TrialAssure has had a busy year so far in building and maintaining clinical trial transparency software. From launching ANONYMIZE to software updates for REGISTRY 2.5, our organization is constantly innovating and creating tools that best fit the needs of sponsors. TrialAssure’s secret to innovation, however, is quite simple—we value sponsor feedback.
It may not sound revolutionary, but simply listening to our clients to build stronger clinical trial transparency software is the foundation for effective innovation.
Improving the user interface
When upgrading software, sponsor feedback is used to improve the user interface. End users have unique perspectives that designers may initially overlook.
For instance, the design team decides to include a filter to narrow down a list of options by default, however, everyday users find that they are frequently toggling it off to access information. Although it was designed to be helpful in theory, the extra click was actually burdening users in practice.
Systems are never used by every user exactly as the designer anticipate, and it does not mean that people are using it wrong. At TrialAssure, we find it important to never lose sight of that and continue to gather feedback from all types of end users.
How feedback is gathered
To gather sponsor feedback, our teams use four approaches, depending on the client, as follows.
- First, and perhaps the simplest method, is to have an open, informal discussion with the sponsor on what they like and dislike. Typically, sponsors freely express their ideas and appreciate the involvement.
- Second, watching the sponsors interact with the system gives the team valuable user experience information. For instance, it may be noticed that users are missing a certain function, find a training opportunity, or discover a certain design is counterproductive.
- Third, when possible, the team establishes a user group community to gain multiple perspectives on the clinical trial transparency software. Members in the user community can learn from each other, which can lead to improved design.
- Finally, using a structured survey is an effective method to spur discussion.
After the team logs all feedback as “enhancements” in the development log, the team evaluates each item in terms of business value, complexity, potential impact, and development effort. Then, each item is assigned an overall priority score. This process assists in providing a blueprint for the next iteration of the clinical trial transparency software.
Depending on the feature, TrialAssure gives sponsors greater creative freedom in the software suite’s evolution. If a client has a certain vision, we are more than happy to include them in iterative design sessions to gather more feedback. While working with a single client provides us with a wealth of information, it’s also important to keep other users and clients in mind too.
Avoid tunnel vision by thinking of each user’s needs, not just a single user.
Most companies make efforts to understand consumer needs, and some just do it better than others. At TrialAssure, we’re open in engaging our end users and actively encouraging feedback. We listen to complaints, and we don’t simply provide instruction on how things should be done, we consider how things should be designed. There lies a big difference. We collaborate with sponsors during the development process, which engages both parties to develop the most effective software possible.
