Dear Zooniverse Community,
We’re pleased to update you on an important development as we undergo a migration to a new frontend codebase over the course of 2024-2025. This transition brings a fresh and improved experience to our platform.
From a participant’s perspective, the primary changes involve project layout and styling, resulting in a more user-friendly interface. Importantly, these updates don’t impact your stats (e.g,. classification count), Collections, Favorites, etc.
To offer you a sneak peek, check out the updated design and layout on projects that have already migrated, such as:
If a project has a design similar to the examples above, it has migrated. Conversely, if it resembles the old design, like the Milky Way Project, it hasn’t migrated yet.
We value your feedback! If you encounter any difficulties or have suggestions as you’re participating in a project, please share them in the respective project’s Talk or within this general Announcements Talk thread and mention @support.
Wondering about the motivation behind this change? We built the new frontend codebase in order to ensure the robustness and stability of the Zooniverse platform, with key updates enhancing code maintenance, accessibility, and overall sustainability.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the improvements:
- Breaking up the Code: We’ve modularized our code into independent, reusable libraries to enhance maintenance and overall sustainability.
- Next.js for Server Side Rendering: By utilizing Next.js, we’re improving accessibility for participants worldwide, particularly those with lower internet speeds and bandwidth.
- Classify Page Code Updates: We’ve refined elements such as workflows and the subject viewer to ensure improved robustness and sustainability of our codebase.
- Authentication Library Updates: Keeping up with the latest standards, we’ve updated our authentication libraries to enhance security and user experience.
- Integrated Code Testing: To maintain the long-term health of our technical products, we’ve integrated code testing throughout our development process. This mitigates against updates introducing bugs or other issues into the codebase, adhering to standard practices.
Thank you for being part of the Zooniverse community! Looking forward to many more groundbreaking discoveries and advances in research. Your classifications and participation in Talk make all of this possible. Thank you!
Warm regards,
Laura Trouille, Zooniverse PI
Zooniverse 