposal writing 
• Inviting experts into the Proposal Assistant 
• New incentive structures that attract users to the ecosystem
• Seamless, fluid, stress-free interactions
• Combing reason & play for better outcomes

Our research findings and our iterative design approach will play a key role in innovating the way we work as groups, how we collect feedback, and accelerate ecosystem maturity.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

One of the risks that most research projects face is a lack of research subjects.

Social Design attracts curious people that want to learn and participate, therefore we have access to a lot of cognitive diversity, helping us create better software that drives adoption.

To have access to more professional proposal assessors we plan on creating a reward system to participate in research classes.

Through this reward system, we will not only be attracting research subjects from the community but also understand how dynamic reward systems play a part in the process of proposal creation and evaluation.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Approach description:

Preparation for Iterative Design Sessions:

During the first two weeks, we start the process by creating UI designs based on our understanding of the needs of proposers, assessors, and voters. Then we prepare materials for live classes, to test the UI, get feedback & understand the process of proposal creation & assessments in a distributed workflow. The next step is to invite peer groups to participate in the research. We do this through open invites on Discord, Socials, and Catalyst Town Hall.

The Iterative Design Process:

In the third week, we conduct our first live class and collect insights on how proposal creation & assessments happen in a collaborative system. We also collect feedback on the UI designs we created in the first two weeks.

Then we publicly document the feedback and process the data received during the live class.

During week 4, we use these insights to iterate the UI design, and in week 5, we take these designs back for another round of feedback.

This Iterative design process is repeated from week 3 through week 12, where we alternate Live classes & Design sessions.

Total Time for Completion: (12 weeks)

Pre-class Preparation:

• Setting up miro boards for teams. (3-5 people)
• Asking our partner networks for participants. (open to all)
• Sample collaborative writing and assessing invite for the peer group
• https://discord.com/channels/826440208924016670/826440208924016673/984767092026912828
• Select 15 professional proposal assessors (form the Catalyst united server)
• Prepare 4 live classes/workshop

Creating co-design programs: 

Group A - Live Class/Research participants - Preparation 

• Collaborative, module-based proposal writing & assessing
• Discussions around rating systems
• Discussions around incentive structures
• Assessment rating sessions
• 15min recordings of guided feedback sessions after the classes.

Group B - UI Design group - Iterative Design Session 

• Start UI Design based on the current IdeaScale proposal template.
• Take input from live classes to a design session.
• Compound effort and insight into design iterations, and create engagement and excitement by showing bi-weekly design solutions
• Setup other collaborative proposal writing tests (with spreadsheet and linked gdocs.

Every alternate week, Group A and Group B meet in a live class/research session. After the live session, Group B creates UI designs based on the inputs received. These sessions keep alternating for 8 weeks.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Check our Proposal Assistant Budget/Roadmap spreadsheet for a precise overview. 

The social design workflow for Proposal Assistant is divided into four different parts:

1. One-time Preparation for the Iterative design cycles

Iterative Design Cycles:

1. Pre-class Preparation (Done before every live class, repeated four times)
2. Group A: Peer group sessions (Repeated five times)
3. Group B: Design sessions (Repeated five times) 

One-time Preparation for Iterative Design Cycles:

• Application Brainstorm (12 hours)
• Marketing the live classes through partner communities, discord, townhall & catalyst united invites to assemble peer group 30 (30 hours)
• Start UI Design based on the current IdeaScale proposal template. (40 hours)

Pre-class Preparation:

• Setting up & designing Miro Board for Live sessions: 4 hours 

(4 x 4sessions = 16hrs)

• Setup other collaborative proposal writing tests (with spreadsheet and linked gdocs: 3 hours 

( 3 hours x 4 sessions = 12 hours)

Group A: Live Class Participants

• Collaborative, module-based proposal writing & assessing
• Discussions around rating systems
• Discussions around incentive structures
• 15min recordings of guided feedback sessions after the classes.

Total Time/session = 75mins

75mins x 5 ~= 7 hours

Group B: Designers

• Take input from live classes to a design session.
• Compound effort and insight into design iterations, and create engagement and excitement by showing bi-weekly design solutions
• Documentation of Product Segments

25 hours/week

25 x 5 = 125 hrs

At $45/hour for instructors & Designers = $11,610

Peer Group 30: Participation rewards

A maximum of $50/research subject = $1,500

Total Budget: $ 13,110

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Niels Kijf - Founder of Social Design Academy 

Responsibilities: Niels - UX 3.0 Instructor | Exercise/Workflow Designer | UX&UI Designer | Partner Outreach

Niels (Master Digital Media Design, Oxford) is a social technology innovator. He started the Social Design Academy to deliver UX 3.0 education. Our current software design is still targeting the individual, yet web3 is designing shared experiences for groups, a fresh new field that needs a new educational program and technology stack. Leveling up UX into Social UX is one of the SDA missions for 2022 and beyond.

Portfolio | Linkedin

Harsha Gullapalli - UI/UX designer, Digital Storyteller & Educator 

Responsibilities: Social UX Instructor Candidate | UX&UI Designer | QA

B.Tech in Production Engineering, MFA in Digital Cinema Harsha started his career in educational product design and then transitioned to UI/UX design. He is an ardent believer in collective genius and this led him to join the blockchain revolution. After having understood SDA's goals, he joined in their mission to reconfigure web3 UX and unlock the highest potential of human collaboration. He has been a part of the Cardano ecosystem for 2+ years and is a part of DAOs Love Cardano CT team for F9.

Linkedin

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

The main goal of this proposal is that an iterative design approach helps us find new directions for decentralized ecosystems, the design output is important but secondary. 

We hope that we can bring a first version of the UI design together, but we might need additional funding to do so. If we can prove that we speed up innovation by using iterative design and research live classes we believe this is worth your investment.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Metrics

1. Peer group attendance (Totals, bi-weekly)
2. Iterative Design Quality, as graded by peer group. (Monthly Rating using System Usability Scale)
3. Qualitative Analysis of proposal assessor Feedback (4-5 times)
4. UI Design output, Tracked monthly (Proof of Production)

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success is demonstrating that using an iterative design process between live classes and design sessions creates more meaningful participation in the catalyst ecosystem.

The final UI design is the quantifiable result of the process.

By using an iterative design process that uses findings in 2-week cycles, we demonstrate to the catalyst community that we can work towards novel design approaches within weeks, instead of months or even years.

Educating the community on how social iterative design leads to compounded insights into design solutions, cost-cutting, and increasing development speed.

Introducing Catalyst UI Design Circles innovation that creates engagement and excitement around novel proposal writing solutions.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

No

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

SDG subgoals:

Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

#proposertoolsdg