We recently received some thoughtful, and slightly concerning, feedback about AskTrip’s answer-confidence display.

A clinician asked about radiation therapy for osteoarthritis. AskTrip’s Clinical Bottom Line was cautious:

Limited and indirect evidence exists regarding the use of radiation therapy for osteoarthritis, particularly in the shoulder, suggesting it remains investigational rather than mainstream treatment.

Alongside this, however, the answer-confidence graphic displayed a green box labelled “Good.”

The clinician and a medical student initially interpreted the green as indicating that AskTrip was more supportive of radiation therapy than another evidence tool they were comparing it with. It took them a little while to realise that the green referred to confidence in AskTrip’s cautious answer, not support for the intervention itself.

This raises an interesting design problem. Most of us have learned to interpret green as “go,” “positive” or “recommended.” Even when the accompanying labels say something different, that immediate visual impression may dominate, particularly when someone is scanning an answer quickly.

We are therefore wondering whether our confidence graphic is communicating what we intended. Would a neutral colour work better? Should “Answer Confidence” become “Confidence in this evidence summary”? Or should the evidence base and answer quality be presented separately without an overall green rating?

We would be interested to hear from other AskTrip users: does the current display make sense to you, or could you also interpret green as endorsing the treatment?