Before AskTrip officially launched, we were fortunate to have a fantastic group of clinicians and information specialists who volunteered to beta test the system. Their feedback was invaluable in helping us identify problems, refine features, and improve the overall experience.

Now, nine months on, we’re preparing the next phase of development – and we’d love to recruit a new group of volunteer testers to help us put a series of upcoming changes through their paces.

Many of these improvements come directly from user feedback. Others reflect things we’ve learned from analysing real-world questions and usage patterns. Together, we believe they represent a significant step forward for AskTrip, but we need your help to make sure we get them right.

A step-wise testing approach

We expect testing to take place in stages.

We’re making some substantial changes, and asking users to test everything at once could be overwhelming. It also risks more subtle issues being missed. Instead, we plan to introduce updates in phases so testers can focus on specific features and give more targeted feedback.

The first stage will focus on new work designed to reduce intent drift and avoid what we’ve previously described as “EBM wallpaper” (see this blog post for a fuller explanation).

Later stages are likely to include testing:

  • Longer, more detailed answers
  • A refreshed design and user interface
  • A new follow-up question / “continue the conversation” feature

Overall, we anticipate up to three testing phases.

What’s involved?

Taking part won’t be onerous. We’ll simply ask you to use the system as you normally would and share your impressions. This might include:

  • Trying specific types of questions
  • Comparing responses with the current version
  • Flagging anything confusing, unhelpful, or particularly good

We also hope there’ll be an element of fun in being among the first to try new features — and in helping shape a tool designed to support evidence-based clinical decisions.

Interested?

If you’d like to be involved, please get in touch (email: jon.brassey@tripdatabase.com)


We’d be delighted to have you help us shape the next evolution of AskTrip.