In this article, you will find all the basic setup information needed to quickly configure an Ethelo Decision project. If you would like to take the full course tutorial, you can find it here.
Table of contents
- What is Ethelo?
- Basic Ethelo Terminology
- Access to Admin Panel
- Admin Panel Navigation
- Basic Ethelo Decision Pages
- Info Page
- Survey Page
- Voting Page
- Results Pages
- Managing Appearance
- Managing Participants
What is Ethelo?
Ethelo is a collaboration technology designed for solving multi-factor decision problems, particularly when issues are contentious and there is a requirement for fairness.
In the realm of decision-making, complexity often reigns, unveiling not merely dozens but, at times, even hundreds of thousands or millions of distinct potential outcomes. This intricate landscape becomes evident when dissecting a decision into its diverse components, exploring various issues, and exhaustively considering options to tackle those issues.
The Ethelo platform is able to model highly complex decisions and can be configured to reflect key issues and options, as well as criteria, constraints, interdependencies among options, and other decision factors. It's versatile enough to embody diverse levels of stakeholder investment or influence in the decision-making process.
Stakeholders invited to participate in solving a problem visit the platform where they learn about the decision. Each participant can discuss the options with other participants and add ideas. They are able to identify their favorite outcome by evaluating the options against one or more criteria, weighing priorities, and making tradeoffs. Each stakeholder receives real-time feedback from the platform as they develop solutions that will satisfy the financial and logistical design constraints.
When stakeholders convene to address a collective challenge, they converge on the platform to familiarize themselves with the decision at hand. Here, participants can engage in dialogues, exchange ideas, and deliberate upon options. Their engagement extends to evaluating options against multiple criteria, negotiating priorities, and striking the right balance through trade-offs, all in pursuit of identifying their preferred outcome. As stakeholders immerse themselves, real-time insights from the platform guide their exploration, ensuring alignment with financial and logistical design constraints that might have been configured, depending on the kind of decision that is being made.
Ethelo analyses the responses of each participant to predict the distribution of support across each actionable scenario. Ethelo then finds strong decision outcomes, looking not only for high average support levels but, when fairness is important, outcomes that will minimize polarization. It uses advanced non-linear optimization techniques to find the best decision outcomes in seconds.
Ethelo analyses each participant's inputs, leveraging them to forecast the distribution of support across various actionable scenarios. Ethelo then finds strong decision outcomes but the platform doesn't stop at seeking high average support; it delves deeper, pursuing outcomes that mitigate polarization—vital when fairness is a priority. Drawing upon advanced non-linear optimization techniques, Ethelo swiftly pinpoints optimal decision outcomes.
Ethelo draws upon a growing body of research studies that shows people will (a) reject unfair outcomes even when they would otherwise benefit, and (b) support personally unsatisfactory outcomes because they perceive the process to have been fair. This powerful phenomenon, which scientists in sociology and behavioral economics call “inequity aversion,” is documented in a number of famous experiments.
Through an in-depth examination of crucial factors like individual contentment and collective resistance, Ethelo gauges the strength of potential group decisions. It doesn't merely stop at analysis—it offers objective, intelligent recommendations, charting courses of action within intricate, multi-faceted scenarios where the interest of a large stakeholder collective must be fairly balanced.
Basic Ethelo terminology
Ethelo Decision - we call an Ethelo project a "Decision". Ethelo Decisions include surveys or voting projects or a combination of both.
Issues or Topics - Issues refer to a general breakdown of a Decision into topic categories. Issues can be thought of as buckets within which specific proposals or “Options” are contained.
Options - An Option is a specific action, policy, or proposal, which can be implemented as a part or facet of an overall decision. They are not whole decisions in themselves, but discrete and possibly abstract components that are candidates for describing some aspect of a final decision. “Options” are categorized as “belonging” to an Issue.
Scenario or Outcomes - a Scenario is some set of options that satisfies all the decision constraints; essentially that it be both logically and practically possible.
In an Ethelo Decision, there are generally many options that are presented. Not all of these options need to be mutually consistent; some are alternatives to each other. For example, there may be an overarching limit on the number of options that can appear together, or constraints such as cost and budget that limit which combinations of options can appear together in the final outcome.
The set of Scenarios for a given set of options are all the potential combinations of options and the final scenario or outcome is the set of options that meet all the constraints and has the broadest support of participants.
