betterday

Private beta

Tester guide

Thank you for helping test BetterDay. We want to understand whether it is easy to use repeatedly, provides useful early reflections and might be valuable to people in future. This is not a test of health outcomes.

What BetterDay is designed to do

BetterDay is designed to help you build a clearer picture of your everyday wellbeing. It brings together the information you choose to record—such as sleep, mood, meals, hydration, movement, and readings from wearables or other devices, including conventional or smart scales—to support reflection, highlight personal patterns over time and suggest small everyday “experiments”.

These experiments are intended to raise awareness and help you explore what may support improvements in your wellbeing. BetterDay does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition, assess or promise medical outcomes, or provide medical advice. Its observations and suggestions should not replace advice from a qualified healthcare professional.

You do not need to log every day perfectly. Natural use—including missed days and returning later—is useful feedback.

What this beta does not promise

BetterDay is an early private web beta based mainly on manual logging. Camera or photo entry, Apple Health integration, native push notifications, an App Store release and any particular delivery date are not promised.

Participation is voluntary and unpaid. You may stop at any time.

Save BetterDay to your Home Screen

iPhone or iPad

1. Open the BetterDay link in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button—the square with an upward arrow.
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Check that the name says BetterDay, then tap Add.

Android phone or tablet

1. Open the BetterDay link in Chrome.
2. Tap the menu—usually the three dots.
3. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
4. Follow the instructions shown on your device.

Computer

Bookmark BetterDay in your usual browser. Some browsers may also show an Install option. You can always continue using the web link without installing it.

When signed into the same invited account, saved history and onboarding choices should restore in another browser or installed Home Screen context. If they do not, stop and report the problem without emailing screenshots containing health information.

Before you begin

• Gareth will confirm by WhatsApp or another agreed method which email address you should use. Only that confirmed email address has access to BetterDay.
• Do not enter names, contact details, diagnoses, medication or other identifying or medical information in meal descriptions.
• Use ordinary information or made-up examples if you would prefer.
• Do not share sign-in codes.
• If anything makes you uncomfortable, stop and tell Gareth.

What we would like you to try

You do not need to complete these in one sitting or in a particular order. Please use BetterDay naturally while trying each of the following at least once:

• Sign in using the code sent to your invited email address.
• Confirm that you are aged 18 or over, then make the separate health-data consent choice. If BetterDay updates an important consent version, it will ask for that consent choice again; adult confirmation remains separate.
• Complete the initial questions about you and what you would like to focus on.
• Add information about today, including how you feel, sleep, meals, drinks and movement.
• Add weight or body-fat information if you would like to.
• Add a meal, review BetterDay’s assessment and say whether it looks right.
• Change a meal description and see whether the updated assessment makes sense.
• Add information to at least one previous date and check that it remains on the correct day.
• Return to today and check that today’s information has not changed.
• Use BetterDay naturally over four weeks and build a timeline with at least seven meaningfully logged dates; historical information may help build the timeline.
• Revisit Home, Insights and Progress as you add more days.
• Notice whether the observations, experiments and progress information become more useful over time.
• Move around the different sections and notice whether it is always clear where you are and what to do next.
• Sign out, return later and check that your information is still there.
• Check that you only ever see your own information.
• Consider whether the wording feels clear, supportive, believable and appropriate.
• Consider whether BetterDay’s purpose makes sense and whether the idea is heading in the right direction.

You do not need to test deleting your information or account unless Gareth asks you separately.

How to give useful feedback

Send feedback privately to Gareth by WhatsApp. Gareth may also ask for a brief weekly check-in or discuss feedback face-to-face where useful. You do not have to answer every check-in.

Your direct feedback is not anonymous to Gareth. Before a finding is recorded in the project repository, your name, contact details and unnecessary personal or wellbeing details will be removed.

Please share anything that felt helpful, confusing, frustrating, surprising or unnecessary. Positive feedback is useful too—it helps us understand what should not be changed.

Where possible, include:

• what you were trying to do;
• what you expected and what actually happened;
• where you were in BetterDay and whether you could continue;
• roughly when it happened and whether you were using a phone, tablet or computer;
• any wording that felt unclear, repetitive, patronising, overly clinical or too certain;
• what you liked and why;
• whether the observations and suggested experiments felt relevant;
• whether you could imagine continuing to use BetterDay and what would need to change.

A screenshot can help, but only share one if it does not contain a sign-in code or information you would prefer to keep private.

Example feedback

“I added information for yesterday and then returned to Today. Yesterday’s meal stayed on the correct date and today’s information was unchanged, which was what I expected. I then opened Insights, but I wasn’t sure what the main message was or what I was meant to do next. The suggested experiment sounded sensible, although the explanation felt a little repetitive. I could continue using the app, but a shorter and clearer summary would have helped.”

Questions to consider at the end

1. What, if anything, was confusing?
2. Was anything unexpectedly slow or unresponsive?
3. Did you understand what BetterDay wanted you to do next?
4. Did the wording feel clear, supportive and believable?
5. Was any wording repetitive, vague, patronising, overly clinical or too certain?
6. Did Insights and Progress become more useful as you added days?
7. Which section felt most useful, and which felt least useful?
8. Does the overall BetterDay proposition feel as though it is heading in the right direction? Why or why not?
9. Could you imagine choosing to continue using it? What would need to change?
10. If BetterDay were no longer available, how disappointed would you be?
11. Could you imagine paying for a product like this in future? What value would it need to provide?
12. What is the single change that would most improve the experience?

Stopping, withdrawing and deleting information

You may stop at any time without giving a reason. Tell Gareth privately if you want to stop or no longer receive check-ins.

In Profile & settings you can withdraw health-data consent, request deletion of saved health data while retaining the invited login, or delete your data and account. You may also contact privacy@betterdaybeta.co.uk and request a data export where applicable.