Perhaps I’ve overlooked the response in the forum or elsewhere, but does anyone know if Memrise has acknowledged or responded to the concerns and problems with the new design?
I am trying to decide whether to switch over to Anki or another flashcard app, or whether to stick it out with Memrise through this situation. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am hoping they will (or already have) acknowledge the problems, and respond in a positive manner such as allowing users to choose the color scheme of the app.
However, if this is something where Memrise is determined to keep this color theme regardless of what their customers think, then I’d rather go ahead and make the move.
From what I’ve seen they haven’t, at all. They replied about bugs but not about the uproar for the new graphics.
Or better, they replied at first about the new app graphics, but not about the website ones since they rolled in.
I’ve seen one or two responses about individual bugs, but nothing about the overall design or how much most people here seem to dislike it. I’ve tried reaching out to them on Twitter and Facebook too, and nothing. On Twitter, on the big thread about the new design, they responded individually to the people who said they liked it, but hardly a word to the majority who said they didn’t, apart from:
“Wow, there are a lot of comments on this thread ! Thanks to everyone who took the time to write to us, your comments will be passed on to the team as we continue to make Memrise even better.”
The design as much as it’s terrible won’t makes them lose a lot of money so they are just ignoring it and the bugs they read them but do nothing about it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Memrise is going to step back from the new design or even address our concerns about it. I got a letter not longer than an hour ago themed “A fresh new look for Memrise!” which I guess confirms that it wasn’t just a “how-you’re-gonna-feel-about-it” test before and they are going with it despite the fact that the new design got overwhelming amount of complaints from all of us.
What would make me really sad though is if they will not address our concerns further, because… I can imagine myself making peace with that toxic yellow that hurts my eyes quite literally, but the icons, buttons and frames that looks like they were made for some acid maasdam cheese-themed low-rating Nickelodeon cartoon are just horrendous and killing all the nice feeling and pleasant UX that was left there.
Yes. I got that same email yesterday evening. Maybe they should have sent it before introducing the changes. I enjoyed the part that said: “… there is more to come so stay tuned, and let us know what you think as we go!”
“let us know what you think” - we did, and we are, but will they listen?
It was said before by many users but - who even did that kind of (collective, I guess) mistake of approving such an abomination of a design?
It can be worked around with some custom user scripts for desktop, I hope people will create some, but the app can’t be saved that way
I don’t want to add fuel to the fire, but have you guys noticed how kevin is nowhere to be found now, after the Decks fiasco? He essentially was the voice of reason between the corporate and common user. Now that Memrise doesn’t need a guy for damage control anymore, we’re left complaining in vain. It only gets worse from here on, pals. Now excuse me, I’m off to play “Guess the next Memrise improvement” with some friends.
Well, it’s not hopeless. I remember the huge issues Ableton faced when they released their first Ableton Live 9.0 version and the application crashed all the time – especially as it is intended to be a live music application. And we all said we would abandon Ableton.
They took note and refined 9.0 for the next three years so it was super-stable and fun to use. I.e. they spent more time on refining the SW via unit tests and user feedback. Now everyone is happy with Ableton again.
On twitter the company head asked people to “give it a few days” to get used to it.
So please KEEP commenting and tweeting and down-rating the app on the play store etc and don’t let it blow over. Obviously they are hoping that after the initial shock we’ll get used to it and stop complaining.
Another big thread about Decks showed a lot of good ideas about how to get voices heard - emailing various people including investors, user ratings, etc. Maybe we can follow the same example?
Just adding my voice: Detest the new layout and it’s actually impeding upon my learning. They need to roll it back or at least let those of us who want it keep the old layout.
It’s interesting to correlate this to the transition Google web apps did when they moved to Material Design look and feel (and colors). Few is any complained about the colors and layouts, but complained about certain features no longer available (like the natural language creation of Calendar entries that Google put in place a month later based on negative user feedback). Here it’s the opposite, same features but just the color and look features made Memrise users unhappy.
He’s still using the forum at least. His profile indicates that he has been “seen 3 days” ago. However, his last post was on 03/20. I’m afraid the Memrise team seems to mainly be exercising themselves in reservation these days. Might be due to general business politics/strategy or a top brass commandment.
They did at least remove those hideous blobs behind the usernames…doubt that was in response to user feedback though, presumably the project manager came out of her psychedelic trance and realised what an embarrassment they were.
On the App Store the developers have responded a few times to negative reviews on the redesign, but mostly just defending their design explaining they wanted a “more mature” theme. In their responses they used winking emojis so I’m not sure if they’re taking this very serious…
It’s all a big joke to them right now. Very unfortunate that they treat their userbase so poorly. I never imagined Memrise would turn out like this. I hope they’ll address all the complaints properly, but that’s already long overdue at this point.
do they even have the skills to improve the platform? Is that why they keep changing the design? because they can’t actually fix this? They have taken away so many useful features and replaced them with what, colour scheme after colour scheme after gimmick
Thanks to everyone who took the time to write to us, your comments will be passed on to the team as we continue to make Memrise even better.”
