App versus Web - carrots and sticks

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Memrise is a wonderful tool and has been key to my enjoyment of learning French, German, and Icelandic. I became a subscriber some time ago because I don’t mind paying for stuff I use specially when it’s good.
My typical use is during my commute, morning and night. That’s about 80 minutes a day, and it is a fantastic way to utilise the commute time. I usually have Pandora playing in the background, and I can hear the Memrise audio over the top (or used to). I have been using an android tablet with bluetooth keyboard for years now.
However I get the feeling that there is a disconnect happening between the web version and the apps. Let’s call it a gentle persuasion to switch to the app. There’s a carrot and there’s a stick. On the carrot side, to improve the app, I would like to send this message to the Memrise app team.
I have racked up nearly 19M points on Memrise, and I could not and would not have done that by poking at a phone or tablet. I have persisted with the web version, and I will explain yet again why.

  1. The app does not allow me to work using keyboard alone. I have to keep poking at the screen. This is tedious for me and inconsiderate to the person sitting next to me. For me this is the single biggest show-stopper.
  2. The app makes it far too easy to get a correct answer long after the word has been learnt. I am still being offered multiple choice for words long since learnt. (In boxes by the way that I have to poke at to answer) For 90% of the words in long term memory, what I get wrong now is spelling or word order or prepositions or the correct tense of the verb. Giving me the answer in a box in multiple choice is a waste of my time to answer. For every word or sentence we learn there should be a time past which we have to type the answer unprompted. At least give us that option.

As for the stick, over the last year or so I notice some irritating changes to the web version that make it less pleasant to use. First it was the problems with sharing sound. After months if not years of ‘sharing’ the sound, suddenly Memrise audio turns off Pandora. That’s rude. And the only response I get is ‘use the app’. Now I find that in Chrome, my sticky accent keys are sticking too long. I have to hit the sticky key again and backspace to turn off accenting every following letter. This happens only in the memrise answer box, not anywhere else in Chrome. No I haven’t logged it as a bug, because I can guess the response. I’m not suggesting these issues are deliberate, but I am suggesting that Memrise doesn’t really care. I get it that it’s almost impossible to produce a product that works perfectly in all browsers - so how about getting it to work in just one?

I check out the app periodically hoping to see something I prefer to use over the web version. I see big changes in design and colour and funky widgets, but the essentials in terms of pure usage have not shifted.

You really need to decide whether you are offering us a game to be toyed with, or a serious learning tool.

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I strongly prefer the web over the app. Here’s why:

1 - Mems. The thing that makes Memrise special, awesome, and different than other language-learning tools is using mems. The app used to show you mems when planting (the five most popular), but in the latest versions they took that away. Now you have to get the answer wrong to look at them. This makes planting via the app much less productive. It boggles my mind that the Memrise removed the feature that makes it the most powerful and effective tool for learning vocab.

2 - Mems. In the courses where I’m learning at an advanced level (Spanish or German), a less popular language (Turkish or Romanian), or in a new course, there are many fewer mems. In many cases, there are none. In order to learn new words in these courses, I need to be able to create my own. I can’t do that on the app.

3 - Spelling. I totally agree that being given multiple choice questions means that you don’t get tested on spelling. It’s just too easy to get the answer correct without knowing the word that well. It’s important that I practice spelling with ä, â, ă, á, é, ı, î, í, ö, ó, ü, ú, ğ, ñ, ß, ş, ț, etc.

4 - Typing. I’d rather type on a keyboard than tap on a screen. It’s a lot faster.

5 - Too much clicking. I dislike being forced to decline the personalized reminders every time I want to exit a course after planting or watering.

6 - Too much clicking. I dislike being forced to decline updating my time zone every time I open the app. (If I used the app a lot, the time zone reminder might show up less often—maybe once a day—but since I rarely open the app anymore, it sure feels like it pops up every time!)

7 - Too much clicking. I can’t tell from the course list if I’ve accomplished my daily goal or not. When I’m busy, I keep goals going in three courses. No problem. But when I have time to focus on language learning, I keep streaks in many courses. This week, it’s a lot. Clicking on 15 different courses to see if the rocket is yellow or white, and then clicking back to the list, is too much clicking.

Of the items on my list, six out of seven are something that Memrise could do something about…

1 and 2 are deal-breakers. 3 is tolerable. 5-7 are minor annoyances, but detract from the overall experience.

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I would like to make this thread aware or this other (and vice versa):

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App freezes for no apparent reason.