“It’s a bit easier” is exactly what it is. Only that it’s not a bit but “a lot”. With colour coding you only need a glimpse to know where to click to start a review session. This applies particularly in the app where is suggests the next type of lesson (i.e. review, learn, speed test, etc.).
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Out of curiosity how many different modes are you using during your typical session and do you use different modes when you’re learning different languages?
We’ll consider alternative solutions to make distinguishing between modes easier.
During a typical session I’ll start out with difficult words (if there are any), then I’ll review all words in the queue, all using the (Android) app. If there’s new difficult words, I’ll usually take care of those again.
Subsequently I’ll learn new words. For most courses I’ll use the app for that as well, but for i. e. the x-thousand words courses or for languages that I learn easily I tend to use the Web version as I can use a script there to flag them as learned right away (it’d be so great to have a means of doing so in both the app and on the Web without having to rely on scripts et al!).
However, for languages that do not come quite as easily (such as Russian and sometimes Danish and Swedish), I learn less quickly and tend to do more reviewing. In these cases I often use the speed review to kind of give it an additional “push”. When starting out a language, I also quite often go through the native videos as they’re fun and allow me to hear more than the regular voice(s) and voicings supplied in the course itself.
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But without color coding it is difficult for people choose/select the mode they want. It is overwhelming look at those icons with the same color.
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Isn’t that what a user friendly UI is all about though? Things being a little easier for the user?
I’ve always thought of the colour coding as a genius UI implementation from you guys, so I’ll be sad to see that removed.
It may very well be that we can do without the colours, but then you absolutely need to “blow up” the size of those icons.
Consider this comparison:
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That is a very good point!
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I don’t know where the first screenshot was taken, I guess something big like a tablet? I agree that in that case the icons are ridicolously tiny and out of scale compared to the screen.
But for comparison I wanted to show how that screen looks on my Samsung Galaxy, which is with icons even bigger than with your resizing to the right.
Which, at least for me, makes it easier than before to choose the right mode because the symbols are so big, why before I would click the wrong mode a lot.
(not advocating against colours, mind you)
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That looks a lot better. 
Yeah, the previous screenshot might have been from a tablet. Memrise has always been very poorly scaled for tablets, all UI elements turn out too small… Hope they can improve that. 
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please change the new app design or show a way to get back to the previous version of the app.
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Thank you for the recommendation @SKKreativ, I’ll pass this to our Design team. As I’ve commented previously in this thread, we’ll soon share more information about the rationale and context of the redesign. I hope that will shed more insight into how this is helping us pave the way for the future of our products and brand. But I’m still interested to hear your thoughts on how the design lacks in terms of building brand image?
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@OliviaZavala Wouldn’t it be advisable to do that before it started rolling out to stable users? Unless you don’t care about confusing/angering them…
Hi Olivia, thank you for taking the time to consider my comment. I will be looking forward to seeing the rationale from the designers with their current choices. For now, this is my initial opinion in regards to brand image. I feel like there is not a strong direction for the colour scheme, which results in a weak brand image. There are no links between visual elements and the chosen colours, for example, the yellow hue seems out of place amongst all the other pale blue hues. To achieve a stronger connection with the brand image you could reference the yellow to a rising sun which can be associated with the phonology of “rise” in the word Memrise, as well as it ties into the theme of planting a seed and the sun will tie into the plant theme (I hope this makes sense). Duolingo has a strong brand image because it associates a particular green hue with its mascot and the same hue can be found throughout different elements. When I think of Duolingo I think of the green hue, when I think of Memrise I have no colour associations. The only association I have is with the colour purple, which ties into the space theme. However, in the new design it appears this concept has been averted.
In regards to the overall style, it appears that the flat design has been utilised, the major drawback with this style is it feels lifeless and can be a little boring, perhaps utilising the style of material design would work a little better especially in creating contrast for clickable elements. Current icons just feel to unrefined and could benefit from more detail. The icons in the review section being the same hue contributes to a lack of contrast.
For the design direction, I would like to see the plant theme develop more because it makes sense with the learning progress. Planting a seed and then working to learn words resulting in the growth of the plant is a great visual for metaphorically measuring the progress of that particular word. Then watering it references making the plant/word in the memory stronger. This concept makes more sense, that is why I was not too fond of the space theme as the ideologies crashed together.
I am also not too fond of the main middle section which displays the levels that contain all those circular shapes, it takes up too much space and is visually confusing. The design all makes it harder for the user to browse the level as they have to scroll a lot. This layout worked ok with the space theme because it tied in with the whole planet look and the feeling that the rocket was ascending into space. However, for the new look it does not make sense.
I hope my feedback is helpful and not too confusing. I am sure some of my points would be corrected once I see the rationale.
Regards.
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Yes, I agree. When we had this theme before, it made complete sense and the associated imagery used on the Memrise site gave it a much more ‘welcoming’ feel. I, for one, would like to see its return.
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Could you please consider the introduction of the the night mode? The last beta design is eye-killing when using the app in dark environment. Or could you possibly make the background colours a user-defined option? It would considerably improve the experience.
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Just got the Android update and goodness I hope this isn’t replicated for the Decks app. I really really want to give positive constructive criticism, especially after Memrise did us a solid by rethinking the Decks no app/offline fiasco, but this makes it sooooo hard.
I echo the comment about this redesign looking like an accessibility mode for colorblindness. My first reaction was that it’s utterly garish, and to marvel at how generally web/app design progresses and improves while Memrise feels like a social experiment in how much devolution customers will withstand. I wish I could find a way to put that more gently, but it makes me feel like something is wrong with my eyes. My attention is completely drawn to the hand and seed images and away from all of the important information I’m actually using the app for. A major step backwards in usability IMO.
Apologies to those involved in the hard work of creating this, but by appearances quality control just wasn’t there in this case.
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I just got the update now as well.
I think I can get used to most parts of the new design just from trying it out a little bit… except the Home tab. The whole “circles” thing (for each level) does not make sense without the Space theme. Now it’s just obvious how much screen space is wasted. Too much empty space.
Does not look good at all. Other than that, it looks sort of OK. I suppose it will get better with time… 
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I can’t speak for the OP but it is tacky and offputting. The old design was sleek and professional looking, and even kind of fun, whereas the new interface looks like an unfinished product with colours that don’t fit well together. Even the icon on my phone is displeasing to the eyes. I know it sounds nit picky but I feel less motivated to use the app with the new interface, especially when so many other apps exist that look good.
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Apparently, the new colour combinations are not good at all for colour-blind or visually-impaired people, if I recall correctly from another thread.
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I quite like the new colours 
What I really like, though, is that speed review is no longer quite so terrifying, as the glaring red that used to race up the screen is now a more subtle shade of red and there also seems to be less of it.
I really like that 
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