For those of us on “Pro” we do have a daily streak which I have talked much about.
Namely I visit daily but flit between subjects and courses (as one can’t have long streaks on short courses - without some clever tricks). [For the record I hit 100 and quit that course afterwards as it was a nice number.]
Sadly the clock stops at 365 even thought I have kept this up some 3 year or more. (No chance now but I also asked for a 1 year, 2 year etc badge.)
that is simply not true… (but i understand that you advocated such change, as you believe in gaming, but children dont play the same games rom 2 to 18… ) Too many hurdles? so it is indeed about dumbing down, again?
most people got the meaning of the old badges, and we had many discussions in the old fora on mempress and overlady and overcat and cat with the nose in the milk cream and why that sword (will ziggy get instead the nato-usa shield against … whatever?).
Do not extrapolate from yourself to others. This horrible ziggy hookes exactly whom? and it is way too big! and it is extremely condescending (“evolution level”, jeezieee) ! I’ve been learning for years now and dislike this arrogance obvious in the “joke” that some poorly designed neopet made the learning for me
anyhow, thanks again for those lines of code!
This is extrapolating from yourself. We both don’t know whether the millions of new users “got” the meaning of the names. I’m going to guess no, because many will not speak English so they will not know what a “memocrat” is supposed to be. Your comments about “Ziggy” and how it is implemented on the site is beside my point (do I have a point?) Only thing I did was ask a question:
yeah, it’s live … but for me it couldn’t die soon enough
Like a lot of people I was a big fan of the gardening theme and started using memrise almost 5 years ago. Having worked in branding, a couple things stand out to me:
I feel they have an overestimated ideal of what people want in memrise, and that vision is what is pushing forward. This marketing style has the feel of someone involved in large corporate projects around 2007-2008 when the look of mobile was just starting. It also feels like there’s a heavy focus on a “tweens” demographic that is more and more abandoning what is “cool” for an older audience and the marketing-focused group probably has experience with that demographic.
I’m not going to insult the art style, because it’s not objectively bad, it’s just that it’s targeted to the very young. The language and art style and energy used on the website now takes very little “risk” in what would be considered appropriate to kids. Even if they did decide to just target kids, the style is coming across as preschool. This simple, lack of risk that goes much too elementary points to someone who oversaw a younger demographic, but has a clear disconnect from more corporate work. What was okayed from the memrise designers was likely done so not because this is the best of their talent, but because it’s what that dominating vision mentioned before is giving the OK to.
-If they really had passion for this style, why are certain app features not well thought-out?
-If they need a Ziggy, why not lend customization where points are used to allocate certain enhancements to Ziggy for interactivity and uniqueness? I’m personally not a fan of the Ziggy direction, but there are clear pathways to take advantage of the G rated, kid-friendly lean. Them not doing that is what gives me the feeling of that domineering push of sporadic ideas, vs. a coordinated vision.
Basic marketing color theory shows that purple stirs creativity in the brain, but instead of working that into the website theme, they slathered purple everywhere, without being subtle about it. Thoughts on color-brain relationship should be second to the identity of the website and brand. I can think of tons of directions they could have taken the style of the site that would still be G-rated. Evernote comes to mind with the subtle green in the logo and and essentially stylized notepad. Or take a step further and look at the art style of the Wii game Okami. For a border-less simple app direction look at the meditation app “headspace”.
Not really sure what i’m trying to get at here, except for users to just realize there’s likely a vision that is pushing those changes that seem ridiculous that just happens to be off-target and that hopefully once that vision is considered “met”, regardless of being in space or a website about magical penguins, then we will begin to see the more creative forces that make sense come back to play.
@Wuxian, my plea again (now in a closed thread): Coming Soon - New Ranks
QUOTE:
Having just read the first post above and tried out the Android App (see [App & Site Feedback] Differences between the WEB version and an APP version) I think there is a good case for two MemRise versions.
The Space App - which has evolved over the last two years or so, with all the ‘features’ and gizmos and
The original web version with planting, ranks, multimedia levels etc as experienced on the web several years ago, when keen users created a whole host of non-language courses to enhance the user’s experience.
