System Architecture

CS14 is a full-stack research platform: researchers design social-media-style survey studies in the admin workspace, participants complete the study through a public share link, and the backend stores survey content, responses, calibration metadata, gaze samples, click records, and exports.

Runtime View

Main Modules

Module	Responsibility	Important files
Admin workspace	Create/edit/publish surveys, configure platform style, groups, posts, translations, preview, analytics, export.	frontend/app/admin/*
Participant runner	Consent, language selection, calibration, social feed rendering, click/gaze collection, completion.	frontend/app/survey/[shareCode]/*
Backend API	Auth, survey CRUD, public participant flow, translations, analytics, export, tracking ingestion.	backend/app/routers/*
Data model	Researcher-owned surveys, posts, questions, translations, anonymous responses, calibration and tracking records.	backend/app/models/*
Docs/runtime ops	Public documentation, demo runbook, deployment checklist, acceptance matrix.	docs-site/docs/*, docs/*

Participant Data Flow

Design Choices

• Public participant links stay anonymous. The participant token binds updates to one response without requiring login.
• Researcher operations require auth and ownership checks. Analytics, exports, translations, and survey editing are not public.
• Platform style is a research variable. platform_ui_style controls the participant visual treatment while platform_style remains a legacy compatibility field.
• Camera data is minimized. The browser uses webcam frames locally for MediaPipe detection, but the backend stores numeric calibration/gaze records and confidence summaries, not raw video.
• Exports are research-first. CSV/JSON include response metadata, group/language filters, calibration status, attention confidence, interactions, gaze, and click evidence.