tldr: Provide options for users to choose / customize different themes.
To whom it may concern, I suggest adding options to let users change the theme of the app and website UI so that whatever design mistake does not plague everyone’s user experience.
Having used or been using various language learning apps including Duolingo, LingoDeer, and Lingvist, I have to say the current theme of Memrise is the worst of all, and the previous theme was totally fine.
The reason I purchased a permanent subscription of Memrise is that a) I like the repetition system, b) the real human pronunciations, and c) a reasonably wide choice of languages. The spaceship theme was not really a focus.
To me the old theme, although not perfect, worked well and I could totally ignore the design of it, which is imo exactly what a good design should achieve: subtle and not drawing attention from the content.Tthe different colors for different types of courses were a big bonus; the geometrical shapes and dark purple looked cool and rational. Then everything was disrupted by a flashy yellow new interface with overly thick font face on the buttons. It is true that I realized what is essential to the UI only when I lost it.
Among the apps I mentioned above, the best interface I find is by Lingvist, which looks premium, professional, and comfortable, no distracting yellow buttons. They also come with a similar repetition system as Memrise. The only reason I did not purchase their subscription is they just don’t have many languages to learn. Yellow itself is not necessarily bad if you look at LingoDeer, whose brand color is also yellow and they do a good job to keep the UI tuned down and not distracting. Duolingo is the one having a colorful but organized interface similar to the old Memrise, and what stopped me using it was the weird silly sentences and computer generated audios. Overall, Memrise has a good repetition system, a wide choice of languages and other courses, it is a good deal to subscribe, but the UI now is pushing me away.
Please consider providing options for users and I believe that will make everyone happier.
I think there’s validity in what some people have said here and there, that yellow and black are a warning colour scheme in nature which is why we find it offputting. It certainly explains why I have a really negative reaction to even clicking on one of the yellow buttons - I have to force myself to do so (well, actually I’ve just gone to Decks full time, although the big blocky icons are migrating there too by the looks of it, if not the colour scheme). And I’m really not a sensitive soul usually, if anyone had said it about another website I’d have laughed quietly and thought, “Really, the colour is putting you off clicking it? Don’t be absurd.” But that’s the effect it’s having on me here on Memrise. It’s really odd, and I’m really surprised that nobody in the office during the testing/beta phases said, “Wow that’s ugly… no we can’t have that.”
Je suis tut à fait d’accord avec cette demande. Le choix des nouvelles couleurs est désastreux, et je vais cacher l’icone qui autrefois figurait en bonne place sur mon écran d’accueil. C’est vraiment dommage que la laideur du contenant fasse perdre l’intérêt de la qualité du contenu !
There’s always the option to let the end user select between the beehive color scheme and a more toned down scheme via preferences and CSS scripting, it’s not exactly rocket science with web client programming.
I absolutely agree with this. The new layout is jarring and honestly makes it difficult for my ADHD brain to navigate; I didn’t realize how much I relied on the color coordination of the various categories of exercises until they were gone.
The UI is hideous and not particularly user friendly. Please put it back, or at the very least let us voluntarily elect to have it while others keep the new. Thanks.
I utterly agree. I loved the old interface, and loved being able to build new aliens. Sure it was a little silly, but it became one of my motivational factors for coming to the site, so I could see my alien grow and change.
Also, most of my old progress was lost in the change so I had to redo lessons. I want to be able to test out of easy levels.
Duolingo is good, really good. Babble is also ok, but not as fun. Rocket German is good, but a bit tedious. The old Memrise really got me addicted to learning. Now it’s a bit more Ugh.
The new layout is jarring and honestly makes it difficult for my ADHD brain to navigate; I didn’t realize how much I relied on the color coordination of the various categories of exercises until they were gone. Official Site
I would also greatly appreciate themes. I’m a dark theme person… All this white is hard on my eyes and I spend a lot of my time studying. A color pallet option, for custom theme designs, would be really, really nice. And then you don’t have to create different themes you want to release, you can just let us do it ourselves.
And how about an icon set choice as well? That way we can tailor the site to our tastes, without having big, bright and colorful shoved at us. I would prefer sleek and dark.