Personally, I can live with the new design but it would be nice if users were given the option to switch to the old if they like
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My initial reaction to the new design when I opened the app just now was one of horror. After taking a couple of minutes to look at it properly, I don’t think it’s as bad as my gut reaction thought. I don’t mind the colours of the part that has replaced the planets, and I’m glad to see the process is the same when clicking to learn new words.
However, I would prefer a return to the review types (classic review, speed test etc.) being colour coded so they’re easier to distinguish at a glance.
Also, PLEASE remove that hideous yellow. It looks jarring compared to the more pastel shade of the other colours used. The saving grace was it seemed to be used only for the buttons at the bottom of app, but when learning new words I discovered it’s also the colour of the in-app keyboard. I don’t feel that shade of yellow matches this new aesthetic at all.
I haven’t had a chance to play around with the app fully just yet, so those are all of my points for now. Hopefully I’ll have nothing more to add!
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Hi Matthew welcome to the forum!
Thanks for your comment. As mentioned by Olivia, this is a test and a statement regarding the motivations for the work will be discussed in due course.
In the interest of clarity, could you elaborate on the below?
Specifically the “key aspects” that you feel has been lost in this new design. Be interested to hear.
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Kinda dull. What if the users had the option to choose their own colors? So far titles you could choose orange etc. As that means this customization would allow the users to have their best choice. Instead of finding what the majority likes.
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Oh beige, the sexiest of colours.
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Just from the screenshot above, can’t you see how inefficient space-wise it is? Two lessons and whitespace. Before it made sense with the whole planets-space metaphor, but now… It’s just jarring.
It’s proverbial putting lipstick on a pig.
It was one of the apps which attempted to gamify learning with some success, with inviting look suggesting playfulness, now it’s suggesting boring education, if the quality of content would follow I’d be possibly fine with that but we all know that it’s been lagging for years.
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I like your comment. Yeah I felt I am colorblind when I saw the latest app.
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Thanks for feedback. Regarding use of space and elements present, by-and-large this roll out will be a re-skin - very little functional elements have been modified.
On that point, it is a first step followed by further iterations. Hence our genuine interest in hearing what you have to say. Your feedback has been noted, proverbial lipstick pig ‘n’ all.
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Ok boy, that does look a bit like a taxi website, doesn’t it. But I suppose the main problem expressed here probably is the (humanly) general dislike to adapt to design changes, particularly regarding things that are being used extensively (I usually spend 1-3h/day with the Memrise app alone).
I’d say I don’t like it much at first sight, but function over design - if this also fixes (at least a few) of the problems, I’d be happy and I’m sure I could get used to the new design.
However, …
This is a very troublesome observation: we’re talking ergonomics here. I’m a software developer myself and ergonomics are my life blood. A first class application (technically) can easily be next to unusable if the ergonomics are wrong. In very many applications I’ve come across over the last 25 years, this was the biggest problem. Color coding is one very simple and extremely efficient means that seems to be overseen by many developers.
@MemriseOwen and @OliviaZavala: All that being said and since I haven’t actually seen the new design myself yet, may I just recommend that you do not make yourself fall into the category of apps that look good/hip at first sight, but in so doing ruin good mechanisms that have been in place for a long time.
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Well, that’s pretty sad and exactly what I was afraid of. It seems that some designer took over and just tried making everything look fancier. He/she completely failed to pay attention to usability and/or ergonomics. Utter failure in my opinion.
BTW - Apple made the same mistake some 10 or 15 or so years ago. They “flattened” their icons and made them all the same colour. What a grand failure. Strangely enough, colours soon returned.
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@Hombre_sin_nombre - Constructive criticism is welcome, but I would advise you to refresh yourself with our community guidelines should you have any other feedback to give.
People that post nonsense, false statements, attack other members of the community or staff and diverts attention from the main purpose of this community will receive a system warning and be banned.
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Finally, someone competent who understands the problem.
Hence one of my comments about well established UX guidelines somewhere above.
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We’re well aware that’s just “dumb” reskin, hence my lipstick comment. And that’s exactly where the issues stem from. I’ve been long enough in this field to understand why such superficial decisions are made.
Let’s just say there’s not much regard for an end user. We’ll see how much regard is left when it’s launched outside of the beta.
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Can you elaborate? The blog and website still feature the same Corporate Design that they had ever since I started using Memrise in Oct. 2017 (minus minor amendments).
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They have changed the platform branding which may includes product names, logo designs, tag lines, brand placement, color scheme and so forth. The website will be the next to receive an update.
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Hi Owen,
I really liked that the buttons weren’t too big or “in your face”, and that the fact that the buttons were mostly a bit transparent, ensured that they didn’t block anything behind them.
I also loved how the buttons for each activity (learn new words, pronounciation etc.) had different colours associated with them. Now, they are all dark blue icons with a light blue background, which completely takes away the familiarity and character that the old app used to have.
I think if in the current design, the buttons (e.g. the one for classic review) was made smaller, more transparent, and had the original colours added back in some way, I would not be opposed to the rest of the changes.
Thank you, and I really do hope you take this into consideration.
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I do agree. This latest update seems massively empty and full of white space. Before it was dynamic and fun 
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Hi everyone,
I’ve been going through your feedback and thank you all for taking the time to express your thoughts and feelings about the new design. I probably won’t have time to reply to each of you individually, so I wanted to outline a few points that I hope will be good food for a conversation.
The design update has gone out to our Android beta testers and a small percentage of Android users. We won’t be releasing the test to iOS. As noted above by Owen, this is a reskin. Meaning that we aren’t changing any app functionality with the update.
It’s hard to know what to make of any change without context - everything can seem arbitrary, out of place and a sign of more unexpected things to come. This is why we will be sharing with you the why and how this refresh came about once the test is over. But, in short, this is part of Memrise growing and making space to build new, richer, livelier, learning experiences - inspired by research and feedback from users like you.
I hope that you’ll grant us a few days while we get this info out before dismissing the new design entirely, but we still welcome all feedback you have! Myself, Owen and other Memrise team members will be gathering your thoughts and we’ll strive to communicate better with you as we move forward.
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