What’s changing for surveys in release 2023.4 of Castor CDMS?

All new studies created in Castor CDMS from release 2023.4 will use a new user interface (‘UI’) for surveys. All existing surveys will continue to use the existing interface, but will have the option to migrate to the new UI.

What are the biggest changes in the new interface?

With a few notable exceptions, Castor has built the new interface to function in the same way as our previous

surveys in terms of key features.

Key feature differences are:

• A more powerful and responsive slider field (a dedicated article is available here)
• More options for defining and capturing ‘Reason(s) for change’ for survey data

The biggest changes are visual:

• An improved, scalable interface that makes completing on a phone or tablet much easier for participants
• Revised design to make surveys more consistent with our new overview, participant management and access code features
• More space between fields to make them easier to read
• Clearer status icons to improve accessibility

Will I get this new interface by default?

After the release of 2023.4, all newly created studies will have this new UI by default - including the above-mentioned additional features. Existing studies will have the opportunity to migrate to the new interface with a dedicated study setting in the ‘other’ tab of study settings:
 

Before migrating, Castor strongly recommends study administrators and/or those responsible for configuring studies assess any potential impact to ethics submissions, study training content or other related study materials that may be impacted by the interface changing. As the new UI takes advantage of our new flexible slider field - although Castor has taken care to ensure existing sliders can be migrated to the new UI and have their configuration remain consistent - any forms using sliders that are migrated from older or active studies should be checked within the CDMS form builder.

Does this change what my participants will see when they complete surveys?

For existing studies, what your participants see will remain the same. Only studies created after the release of 2023.4 will have the new UI.

Does this mean the older surveys will no longer be available?

Castor will continue to support our legacy web survey experience alongside the new experience with maintenance updates and small improvements. However, new features, options and extensions to web survey functionality will be delivered for modern surveys only.

Are there specific features not yet available or no longer supported in the modern view?

Yes - Castor will migrate the ability to randomize and/or hide options within a field response in a future release. We will no longer support the ‘Zoomed surveys' feature used by a very limited number of studies today, The modern view is more supportive of user's device zoom features by default.