Member Voting UX Charter v1.0

Status: v1.0 draft. This Charter establishes the design principle for Member voting UX on Circlworld: tick-box default + deep-dive opt-in. The platform’s existing proposal + deliberation infrastructure is preserved; what changes is what a Member sees first.

Preamble

Circlworld has built rich constitutional infrastructure for Member governance — proposals, deliberation, bylaws-amendment diffs, audit-event trails, tally history. This infrastructure exists for good reason: Member self-governance of Circles is the platform’s organising principle, and the rich infrastructure makes deliberation possible for Members who want depth.

But most Members do not want depth most of the time. Most Members are here to save money together. Forcing them through deliberation interfaces to participate in routine governance — voting yes or no on a parameter change, an admission, a cycle extension — is a UX burden that could put Members off using the platform entirely. The deeper architecture is a strength only if it does not become the default cost of participation.

This Charter codifies the resolution. The default Member-voting UX is a simple yes/no tick-box. The deliberation infrastructure remains, one click away, for Members who want to engage with depth. Both audiences are served: the Member who wants to vote quickly and get on with their week, and the Member who wants to read the bylaws diff, the deliberation thread, and the audit-event trail.

Section 1 — The design principle

1.1 Tick-box default

The default surface for Member voting is a tick-box: title + one-sentence summary + Yes / No / (optionally Abstain) buttons + close-window indicator. Submitting the vote takes a few seconds. The Member does not need to read more than the summary to vote.

The tick-box is the SimpleVoteCard component, surfaced on:

(a) The Member’s aggregate pending-votes page at /me/pending-votes — every pending vote from every Circle the Member is in, in one place.

(b) The Member’s main dashboard, where a pending-votes count + CTA surfaces when the Member has any pending votes.

(c) Optionally at the top of any deep proposal page (the deep page already exists at /circles/[id]/proposals/[propId]) so Members who land there directly can still tick-box if they choose.

1.2 Deep-dive opt-in

The deeper deliberation surface — the existing /circles/[id]/proposals/[propId] — is preserved unchanged in substance. It surfaces:

(a) The full proposal text.

(b) The bylaws-amendment diff (for bylaws_amendment proposals).

(c) The deliberation / reasoning threads.

(d) The vote tally history.

(e) Other Members’ submitted reasons (where they elected to attach reasons to their votes).

(f) The audit-event trail.

Every tick-box card links to the deep page via a “Read full proposal + deliberation” link. The Member chooses depth.

1.3 Same backend

Both surfaces submit votes via the same proposalApi.vote(proposalId, { decision }) endpoint. The tick-box is a thinner UX over the same governance infrastructure. The vote a Member casts via tick-box is constitutionally identical to a vote cast via the deep page. The Charter does not create two classes of vote — it creates two surfaces over one vote.

Section 2 — What this Charter does NOT do

2.1 Does not remove deliberation

The deep proposal page remains, fully featured. Members who want to read deliberation threads, see prior amendments, inspect the audit-event trail, attach a reason to their vote — can. The deep page is one click away from every tick-box. The Charter codifies the default for Members who want simple participation; it does not remove the option for depth.

2.2 Does not change the constitutional voting rules

Quorum thresholds, supermajority requirements, voting-window length, voter eligibility, vote-confidentiality discipline — all unchanged. This Charter is purely about the UX layer; the governance infrastructure underneath is unchanged.

2.3 Does not weaken bylaws-amendment procedures

Bylaws amendments still require their constitutional vote (supermajority, notice period, etc.). The tick-box surfaces the same proposal that the deep page surfaces; the Member chooses how much to read before voting; the vote that lands is the same.

2.4 Does not eliminate reason-attachment

Members may still attach reasons to their votes via the deep page. The tick-box does not surface a reason field (would defeat its purpose); a Member who wants to attach a reason clicks “Read full proposal + deliberation” and submits there.

Section 3 — Scope

3.1 Applies to ALL routine Member voting

The tick-box default applies to:

(a) Bylaws amendments (Platform Default Bylaws-style supermajority votes at the Circle level).

(b) Member admissions (where the Circle’s bylaws require Member vote).

(c) Cycle parameter changes (cycle extension, contribution-amount change within bylaws bounds).

(d) Treasurer replacement (where the Circle’s bylaws permit Member-vote replacement).

(e) Lending Committee elections (already operates on a simple-approval mechanism per the Lending Center brief).

(f) CPR rate adjustments above the 10% floor.

(g) Any other Circle-level governance vote.

(h) Treasurer Council elections (the public candidate register + STV ballot at /dashboard/treasurer/council-vote already follows a simplified pattern — the SimpleVoteCard pattern is consistent).

(i) Tier-progression Member attestations (already follow the tick-box pattern per the Treasurer Tier Progression Charter v1.0).

3.2 Does not apply to

(a) Dispute Settlement Centre proceedings. DSC mediation + adjudication has its own procedure with reasoned written engagement; the tick-box is not appropriate.

