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
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How do you view your last 365 day learning stat?
First rate post.
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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If the old desings were too outdated, then why not make a collected set of possibilities for us to choose from?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.
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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.
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great now i have to make 12 mil… ! 
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@lurkmoophy, @Memrise
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!!!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I hate the new scheme. I will be some childish alien forever now. And at my current tempo of learning, only 50 more years to go to the last level. I’ll be 104 by then, probably long dead. Motivating? Not at all - and without the streak badges there’s even less. If you learn half an hour a day, it would be reasonable to reach the last level within, say, 5 or 10 years. I wont extend my pro account.
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i don’t care for ziggy
it’s too childish
and i certainly hate the level numbers
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Thanks for that calculation, I agree.
As I’ve said elsewhere:
a) I think loyalty to a daily visit (whether learning or watering/ reviewing/ consolidating) should be acknowledged (cf my three or so years continual appearance shown as 365 days - still), and
b) I’m here for the fun and for learning - not driven by a badge or level system.
I’m conscious how it can be addictive to the detriment of socialising (and even here counts )
And I like supporting courses and users - I learn that way too!
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In my humble opinion, Ziggy lacks the subtle humor of the old system. Guys, can I just have my old status back? To achieve the badges actually meant something to me, whereas I find Ziggy rather silly.
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You have a point in including schools and the change of the design in that direction. But the teaching option existed a while already, even though I cannot tell how well it actually have been performing/ used.
But honestly, in my opinion there has never been a need to break the whole main design down, that already was directed to a younger audience, as well as adults that either can identify with general gaming, or just love some color and fun in their learning habit.
The background, the puns and the animations of the plants were actually what I would have wanted as a learning help in primary/ middle school already and I think it’s a shame that I only later got to it.
Unfortunately, young kids like one thing, and they might like the new design, while teens think that it’s waaay too embarrassing. I think the new design doesn’t even start nailing it as much as the original concept for kids over 10/12 years.
And in addition to that memrise with its empty banner and dark colors now actually looks pretty closed and cold, while the mountains gave freshness and perspective. So Ziggy might be directed to under 10 year olds, but the rest doesn’t seem to be.
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the whole discussion is pointless… someone decided this change toward pre-school and they will not back off … they never did, no matter what. We had this type of discussions for many years now. For users and creators such as myself, this is just another warning: learn faster more faster more faster faster, be ready to be pushed away/to leave.
I think @Wuxian is right (however, purple is also associated with certain types of acute danger - from here the fact that many adult users find the opening page to ressemble a nuclear disaster site…I have a neurosurgeon in the family, told me that looking over my shoulder at my memrise)
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I do not like the new ranks. As a PRO user (ie, paying customer), I would most definitely vote for the old system to come back. I was Meminence, and I was so proud of it. Now I am what? An uninspiring “Level 14”? When I saw the freakish little creature a few days ago, I thought Memrise had a system problem and that everything would come back to normal soon. But it didn’t. And now we are going to live with this terrible new ranks system? Please at least give us the choices.
@Lien
@BeaTrisy
@JBorrego
@Joshua
@Alessioatmemrise
@lurkmoophy
@MemriseMatty
@OliviaZavala
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