UNQUOTE
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a choice what ‘skin’ we wanted to see.
Thankfully Ziggy (Stardust) MemRise fits well on my icon (you can still see the ‘angel’) - in fact quite topical!
Also shows the 365 learning streak.
hehehe, here is my new avatar: punch パンチ is making fun of ziggy
ehm ehm, don’t copy me please, all rights reserved
How do you view your last 365 day learning stat?
First rate post.
Hi @KingSinbad, re:
How do you view your last 365 day learning stat?
See post above Ziggy is now live! - #135 by DW7.
Are you a paid-up pro member? It will under your Avatar and Streak Clock, click on the “More”.
I joined memrise because I liked the gaming-like character. I love languages, but I have trouble keeping my vocabulary updated.
I felt like Memrise solved this for me. The “planting” and “watering” in addition to the puns around the ranks was exactly what I needed to make myself come back, giving me motivation to pass my language exams without difficulties.
When that “watering”-design was taken away, I lost a part of that motivation. Well, it’s obviously only words, but it did mean something to me, and I won’t give up hope that it might come back one day.
When the hills and the day/ night designs were taken away, I didn’t feel comfortable either, now being faced with a dull astronaut and an empty banner in a color I cannot define.
If the old desings were too outdated, then why not make a collected set of possibilities for us to choose from? (Since there were comments about changing the astronaut with some more designs at some point anyway?)
Well, and now seeing a weird alien covering my profile picture.
A nice and cute idea to bring the life back to the website, but I agree to those saying that it is too childish. It reminds me of some of the mascots I used to have in my primary schools homework books.
Of course it needs time to adapt to the new system, but I also don’t feel like a number based level system fits to a language/ science/ general knowledge learning website.
I know perfectly well that a site needs to progress to not become boring and I’m usually not the one quitting something just because of some changes, so please don’t get this wrong; I still like memrise and I will of course continue using it, but I’m not as happy with what it became as I might should be.
So many people including me prefer the previous icons to “Ziggy” because they are not children. I am wondering what reaction the Memrise Team has to such a great number of users’ opinions. I hope the team will give us options about the signs of ranks or levels.
great now i have to make 12 mil… ! 
@lurkmoophy, @Memrise
First … at least something nice 
I really do like the new rewamp of my profile page in iOS app in general terms. Thanks.
I am happy person to be not discouraged, neither motivated by the new Teletubies ziggy avatars. I miss the old names of badges, though. If I had choise, I would keep generaly more mature look.
The Ziggy’s size in front of the avatar is of some concern too, it deforms and disfigurate some of the pictures, often portraits of fellow users.
I hope the design work is somehow to the end and team will be happy to focus on some non-design features… preferentially some functionalities of apps. And to make apps more variable … having some options in settings - for example related to mems.
Last, but not least :
STREAK BADGES!!! …
Missing them is a blunder … unlike teletubies they had my ass working really hard to not have a gapin learning … And I was a bit judgemental about others through them too … and why not- comparing and competing is big motivation.
I would recomend:
A) Bring back streak badges!!!
B) Start to work on “skin option” in app setting - mature look and the default look (now the Ziggy) or maybe more skins later (?)
C) I would recomend - make Ziggy a bit smaller (in app) and/or out of profile photo.
D) Give the higher ranks … lets say above the level 10 mem-based names similar to past ones… Member, … Meminence … Mem-Overlord (or what).
E) Finaly get over with the design already, and make people happy by working on funkcionalities in apps (through additional settings) related to mems for example … (I like your new courses, however some words are pesky and without mems I am failing them all over … why would mems be omitted by default for all of us? Let people have an opt-in and opt-out choises here and in other instances too).
I was happy to reccomend Memrise to my friends in the past. I hope, that not only I will keep educate myself in the future, but I will keep recomending this to others as well.
P.S. last recommendation - do something about visibility of this forum … both in apps and web. It is close to impossible to find it, or even to be aware of its existence … and that is actually due to design choises too … give it some priority in the design too!!!
