A designer has an account (also organisations/publishers could have an account with several users who have the “designer” role)

Test knitter has an account.

Designer can post all their open test knits, with details:

• Photos
• Techniques required
• Yarn & needle requirements
• Deadline
• Sizes that need to be test knit
• Requirements from the tester (completed Ravelry project, at least X good quality photos, etc)
• Milestones that need to be marked off by the testers
• Rewards given for testing

Open calls can have 3 levels of visibility:

• Public (visible to anyone even if they haven’t signed up on the system)
• Members only (visible to all logged-in users)
• Pool only (visible only to those testers who are in your pool)

A test knitter can apply to do a test knit. If they want to knit a particular size they can select one of the sizes the designer requires. Any size for which the designer has already accepted a tester will not show as a possibility.

A designer approves the test knitters that they want to do the test.

The designer can make the pattern available to the selected testers by uploading it on the system. If you upload a new updated version of the pattern, all testers for that pattern will be notified by email that there is a new version available.During the test, the tester should periodically log in and check off their progress against milestones that are set up by the designer. For example in testing a top-down raglan the sequence of milestones could be:

• Cast on
• Separated the sleeves
• Finished the body
• Finished knitting
• Done, blocked, and photographed
• Ravelry project set up and linked to pattern

The milestones are completely under the control of the designer: you could choose to have no milestones at all, or to just have one milestone that says “Completed”.

The designer can specify dates on which these milestones should have been reached. If the date for a milestone has passed and the tester has not marked off that the milestone has been met, the system will send them a friendly reminder email. During the test, the designer can move the milestone dates.

During the test there will be a forum available that is specific to the test, where all participating testers and the designer can discuss the test. Testers will be able to upload in-progress pictures to this forum. On completion of the test the forum discussion is archived so new posts can no longer be added.

On completion of the test, the designer can give the tester a 1-5 star rating according to a range of criteria, such as:

• Communication
• Reliability
• Ease to work with
• Speed

The system will also be able to report on how well the tester kept to the milestone deadlines and the overall deadline. When a tester applies for a test knit their current rating and their milestone statistics will be visible to the designer.

The tester can also give the designer a 1-5 star rating according to a range of criteria, such as:

• Communication
• Pattern quality/clarity of instructions
• Fun level of the project