Study landing pages

A landing page is a public web page about your study: what it is, what taking part involves, who can take part, and how to get in touch. It is the page you put in a recruitment advert, a poster or a social post, so that someone who has never heard of your study has somewhere to read about it before they decide anything.

It needs no login, no app and no participant record. Anyone with the address can read it.

What the page shows

Part Where it comes from
Study name, description and sponsor logo The study's own details (About)
Introduction, hero background image Written by you on the Landing page tab
Key dates Added by you on the Landing page tab
Contact details Added by you on the Landing page tab
Eligibility criteria and the participant information sheet Your consent form (see Setting up eConsent)
The main button Configured by you: a screening questionnaire, the consent form, or nothing

Nothing on the page collects data. The only thing a visitor can do is follow the button.

Turn it on

Go to Settings > Pages > Landing page and switch on Landing page enabled.

The page is published immediately, and the tab shows its address:

https://app.trialflare.com/landing/<your trial code>

That address is your trial code, so the page can't be turned on until the study has one — the tab says so, and the switch becomes available as soon as you set a code under About > Trial code.

Copy it, or use the QR code button beside it, which is handy for posters and leaflets. View landing page opens it in a new tab.

The address contains your trial code. If you change the code under About > Trial code, the old address stops working — so set the code before the address goes on anything printed.

For social posts

Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Slack read a link's preview — the title, description and picture in the card — from the page itself rather than opening it in a browser. The app can't give them that, so the tab also shows a second address under For social posts.

Post that one. The card carries the study's name, its description and its hero background image (or sponsor logo if there is no hero background image), and anyone who clicks it is taken straight to the page above. The address under For social posts is for posts and messages; use the main one everywhere else.

Customise it

Everything below is on Settings > Pages > Landing page, and is saved with Save landing page — except the switch, which saves on its own.

Hero background image

Upload a wide photograph to sit behind the study's name at the top of the page. It is shown under a dark overlay so the wording stays readable, so choose something that still looks good dimmed — a lab, a clinic, a landscape, your team. Around 1600 × 900 pixels works well. Without one, the top of the page uses your team's brand colour. A new image is only used once you click Save landing page.

Images are shown at their own proportions on any screen size, so the picture is never stretched.

About the study

A rich-text box for anything else you want to say: what the study is looking into, what a participant is asked to do, how long it takes. You can add headings, bold and italic text, links and images. Keep it short — the participant information sheet is on the same page for the detail.

Contact details

A name, email address, phone number and website. Anything you leave blank is left off the page. The email address and phone number become links that open the visitor's mail or phone app. The website must be a web address (https://… — if you leave that off, it is added for you) or a mailto: link.

Key dates

Add as many as you like — when recruitment opens and closes, when the study starts, when results are expected. Each is a label and a date, chosen from a calendar, and they are shown in date order.

The main button

The one thing you most want a visitor to do. It appears at the top of the page and again at the bottom.

Option What happens Needs
Show no button The page is information only —
Start a screening questionnaire The button opens a stage that is in questionnaire mode (see Screening questionnaires) A stage with questionnaire mode turned on
Start the consent form The button opens your default consent form eConsent enabled

You can write your own button text. If you leave it blank, it says Check if you can take part or Take part in this study, depending on which you chose.

If the thing the button points at is later turned off — the stage stops being a questionnaire, or eConsent is switched off — the button is not shown rather than leading people to a dead end. The tab warns you when that is the case.

When recruitment closes

If your button starts the consent form, stopping new consents (Consent > Availability, Prevent further eConsents) also stops the button being offered: the page says the study has closed to new participants instead. The rest of the page — including the information sheet — stays up, so anyone who finds an old link still gets a sensible answer.

A screening questionnaire button is not affected by that setting. Questionnaires are often still used after recruitment closes — debriefing participants after a session, for example — so the page keeps offering one until you turn the button off, or turn the page off, yourself.

The consent content on the page

The eligibility criteria and the participant information sheet are taken from your consent form, so you write them once. The page uses the same form that its button opens, so the two can never disagree about which version is current.

If eConsent isn't enabled for the study, both sections are left off and the page shows only what you have written.

Turn it off

Switch Landing page enabled off. The address stops serving the page — anyone opening it sees that it could not be found — and everything you wrote is kept, so you can switch it back on later without writing it again.

While the study or its database is locked, the page's content can't be changed, but you can still switch it off — so a finished study can stop recruiting from old adverts without being unlocked.

Things to be aware of

  • It is public. Treat everything on it as something you are happy for anyone to read: it is indexed by search engines and can be shared onwards.
  • Copying a trial copies the page's text, contact details and key dates, but not its button or hero background image, which belong to the original trial. Re-choose the button and re-upload the image after copying. The copy's page starts switched off, since it has a new address; turn it on once you have checked it.
  • Nothing on the page identifies a participant. It never shows participant data.