Child Options, Layers, and Navigation

Child Options

Options can have children, and their children can have children, and so on. You can see how many direct children (not counting grand children) an option has by the number and arrow mark on the right side of the option.

We can view the children of an option by clicking on the highlighted area with the number and arrow on the right side of the option.

Layers

When we view the children of an option, that's called moving into a new "Layer". If we view the children of "Asset Composition", we'd now be seeing "Layer 2" options.

Going further, if we then view the children of "ETH" option (seen below), we'll be viewing "Layer 3" options. All options on the same layer are called "siblings".

None of these Layer 3 options have any children, because the right side of the option card is blank.

The Layer 1 options are the only options which cannot have a parent option. (No options above them) We also call this the "Root Layer" since these options are the root of the option tree.

Something important about the option tree is that the meaning of root option is defined dynamically by how the community ranks the order of the options nested within it.

The implications of this are massive. It means that a highly detailed preference matrix can emerge, from the community dynamically and continuously. This provides explicit decision space information (a map) to human contributors, smart contracts, or AI that can be referenced anytime they question what priorities the community has and what trade offs it's willing to make.

Navigation

So we know how to move into a layer, how do we go back up? How do we know what layer we're in? Let's answer those questions next.

Going back

To go back up a layer (from layer 2 to layer 1 or layer 3 to layer 2), you can simply click the large back button on the left side of the options. (See image below)

The back button takes up the whole left side next to the options. It can be clicked to go up one level.

Layer Navbar

What if you're buried 5 layers deep somewhere? 😵‍💫 How are you supposed to keep track of where you are? Without a visual indicator of where you are, you might notice that it can be confusing which layer you’re on.

Meet the Layer Navbar or ‘Navbar’ for short, it lets you know where you are within a MetaPoll at a glance.

You'll see from the image below that you are in the "ETH" layer looking at ETH's child options. "ETH" is within "Asset Composition" which is within the "Root layer"

Hopping over layers

Another handy thing the Navbar let's you do is to jump back instantly to any layer you can see by simply clicking where you want to go on the Navbar.

For example you could be 8 layers deep in MetaPoll and the moment you click on "Root layer" on the Navbar you can be instantly transported back to the Root layer.

The navbar is extremely helpful and can save you a lot of time, don't forget to use it!

Now you know all the basic skills you need to view the results of a MetaPoll. Great work! Next we're going to cover how to vote.