Enhancing User Experience to Facilitate Nuclear Physics Research through NuDat

The National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) developed NuDat, a web application where users can explore several databases containing nuclear structure, nuclear decay, and neutron-induced nuclear reaction information. NuDat is the primary web application used to query and visualize nuclear data from the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF). ENSDF contains meticulously evaluated recommended values derived from all published experimental nuclear structure and decay data. Over 4 million people use NuDat each year for research, education, and a wide range of applications. The current technology used within NuDat was first developed over 15 years ago and since then significant improvements to web technologies have been made. By modernizing NuDat, the NNDC aims to provide an enhanced user experience that promotes discovery. The modernized NuDat is implemented using HTML Canvas to create a dynamic chart of nuclides. Users can seamlessly interact with over 3,300 nuclides with intuitive pan and zoom gestures. NuDat is accompanied by interactive plots that are similarly controlled. The goal is to create responsive nuclear data visualizations to support future research and uniquely visualize the cornucopia of data that ENSDF has to offer.