Today we’re uploading a new interface for Read the Kanji that we’ve been working hard on these past couple of weeks. The idea behind it was to try and open up the Read The Kanji interface to make it not only cleaner and more seamless, but to help open up the path for more features we plan to add in the future.
Here is an example of what we’ll get with the new interface:
As you can see the left hand side has not changed drastically, but the right side now has a new rolling history that will keep track of the past 5 words you’ve done, as well as providing all relevant information for each word (definition, sentences, related kanji etc.) Examining a bit more we can see:
- We now have an icon and color for each question, a circle (丸ーまる) with green for a correct answer and an “x” (罰ーばつ) with red for an incorrect one. Just click on these headers to collaspe or expand the details as needed.
- The kanji compound (熟語ーじゅくご) asked.
- The answer that you typed in.
- Arrows to manually inflate/deflate kanji strength (for helping skip words or bring words back in for review)
- Large version of the 熟語
- The correct answer in hiragana and the correct way to type the answer in english above it (which can be turned off in the preferences panel under “Turn Off Typing Tutor” – side note – this is not to be confused with romaji, it’s just a way to show beginners how to type the word in the textbox.)
- Definition of the word
- Word used in a real life Japanese sentence (over 2,500+ have been reviewed and amended so far, so they are halfway to perfection), with an English translation.
- Related word and kanji strengths
- Link to report any errors or mistranslations of the word.
Fortunately, we did not have to remove any elements from the quiz itself to make room for this rolling history, which is great! For example, the current stats window (11) is now up in the top left hand side in its own collapsable/expandable window, which will help save screen real estate for those with small resolutions. This is a great location as it gives us the space we need to add more stats horizontally in the future. We also moved the quick deck change window (12) up to the right hand corner.
Also, on the backend, while this doesn’t affect users at the moment, we decoupled most of Read The Kanji’s functions and features into its own API. This is important because it now allow us to actively start working on Read The Kanji for other platforms (iPhone / offline use / etc). We know many users have been waiting on this, so we’re happy to finally get this step out of the way so we can meet the demand!
We hope everyone can enjoy this new interface, and as always, we’re actively accepting any feedback you may have (both the Uservoice forum or in the comments below is fine!) And we’re really looking forward to some more big changes we have up our sleeves, so stay tuned!
Thanks for the new look and hard work! Looking forward to the big changes.
Very excited for this. I love it.
Glad to see we can turn off the typing tutor… I panicked at first when I saw rōmaji, which I’ve been desperately trying to avoid, but it’s all hidden away now. Definitely loving RtK; it’s teaching me to tap into all the stuff I’ve learned but could never recall!
Generally very clean looking. I like the rolling history.
However, the kanji at the yellow level (30 – 50 % about) are impossible to read for me.
Looks awesome, but is the artificially inflating of words working anymore?
Every time I try it, it says “Word strength for [word] inflated to 0%!” And, true to its word, it knocks the percentage of the word down to 0% (percentage of kanji remains untouched).
Using Google Chrome~
“And, true to its word, it knocks the percentage of the word down to 0% (percentage of kanji remains untouched).”
Same Here
Hi, I like the rolling history, but I think it would be much more useful if instead of the last five words it showed the last five mistakes…
Togil & dondake: Is this still an issue for you now, and if so, would you mind emailing me which version of Google Chrome and operating system you’re on to support@readthekanji.com ? I’ll see if I can’t figure out what the issue is. Surprisingly, Google Chrome has been giving me the most trouble lately!
Some comments on the new interface :
=> in the “last four words” I would have put the RIGHT answer, rather than the one we entered. This way, when stacked, we get the kanjis and their correct pronunciations.
=> the “related words” below the kanji strength are REALLY small ! My eyes water when I try to read the fine prints… Is it possible to write this line with a bigger font ? Space should not be an issue. But if it is, you can certainly reduce the size of the “report inaccuracy”, which is rather seldom used…
Other than that, this is just an awsome new interface, very clean, very smooth, very addictive. Good work guys !
Actually, I liked the former interface more, at least the big lime green tablo which said I was right or a crimson one in case I was wrong (
By the way, I was using Chrome both under windows and linux, and for me there is no problem inflating the kanji to 30% (Win&Lin), but if it was more than 30 from the beginning, it still inflates to 30 (checked for Linux only).
Also, sometimes even after a correct answer the percentage still remains 0% (and I`m sure I didn`t reply wrongly SO many times).
i’m having issues with the inflate on safari and mozilla on OS X snow leopard.
No matter the words, they ”inflate” to 10% even if my words are higher or lesser than that. It makes my card red even if they were green. Tested on Opera, Firefox and IE on Win 7.
I also noticed the kanjis’ % is now always the same than the word’s %. Let’s say I have 材木 at 38% after answering, 材 and 木 will show at 38% even though 木 is written in dark green (and should be at 90%+ before the revamp).
Am I too stupid to find it, or may it be that there is no inflation option anymore? I don’t seem to have it at all…
see (4) on the scheme.
found another bug. the strength rises gradually from 0% even if I always replied correctly. There are other kanji which I would likely learn, but I keep repeating those that I already know very well.
Thanks for the updates about the word strength adjustment. We have started looking into the problem, and I will try to post some more information about it here once I know more. Sorry about the inconvenience.
But know that you can control how often words repeat using the Repetition Factor in the PREFS section. Here is a link to a blog post about how it works: http://www.readthekanji.com/blog/2009/11/254782286/
This might be a short term workaround while we are looking into the problem.
Actually, I think I found what the problem is.
It seems like the Inflate button will inflate to your Repetition Factor (RF)’s setting. Which means that if my RF is set to 0. Everytime I inflate a word, it will be set to 0%.
When I set my RF to 10, my words now inflate to 100% when I press the Inflate buttons.
Tested with RF to 7 and it inflates to 70%.
Thanks for looking the matter.
I thought Wonk was up to something, so I came back to test it out.
My Repetition Factor is also set to 0, because I thought I’d blaze through all the lower-level words, just to see them all once.
My Repetition Factor is still set to 0, but now it inflates the words straight to 100%. Doesn’t change the percentage of the kanji itself, though (is it suppose to? What’s the point in the word being maxed out, with the kanji still at a low percentage?)
Has this been bug been considered fixed? I would have expected a blog entry or something about it if it were good to go; if the behavior has changed, I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t think I changed anything on my end.