(b) Selection Committee proceedings. Same — material proceedings require procedural protections, not tick-box.

(c) Platform-level constitutional amendments. Amendments to the Platform Default Bylaws, the Service Fee Framework, etc. operate at platform scale with their own consultation + ratification procedures.

3.3 Discoverability

The tick-box default is discoverable from:

(a) The Member dashboard — pending-votes count with CTA when non-zero.

(b) Email notifications — when a new proposal opens, the Member receives a notification with a direct deep-link to either /me/pending-votes (tick-box) or the deep proposal page (whichever the Member has set as their preference; default: tick-box).

(c) The Pulse — Circle-level vote-opens surface as Pulse events; the link from a Pulse event lands on the tick-box.

(d) The Circle’s proposals list at /circles/[id]/proposals — pending votes the Member hasn’t cast on yet are surfaced with the tick-box affordance inline.

Section 4 — Why this matters

4.1 Participation accessibility

The constitutional architecture only achieves its purpose if Members participate. A Circle where 80% of Members never vote is not a self-governing Circle; it is a Circle governed by the 20% who navigated the UX. The tick-box default raises participation by lowering the participation cost.

4.2 Member retention

Members who feel the platform is burdensome stop using it. A Member who returns to the platform once a month for their cycle contribution and finds three unread proposals demanding deliberation engagement is a Member who may decide the platform is not for them. The tick-box default makes those three proposals a 30-second task, not a 30-minute one.

4.3 Deliberation quality

Surprisingly, the tick-box default may improve deliberation quality. Members who want to engage with depth self-select onto the deep page; their reasons attached to votes are more considered. The deep page is not diluted by Members who would rather not be there.

4.4 Aligns with Member identity

Circlworld’s organising principle is that Members are here to save money together — not to become constitutional scholars. The tick-box surfaces what the Member came for (their Circle’s vote) without requiring them to become what they did not come to be (a deliberator). The deep page is there for Members who choose to become that.

Section 5 — What displays in the tick-box

5.1 Required fields

Every tick-box card surfaces:

(a) Circle name + proposal type as eyebrow (small caps, secondary purple).

(b) Close-window indicator — “X days remaining” — without becoming a countdown clock that creates time pressure.

(c) Title — the question being voted on, in display typography.

(d) One-sentence summary — what the change is, in plain language. The summary is authored by the proposal creator and is the first thing the Member sees; it must be honest and clear. The proposal-creation flow validates that the summary is genuine plain language (not a leading question, not a slogan).

(e) Yes / No buttons — equally weighted visually (green-bordered Yes, red-bordered No, identical size). Abstain may optionally be surfaced; defaults off because abstain rarely changes outcomes on a binary vote.

(f) “Read full proposal + deliberation” link — the escape hatch.

5.2 What is NOT displayed in the tick-box

(a) The full proposal text.

(b) The bylaws-amendment diff.

(c) Other Members’ votes or reasons.

(d) Vote tally so far (would create bandwagon dynamics — the Member should attest their own view, not follow the count).

(e) The proposer’s identity (visible on the deep page; not surfaced on the tick-box so the Member judges the proposal on its merits, not on who proposed it).

(f) The Member’s prior votes on similar matters.

(g) AI-generated summaries or recommendations (would let CirclAI’s framing colour the Member’s vote — Inviolable Principle 1).

5.3 Plain-language discipline

Proposal authors must write the one-sentence summary in plain language. The proposal-creation flow includes guidance + examples. Where a proposal’s summary is unclear, jargon-heavy, or leading, the platform may flag it for revision before the voting window opens. The platform does not edit the substance; it requires the summary be legible.

Section 6 — Adoption

6.1 Implementation phasing

(a) Phase 1 (immediate on adoption): SimpleVoteCard component shipped; /me/pending-votes aggregate surface live; dashboard CTA surfaces pending count.

(b) Phase 2 (within 30 days of adoption): Proposal-creation flow updated to require a plain-language one-sentence summary at creation; existing open proposals are surfaced via tick-box with their existing title + description as summary.

(c) Phase 3 (within 60 days of adoption): Tick-box affordance added to the top of the deep proposal page at /circles/[id]/proposals/[propId] so Members who arrive there directly can still tick-box.

(d) Phase 4 (within 90 days of adoption): Email-notification + Pulse-event deep-linking routes default to the tick-box surface; Member can change the preference in /settings/notifications.

6.2 Reversibility

If telemetry reveals the tick-box default is producing lower-quality votes (large drop in vote-aligned-with-deep-page-readers; high “regret” signals; significant rate of vote-reversal requests), the platform retains the right to make the deep page the default. Telemetry is published quarterly at the Pedagogy / governance review.

Section 7 — Amendment

This Charter may be amended through the standard amendment procedure (Treasurer Council consultation + Town Hall ratification, supermajority threshold).