2026-07-22 — v31 signal studio: a trace-first redesign

July 22, 2026

This release rebuilds the landing experience and working viewer around one idea: the signal is the evidence. The result is a bolder but quieter scientific workspace, with a privacy-first file decision, a dedicated chromatogram stage, and a consistent instrument-style tool rail.

A real front door, without a marketing detour

The empty state is now the product's landing page. A custom four-channel signal illustration replaces the platform-dependent emoji, accepted formats are visible immediately, and the exact local-only privacy promise sits beside the file action. Open, Inspect, and Decide describe the complete workflow without adding a route between the user and their trace.

The chromatogram becomes the stage

Loaded traces now sit in a framed evidence surface with truthful live metadata: file name, format, base count, sample count, and channel legend. The product introduction compresses in the loaded state, keeping the canvas above the fold while the genuine empty state retains more room for onboarding. Workspace tabs, sample context, quality, annotations, sequence, and toolbar form one clear vertical reading order.

A coherent tool rail

Inspect, Map, Analyze, and Share retain their existing ARIA tab model and keyboard navigation, but now read as one instrument panel. Previously unrelated coloured feature cards share a common surface, radius, elevation, focus treatment, and accent line. The scientific features are unchanged; their hierarchy and scanability are not.

Theme, accessibility, and performance

Light and dark palettes use semantic tokens; the renderer still reads the same surface token.
Text, UI-border, and focus contrast stay covered by measured browser assertions.
Primary actions retain 44 px targets and all keyboard/ARIA contracts.
Reduced-motion mode disables decorative transition and animation.
No remote font, image, library, analytics, or runtime request was introduced.
The canvas rendering path remains pixel-bounded; presentation adds no per-frame DOM work.

Written UX assessment

Is this great UX? Yes. The screenshots show a clear evidence-first hierarchy: file identity and trace metrics sit immediately above a large painted chromatogram, the primary toolbar remains adjacent, and advanced work is progressively disclosed in the rail. Light and dark themes feel intentionally related rather than mechanically inverted.

What specifically needs to improve? On the 360 × 640 loaded view, the compact header necessarily shows less of the chromatogram than desktop, although the canvas still starts in the first viewport. The large-file review exposed and resolved page-level overflow with two long trace tabs, and removed blank analysis surfaces from the empty landing state. The Analyze rail remains content-dense by nature; a future pass could add collapsible sub-sections without hiding status or changing keyboard order. Long local filenames correctly truncate on narrow screens, but a tooltip would improve pointer discovery.

Accessibility measurements: text contrast ≥ 4.5:1, UI and border contrast ≥ 3:1, visible focus rings, and keyboard operation are covered by the existing measured E2E suite and the new signal-studio acceptance spec.

Evidence

The complete automated UX gallery covers twelve states in light and dark across desktop, tablet, and narrow-mobile viewports. Focused large-file captures use the real 1165-base 3730.ab1 fixture and the synthetic 5 kbp stress trace; both retain painted canvas content, readable stage metrics, bounded controls, and a stable sidebar.

Acceptance coverage lives in tests/e2e/signal-studio-redesign.e2e.test.ts. The visual contract and future design constraints are documented in docs/design-system.md.