Have a quick glance at an example Ethelo Decision Project to familiarize yourself with the above terms as well as the feel and look of an Ethelo project. As you browse, make a note to locate the above terminology on the example project: Ethelo Decision Project
Access to Admin Panel
Once an Ethelo Decision project has been created for you, access to the Admin Panel will be provided and you can start configuring your customized project.
To access the Admin Panel and configure your Ethelo Decision, either:
- Click on the top-right of the browser of your project where the Admin name will be located and select "Configure". This will take you to the Pages section of the Admin Panel from here you can navigate anywhere in the Admin Panel and make changes.
OR
- Click on the top-right of the browser where the Admin name will be located and select "Go to Editing Mode". This will unlock "Editing mode" which gives your browser direct access to the specific section of the Admin Panel you would like to configure. You can do this by clicking on the gear icon highlighted in green, which will take you to that specific section of the Admin Panel.
Admin Panel Navigation
The Admin Panel is divided into sections located on the LHS of the screen. Each section plays an important role in making your own customized Ethelo Decision project.
Each Admin Panel section comes with a drop-down menu where you can access the different components of a particular section and make the necessary configuration.
Here is how it looks:
Basic Ethelo Decision Pages
From an administrator's perspective, an Ethelo Decision project can be thought of as a set of various types of Pages where participants can engage on. Each page fulfills a certain function and together all the pages support the configuration design of a particular Ethelo Decision.
The administrator can design their Decision to match their objectives and construct the kind of consultation experience they would like participants to have. The flexibility of the platform allows for the configuration of a diverse set of Decisions, ranging from simple surveys to complex budgeting decisions.
To configure the kind of Decision they envision, administrators have a set of pages they can use. Below is a set of basic Ethelo Pages that are used in most Ethelo Decisions.
Info Page
The Info Page is for building your own custom content which is often used to provide background information that explains the relevant context that participants need in order to appropriately engage on the platform.
Note that no voting or surveys are present on this page.
Follow this path to access Info Page:
Pages >Create an Info Page by selecting the page type "Info Page" and click Next at the bottom of the page.
Survey Page
The Survey Page is for creating your own customized survey page. On this page you can edit the survey title, URL identifier, and the background information participants will need before filling out your survey.
Note: the actual survey questions and possible answers are not customized on this page yet.
Before creating a Survey Page you will first need to configure a Survey Question Group and the Survey Questions associated with it. This can be done by clicking Surveys on the Admin Panel menu and navigating to the two sections.
Learn more about configuring these two sections :
Once you have configured the above two sections, follow t path to configure the Survey Page:
Pages >Create or Pages >Edit a Survey Page by selecting the page type “Survey Page” and clicking Next at the bottom of the page.
Voting Page
The Voting page is for creating a specific kind of voting page that enables participants to vote on every Option in a Topic. On this page, you can customize the background content, which gives an overview of the options being voted on, as well as customize the sidebars and comments settings.
Note that the actual associated Options and Option Topics cannot be customized on this page.
You can customize Options and the associated Option Topics by clicking on Voting on the left-hand side of the Admin Panel menu, then clicking on Options or Option Topics.
Follow this path to access the Topic Voting Page:
Pages >Create a Topic Voting page by selecting the page type “Topic Voting” and clicking Next at the bottom of the page.
To dive deeper into Ethelo voting, find more information here: Voting
Result Pages
There are two kinds of Result Pages: Survey Results and Voting Results
Survey Results
The Survey Results page displays graphs that allow participants to view how the group as a whole answered the survey questions. On this page, you can customize the content that participants will see, such as the title, URL identifier and background information.
The actual Survey results will be automatically added once this page is created and updated.
Voting Pages
The Voting Results Page is where your participant voting data really comes together. You can customize some content that will appear in the center, as well as a custom sidebar for this page.
- Configuration:
Follow this path to access the Voting Results Page:
Pages >Create or Pages >Edit a Group Results Page by selecting the page type Group Results and clicking Next at the bottom of the page.
Click the Settings tab.
The Base Settings allow you to choose which primary Ethelo score is highlighted on this Group Results Page, and in what order.
Managing Appearance
The Ethelo platform is highly customizable to fit your brand's style of presentation. In the Appearance section of the admin panel, you can begin to configure your preferred background colors, font, logos, custom CSS coding, and much more.
To dive deeper into managing the look and feel of your project, find more information here: Appearance
Managing Participants
Ethelo allows for personalized participants' invites, moderation, management of registration and more.
To dive deeper into the management of participants, find more information here: Participants
Thank you for taking the time to learn about Ethelo Decisions!
If you would like to access a more in-depth tutorial, find it here: Ethelo Tutorial