Your plea makes sense and I agree with it as far as giving people what they want, but you also have to look at it from their perspective. Your suggestion wouldn’t only be making 2 products, but two identities of the products. It would be like making coke commercials that are fun, then also making commercials that are connecting intelligence to coke. Both are valid angles, but they don’t create a unified brand.
Whoever’s making the bigger decisions right now is prioritizing:
-the app,
-probably the potential for implementation in schools, which is leading to the more childish makeover. The leader’s experience is probably effecting that “lack of risk” and super tuned down version because previous projects in different companies were successful with that focus. So instead of finding something that balances all ages, like the multi-levels of Pixar/Disney movies for example, they are going more Teletubby. Even their advertisement tactics are focused on the young. I mean, I bought the premium membership because I was sick of the large pink buttons everywhere and things telling me what I didn’t have. I’m pretty sure that if they asked for a yearly $10 donation and were more transparent about goals, almost everyone would donate. Contrast that now where most people are paying for features that they don’t use because they want to support the site, and the slow turn in directions people don’t want leads to resentment.
I mean, look at how random that trip across Europe to record native speaking video was. It was a pretty cool idea, but I mean, why get that done so soon after a beta website grows in popularity and app functionality is in it’s baby steps?
It just gives me the feeling that one central force is throwing out very large ideas without understanding the product and it’s leading the development team to be yes-men and yes-ladies. Again, not criticizing their skill, just the allocation of that skill while abandoning the very important identity of the product.
The main dissent is because users that are bothered by some of the changes are at odds with the new product that places importance on things that they don’t agree with.
While the Ziggy character is really not motivating for someone in their later teens, I can see why they chose it (I still prefer the old badges/their titles).
What I really don’t understand is the move towards using numbers to define levels, i.e. Level 1, Level 2, etc. It’s honestly giving me flashbacks to my grinding days playing MMORPGs like Maplestory. I liked that the old badges didn’t have any numbers associated with them, so I felt like going from a Meminence to a Memperor was actually worth the 2.333x additional points to get there. Now I’m left with…just a number? And a cartoon character?
Also, for the love of god, please put in commas. I cannot read 14478690 as 14,478,690 easily and it’s really quite distressing. This isn’t that hard to code (just make the number into a string and take the last three digits and insert a comma, then take the second to last three digits and insert a comma before that, etc.)
Also, what’s up with the un-round numbers? I have 16,771,310 points right now, and 16,771,310 + 14,478,690 = 31,250,000. This just feels arbitrary now. Of course, it’s technically no more arbitrary than 50,000,000 or 15,000,000 or 18,329,582, but 50,000,000 is at least easier to remember and feels more like some kind of an accomplishment. You should at least put the total points needed below the +14478690 number, also formatted with commas, so that we don’t have to pull out our calculators to see how much farther we need to go.
Thanks - I do understand and largely agree, but perhaps we do have two products/ identities already.
In a way, all I am asking is for the app to keep it’s new look for that market (and those who like that format [and I do find it has some advantages]) and the web version to be rolled back to what we were using.
This might give them a much wider market!
At the moment they do look different although the branding is slowly being incorporated.
Blockquote
In a way, all I am asking is for the app to keep it’s new look for that market (and those who like that format [and I do find it has some advantages]) and the web version to be rolled back to what we were using.
@DW7 … please do not forget, that website is necessary part of united system of experience of app users. It is meant to as a kind of … I would call it “service point” … where you can search for new courses (in Android app you can not search for them), Ignore/unignore words, go through dashboard details, search for mempals, upload mems etc … it is MEANT to be so. Users of apps are relegated to web to do this, it is not meant to be hidden from them, it is just meant so, that web is supposed to give them other wider experience on top of their everyday experience day have with app … (and it is written so in guide and help pages for both the apps) and I believe this orientation is wise and good.
However it also mean, when the app users are going to web version of their account, they have to feel at home.
There must be the same branding and feeling to app and web.
What I am proposing is opt-in skin in account setting.
For example do you now, that if You are user in Wikipedia you may activate several completely different makeovers of the site as your setting? This is hidden in personal setting in a way that does not bother general branding for the Wikipedia … yet it is possible to use it when you are knowledgeable about that setting.
