Have a couple only marginally related topics here, and didn’t want to make two new threads.
I just started promoting some gold cards to platinum. About 4 months from now, if I get them correct, then I’m no longer going them here. It’s a bit scary - from experience I know that some items can truly become unforgettably ingrained. I learned about ~800 kanji back during my WaniKani days. I haven’t really used the language except for in passing in years and I still remember super common stuff like 勉強. And this time around, I’m doing a tone of immersion. But I’m worried about the random vocabulary that I don’t (yet) see in immersion. Like 体会 or 跟进 and many more I have never encountered.
Is there any research behind ending the system at 4 months? Will we be able to requeue items or have any higher SRS tiers? Would appreciate any kind of thoughts for those who have already reached a high level of character recognition.
On a related subject, is there any UI roadmap? especially SRS grades. I wish I could somehow see the set of items in each tier. I also wish in the curriculum page it was more clear what the level of each item is. Lastly I wish there was a “Go to HSK block X” in the curriculum page for characters. In the beginning it was easy enough to just scroll, but now it has to load more. I regularly use this page to scout out any characters I’ve seen in immersion that I want to prioritize.
About the mastered items, to me a key feature added to WK was the “extra study” of burned items.
What happens to me, and I assume to others, is that the review order has a contextual effect on how well I remember things.
For example, if I learned certain hanzi around the same period of time, when they come up again 4 months later, I remember their connection and can get them right more easily than I could in isolation.
Or, similarly, I might have been able to progress a lot on a certain hanzi because it had a distinct component or look that helped me recognize it. But who’s to say months later, after I have mastered it, I won’t learn other hanzi that look very similar to that one? Would I still be able to recognize it as easily?
I.e: It’s easy enough to remember 感 now, but what about after I’ve learned 咸, 減, 憾, 撼, etc.?
Having the ability to go back to the mastered items and mix them up in ways that the review cycle didn’t allow can be very useful for this. Maybe if you’re doing enough immersion it’s not as necessary, but I think it can still be valuable.
We do want to “refresh” the SRS grades as the current colorscheme makes it difficult to discern which SRS stage you’re on unless you navigate to the item page
As for more advanced filtering/searching of the curriculum, it’s another thing we would like to tackle. The current infinite scroll page could be significantly better, especially for those who are further along.
You raise a strong point/user scenario about “hunting” for characters: providing tools to sift through the curriculum would make character prioritization shine
The alternative modes of study, like “extra study” is another idea that I think would help a lot. Recent mistakes studying too. Lots of good ideas here!
As for re-queuing items, the current idea we have is an ability to reset items at a certain SRS stages. That + custom study options like “extra study” I think would help with worries around forgetting higher tiered items–one could just bump it down or do another review
I may have missed a few points, but I appreciate the thoughts! It helps us figure out what we should work on next
The comprehensive curriculum pages were mentioned here so this is where I’ll put my 2 cents on them. I have been thinking along the same lines as those who posted here and was surprised to find they already mentioned it. Since it is on my mind I’ll give a second witness to their words.
-I love being able to look up items on the comprehensive curriculum pages that have every word, character, and component listed. I don’t know if it is just my computer, but I do find it a little aggravating that I have to wiggle my mouse over the sliding bar that moves you from section to section (I’m sure that has a technical name). Not everything loads all at once. I noticed you addressed this forever-scrolling page here and know it’s an issue. I look forward to however you fix it! I’m not a fan of wiggling my mouse over the side bar multiple times to load the next set of characters.
-I use the comprehensive curriculum pages regularly to look up items. I write every new lesson down in a notebook initially. It helps me remember because of the hand and eye coordination aspect, but I also find it valuable to try to write the character in the correct order at least once. I used to look up items in my notebook but after a few hundred, looking through my notes became too time consuming… though I still write them down as I learn them in the lessons. Your pages are currently faster than my notes.
Thanks for the feedback! It’s great for us to see that most of the things we have planned in the near and medium term should address most of these issues.
Here are some of the changes we hope to tackle in the coming months:
Redoing the curriculum list pages
At least making it easier to sort by HSK level, stage, and “last reviewed”, among other things. IMO these are the worst and most janky pages in HanziHero so this will be done fairly soon, probably in the next month. This will be more or less a full rewrite of those pages.
Extra study modes
Adding extra study modes, which will likely be modeled on WaniKani’s version of the same. “Recent mistakes”, “Recently learned”, and “Finished items”. This would allow one to go over those items casually at any time without actually affecting any of their SRS timings. The “finished items” would allow one to double check that what they “finished” is really cemented in their mind.
SRS stage reset
Lastly, we plan to add an ability to reset individual items within the application. So if one ends up “finishing” an item and comes across this situation, they can navigate to the item and reset it. I think in practice most users would probably just use the “finished items” extra study mode, but this would be another option.
Is this still being looked as a possible upgrade? My extra study review only has one option: recently learned. I am looking forward to having the extra options implemented.
