What’s new

Navigate with ease – New

When you have a large site that's been around for many years, it's easy to end up with confusing site navigation, and Kudos is certainly no exception. Over the summer, we've taken a long hard look at all the different navigation bars you can find at the top of pages on Kudos, and decided to standardize on a single, easy-to-use navigation bar design – the very one you can see at the top of this page!

Kudos uses a lot of different technologies for different pages (even ones that might look the same!), which makes this much more difficult than just copying and pasting. We're using a new technology called Web Components to allow us to use the same code everywhere, which means that you get a perfectly consistent navigation experience no matter where you are.

We're still working on this, so there are still a few places you might see other navigation bars, but the majority of pages Kudos readers and authors use are now up-to-date. We've also taken the opportunity to refresh the typography throughout the site to make everything that bit easier to read across desktop and mobile devices.

Thanks to Annie for making this bumper-sized project happen!

AI transparency – New

We're experimenting with ways recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help to make research more accessible to more people. We always want to be transparent about where the content on Kudos comes from, so we've always ensured content created using AI was clearly marked in the text on the Story page. To make this clearer (and to add a bit of sparkly visual flair), we've added a standard notice that you'll see on Story pages where AI was used. For Story authors, we've also made sure that there's an entry in the Story activity log if any content has been automatically added.

Thanks to Alex for making this happen!

New: 'What's new'! – New

Here on the Kudos Product team, we're constantly at work making changes to the Kudos platform, but we haven't had any single place you could go to find out about them.

We'll be regularly updating this page to celebrate improvements as we make them, so check back often to be among the first to know about all the latest fixes, improvements, and brand new features! In the mean time, we'll also be adding some recent highlights that you may have missed.

Thanks to Alex for the engineering work on this page!

Your Personal Showcase: now in colour! – New

You might already know that Kudos premium members' profile pages get a glam makeover into their very own Personal Showcase. Our Premium members told us that they love the ability to add their own bio and the bold photographic cards for each of their Stories, but asked us if there was a way to amp up the personality of the page. We came up with a tonne of ideas (and maybe you'll see some of those in the future), but the one that bubbled to the top was custom colour themes!

If you're a Premium member, you can now choose your favourite colour theme for your Personal Showcase by visiting your Profile settings and selecting the Edit Personal Showcase button. Pick from our five beautiful colour themes, from bold Passion pink to chill Wisdom blue.

If you're not yet a Premium member, you can get a sneak peak of what your Personal Showcase could look like by visiting your Profile page and selecting the See my preview button. We'll pick a colour theme for your preview, but you can change any time you like if you decide to subscribe to Kudos premium. Fun fact: the colour theme we pick for the preview is actually determined by the initials of your first and last name!

Thanks to Rory for bringing this feature to life!

Inform with infographics – New

A picture is worth (at least) a thousand words, and that saves a lot of typing! Our members told us they had all sorts of visual aids that would help explain their Stories on Kudos, if only there was somewhere to put them. Well, now there is!

For Stories associated with articles published by selected publishers, you can now upload your own infographic, diagram, or that one perfect photo to make your Story even more engaging and easier to understand. Uploaded infographics are shown prominently on your public Story page. It's really simple to get started – just visit your Stories page, select one of your articles, and follow the instructions in the Add an infographic section.

If you're really into your infographics, Kudos premium members can upload infographics to Stories associated with articles published by any publisher! We've loved seeing all the fascinating infographics you've uploaded so far.

Thanks to Liam for building this new feature!

Stunning Showcases – Improved

You might be familiar with our Showcases, which for a while have been collecting together related Stories on Kudos on a single subject, a cross-subject topic, or by related organisations. We created our first prototype of Showcases a few years back, and we were pretty bowled over by the incredible response from both readers and authors using Kudos.

As part of the snazzy new look and feel you've probably seen rolling out across the site, we had the opportunity to revisit Showcases and completely rethink them. Internally, we call our new look 'Magazine UI', the goal being to show off our members' Stories in a beautiful format that's a delight to browse, just like a really interesting magazine. Our Magazine UI Showcases feature bold photographic imagery and unique theme colours for each Showcase, matched with beautiful typography and a layout that adapts to make the most out of any size screen, from mobile phones to widescreen desktop monitors.

Our brand new Featured Researchers sections on selected showcases celebrate the people behind the Stories, while Related Showcases let readers dive deeper into focused selections of Stories. We've also taken the opportunity to improve navigation within and between Showcases, and, of course, to make sure it's all incredibly responsive and accessible to all.

You'll find links to Showcases everywhere in Kudos – a great place to start is the Subjects menu you can find at the top of every page (on smaller screens such as phones, you'll find it in the Main Menu under Discover). Or if you want to check out everything we have to offer, our Showcase directory page gives you the full picture.

If you're a researcher, you can get your Stories included in multiple Showcases by making sure they have a What is it about?, and choosing a beautiful Featured image from our photo library to illustrate your work. You can visit your Stories page and pick a Story to get started.

Thanks to Rory, Liam, Annie, and Alex for the enormous effort that's gone into revamping our Showcases!