Ziggurat | RISD Museum Publications

Ziggurat

An open-sourced digital publishing tool from the RISD Museum

What is Ziggurat?

Ziggurat is a flexible tool that puts design and user experience at its center. It allows for the generation of static websites, digital and print publications, and online exhibitions.

The RISD Museum wants to share this technology with you.

Full documentation is coming August 2021. Until then, for technical issues and general inquiries, drop us a line.

Intuitive Construction

Coding Knowledge not Required

Ziggurat uses Drupal Layout Builder; no fancy coding knowledge required.

Use blocks to feature content — text, image, audio, video – and sections to organize that content. Then apply styles with the click of a button.

Feeling a little more advanced? Ziggurat has built in fields to enter Bootstrap code. Want to play with CSS and Javascript? Go right ahead.

screenshot of the Ziggurat interface, with large text that says 'What is a Ziggurat?'

screenshot of the Ziggurat interface, showing a basic block with text that says 'Hello, world!'

Flexible
& Powerful

Built-in Design Tools

A variety of blocks to suit your needs:

Text
Image
Video
Audio
Image/Video Hero
Image/Video Carousel
Image Grid

Style Features:

Block Animations
Sticky Sections
Image Zoom
Image Modal
Color Palettes
Background Color
Text Color & Styling
Primary & Secondary Font
Multiple Font Weights
Multiple Columns

screenshot of the Ziggurat interface, showing a modal window for an image of a ziggurat

screenshot of the Ziggurat interface, showing image block styles

Built for
Publishing

Helpful Features

We wanted a platform that would use the digital space to enhance the reading experience, not over-complicate it.

Ziggurat offers the following publishing-specific features. These auto-generated fields enhance navigation and make citation and crediting assets simple.