I’m off to dinner now, but you know I was actually going to ask you about that very field. I was looking at one character (年) in the new set and saw something I didn’t quite understand. I was going to ask my wife at dinner, and if it didn’t make sense, then ask you when I get home. I’ll see how it goes tonight.
@oli2904 ~ okay, I had a brief introduction to the Cangjie input method at dinner tonight, and now I have a better understanding of the field in your lesson called “Decomposition”. It is not what I was expecting, but if you think it is important, then by all means continue with it.
When I think of “Decomposition” I think in terms of “De-Construction” of characters (to their radical and total stroke counts). That is why I was confused earlier by the terminology.
Personally speaking, I think De-Construction of characters is more important than the manner or number of Cangjie keystrokes (since De-Construction allows one to look up the character in a dictionary), whereas I am not sure if one could do this with the Cangjie method.
As for (年); it is de-constructed to 干 (gān) + 3 (total of 6 strokes). That is useful information to me. Not sure what the value of the Cangjie of 禾人 is to me. Others may find it useful.
My vote goes to decomposition (but I won’t take the course, so think of that what you will).
Re: ·年, there·the Cangjie does seem to have a use:
Let’s look at 要 (here I don’t see the use of the Cangjie).
I like stories best:
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@pdao, I started out with decomposition as I had them from the same site as the source list of most commonly used characters but they weren’t always clear to me so I started looking at alternative sources and they seem to vary on some characters as well. In the meantime I’ve collected two that are quite interesting but they explain the deconstruction differently:
Example: 要
Dictionary: radical 146 西+3, 9 strokes
Composition type 1: ⿱覀女
Composition type 2: 覀 (west) , 女 (woman)
not sure which is best, maybe could combine but I think repeating the meaning of different parts will become annoying. Type 1 shows a graphical representation of how the deconstruction is done.
@Arete_Hime, I have those books somewhere, a friend of mine used them to make mems. It could indeed serve as a good guide. I guess the Cangjie is definitely interesting but in the end I don’t think many learners have the physical keyboards to make use of it. Whether you take the course or not, any input and ideas are always appreciated. 
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@oli2904 ~ thanks for the illumination on what you are proposing. Personally speaking, I like the dictionary and Composition type 1 info, but whatever you end up offering, it will be gladly received.
One thing to keep in mind before you get too far down the road with this, is what is the intent of the course, and what type of audience do you expect with it. If your audience is looking for a simple frequency list type flash cards, then the more info you add, the more it will probably be overlooked by people. If your audience is expecting a robust learning experience, then the more data you provide, the better it will be received.
I think @Arete_Hime and myself definitely fall into the latter category, so our opinions come from that side of the fence. You are the course creator though, so it is probably best for you to decide what to include or not include.
@pdao, I think you’re right regarding the composition type and adding the dictionary reference. I’ll have to combine these as I haven’t found a way to add columns after a second lesson is created.
Personally I think the more relevant information there is, the better… unless it becomes too crowded. Students have different methods that work for them, they can ignore what they don’t need but if certain information is missing then you don’t feel you’re learning at a higher potential. I guess I try to serve both types of learners, one by providing as much useful info as I can find, the other by keeping things simple (such as the short meaning for a given character).
@oli2904 ~ sounds like you know what you are doing. 
No one is really taking this course yet, except for you and I, so if you need or want to make changes to the course (adding a new database with additional columns or such) it’s fine with me. I can always re-learn the words, if needed. Whatever works best for you.
@pdao, ah… that’s probably because the course is still set to “incomplete”
At the moment the character page has 6 lines, time to combine… just looking for a good divider between dict/composition.
You can do that from the database page. Click “add column.” The new column will be last one though and perhaps you don’t want that.
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That’s why I generally opt for re-uploading data into a new database (assuming the columns are in the correct order, and the source data is from a worksheet of some kind that can mimic the columns). It would be nice if one day we could have control over the placement of columns in Memrise databases.
@oli2904 ~ wow, I woke up this morning and I can see you have been busy re-tooling the course. I really like the format for the data for each character now !
One suggestion for clarity though. Is it possible to add a comma after the radical number, and before the radical display and additional strokes ? I think that would effectively show that there are 3 distinct data items in this one field.
Sample of what I mean for the hanzi 的: radical 106, 白+3, 8 strokes
Without a comma, the radical number kinda flows into the radical display and stroke count.
And I like the inclusion of the composition info. It makes sense now.
I am really amazed at what you pulled together ! 
@pdao, thank you. I’ve updated the dictionary fields with the additional comma. I’m thinking of making use of set mems as well. Something like stroke order and image association.
@oli2904 ~ I’m not a mem person myself, but I’ll take a look at them if you do add something along those lines.
Finished the first 200 characters, time to take a little break and review. Especially the short descriptions are a pain sometimes, over the weekend I’ll grab a local and check/improve. Thinking about an introductory MM page as well; the problem with character courses is that a character on its own might not always have meaning, or it does but is not used on its own. Having a rough idea of a character (recognition associated with a general meaning) and how to write it, should be the aim.
Just found a course with the exact same setup. Same list of most most used characters and converted into Traditional Chinese: https://www.memrise.com/course/279137/top-1000-traditional-chinese-characters/
Coincidentally I was thinking of re-doing the course based on a list of about 4000 most used characters compiled by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.
@oli2904 ~ I hope all is well with you.
I just took a look at the course you listed above, and it appears that I am #34 on the all-time points list for it, but quite frankly I don’t even remember taking it (I have taken so many Chinese courses on Memrise). I also took a look at the setup that it presents with each character, and it is nowhere near as detailed as what you are offering. Yours may only have 200 characters but I will stick with it, rather than continue on with this other course (which I obviously abandoned a long time ago). Hopefully once your course goes public, others will gravitate to it, and find the richness that it offers.
The MOE is a goldmine here in Taiwan (in terms of learning opportunities and resource availability). 
Hi @pdao, doing good thanks, hope the same goes for you despite the weather lately. MOE is indeed a goldmine, such a contrast to other government websites. They have a frequently used characters list (can find it via the teaching resources). The main page is http://stroke-order.learningweb.moe.edu.tw/home.do for those who are not familiar with the site.
The 200 characters is just a beginning , Jun Da’s list reaches 10K. Just wanted to take a break and look back because a lot of the “short meanings” need improvement, how do you distinguish between 4,5, or more characters each meaning “and” in English? At first glance the MOE list appears cleaner and with 4K characters, more than enough for a decent size course.
Definitely take a break and clear the mind.
I was going to tackle the 200 characters on the weekend (when I am hopefully over this nasty flu and I have more time and less interruptions). 10k characters are a lot for a course(s), not just for learners, but mostly for creators. THAT’S A LOT OF WORK !!! 4k is more reasonable, for all parties concerned.
Speaking from experience, I think 4k is still too much and a waste of time. Well before you’re at that point it would be much better to just start consuming native content and learning any unknown characters from and in context.
Also it’s very important to use the right dictionary. I used the cc-cedict and I regret that.
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4K is indeed too much, I’ll probably skip some along the way and definitely keep it under 2K. I’m using at least two dictionaries to compare and find a best matching meaning. Do you have a particular dictionary to suggest?