User Interface Feedback Thread

[mikelove]

Thought I'd start a separate topic for this, as we're in the midst of working on it - what do you think of our Android UI so far? The visual issues - text where there should be icons, ugly toolbars - are all being dealt with, but we're concerned about usability / ergonomic things like button placements and quick access to important features.

A sample of some specific things we're thinking about:

• Input - Does the new Quick Input Bar option ease the pain a bit on getting into handwriting / keyboard / etc mode? (we may actually even end up using a version of that on iOS to deal with the absolutely terrible discoverability of handwriting input on it) And how's the smoothness / usability of handwriting now in general?
• New flashcard interface - is the layout an improvement over iOS? (tabs on the bottom, audio button there too so no long reach to get to it)
• Combined definition / character info screen - good idea, or too cluttered / too much information?
• Landscape mode (on small-screen devices) - is that too cluttered? Should we maybe put the other tabs on a separate screen?
• Hardware button / keyboard input; what we can we do to make that work better?
• Screen sizes other than normal smartphones, i.e., small-screen phones ("Mini" etc) and tablets; is the interface too cluttered on a small screen / too wasteful on a big one?

Any other feedback on the interface is welcome too - we really want this to be as user-friendly as we can manage for an app that's so incredibly complicated.

 

[boen]

In the "Review Flashcard" menu maybe "Card Categories" could show what categories you have selected without having to go into the sub-menu or remember what you selected. Would have to be scrolling text or something since the space to display the selected category title(s) is quite small.

 

[mikelove]

In the "Review Flashcard" menu maybe "Card Categories" could show what categories you have selected without having to go into the sub-menu or remember what you selected. Would have to be scrolling text or something since the space to display the selected category title(s) is quite small.

Very good idea, thanks! We'd probably have to cap it at half a dozen categories or so (with an "and X more..." for the rest) to keep the list from getting too long, but I don't foresee any problems other than that.

 

[Marc Vermeiren]

Certainly on a tablet, in landscape mode, while practicing characters from flashcards, I would love to be able to draw the character on the flashcard-screen without having to push 'Sketch' on and off.
I tried to see if it was in the setup somewhere, but I get a force close each time (Mike, I sent you a log on the error), so pardon me if it's already in there.

 

[Daan]

On a small-screen HTC Wildfire, the "o" in the "Undo" button on the HWR screen gets booted to a new line, which doesn't look too great.

 

[mikelove]

Certainly on a tablet, in landscape mode, while practicing characters from flashcards, I would love to be able to draw the character on the flashcard-screen without having to push 'Sketch' on and off.
I tried to see if it was in the setup somewhere, but I get a force close each time (Mike, I sent you a log on the error), so pardon me if it's already in there.

Good idea - we'll see if we can find a way to squeeze that in, though some tablet optimizations will probably have to wait for a post-final release.

Thanks for the error log.

On a small-screen HTC Wildfire, the "o" in the "Undo" button on the HWR screen gets booted to a new line, which doesn't look too great.

Good point, thanks! We've got a small-screen Galaxy Mini on order now so we should be able to get things working a lot better on devices with this form factor in general.

 

[boen]

When highlighting a word with the OCR it would be more convenient is there was some symbol to signify that the word in already in your flashcards (duplicate entry) without having to go to the dictionary entry.

 

[mikelove]

When highlighting a word with the OCR it would be more convenient is there was some symbol to signify that the word in already in your flashcards (duplicate entry) without having to go to the dictionary entry.

Good idea - now that we're doing that in other places it makes sense to do that in OCR too, though I'm a bit concerned that it might churn the processor enough to cause the occasional video skip. Certainly worth testing, though.

 

[lattenwald]

On Samsung Galaxy Tab in handwriting mode when scrolling suggestions I found that suggestions can be moved few pixels in vertical direction. Feels a bit wrong.

 

[mikelove]

On Samsung Galaxy Tab in handwriting mode when scrolling suggestions I found that suggestions can be moved few pixels in vertical direction. Feels a bit wrong.

Indeed - which size of Galaxy Tab is this? 7, 10, or something in between?

 

[lattenwald]

Galaxy Tab 7, the first one. In portrait mode only, as landscape layout is different.

 

[mikelove]

Galaxy Tab 7, the first one. In portrait mode only, as landscape layout is different.

OK, we've reproduced this on a 7" tablet here now - thanks.

 

[sthubbar]

Mike,

Some feedback on the interface that may be unique to the HTC Chacha.

The HTC Chacha default layout is landscape and at the bottom (the long side) of the screen there are 4 permanent touch sensitive buttons (Home, Menu, Back, Search).

It would be great if there aren't too many buttons that have to be repetitively pushed at the bottom of the screen.

In particular, in the reader, the next and previous character buttons are at the bottom of the screen. It is almost impossible to be trying to go through text without just missing the screen a little and pressing the permanent row of buttons and being kicked out.

Maybe if there was an option to put that row of buttons at the top or even better, the side of the screen.

 

[mikelove]

It would be great if there aren't too many buttons that have to be repetitively pushed at the bottom of the screen.

In particular, in the reader, the next and previous character buttons are at the bottom of the screen. It is almost impossible to be trying to go through text without just missing the screen a little and pressing the permanent row of buttons and being kicked out.

Maybe if there was an option to put that row of buttons at the top or even better, the side of the screen.

We've made those two buttons also map to the volume buttons for the next beta, though this currently only works in the document reader - we may eventually extend it to other screens, though. It's not really feasible to redesign our UI around every Android device form factor, and the ChaCha is a rather uncommon one, but providing some degree of customization makes sense.

I'm surprised the permanent button row is giving you this sort of problem, though - we've got a Huawei Ideos here that has the same setup (row of buttons right below the display and flush with it) and while that does pose a problem when dragging the Android-standard list scrolling control to the bottom of the screen, it doesn't seem to interfere with the document reader toolbars at all.

 

[Giraffe]

No "cards learned" status in flashcards??

I've been running the beta since it came out and overall I've been very pleased with the look and feel.
BUT ... the main reason I have Pleco is to learn vocab through flashcards, so I was anxiously awaiting that functionality to be added. It's especially important since I've invested a lot of time and effort into my flashcard practice using Pleco on the Palm and my aging Tungsten C will probably die any day (I've already replaced the screen this year by swapping with a spare)

I have to tell you I was really disappointed when I finally installed the most recent release and found that there is apparently (unless I'm missing something) no way to track my daily progress. On the Palm Pleco after every test I would automatically go to the Statistics button and check my "Cards learned" to see whether or not I actually moved the needle that day. It was such a routine that I often wondered why this information wasn't just embedded in the dialog that pops up at the end of the test. Surely everyone always wants to know whether they are making progress.

Now it's very much like playing a video game that never shows you the score.

Is it just that I'm not seeing the right button to press? The new "statistics" seems useless since it forces you to look at each category individually and even then doesn't present you with the one piece of information that you'd actually want to know. I don't care how "easy" Pleco thinks a category is. I mean, it's Chinese! It's all frickin difficult. The one thing I care about is whether I'm actually getting anywhere or spinning my wheels and I need to know this for the entire subset of categories that I'm actually using in my tests.

A couple of lesser complaints while I'm in a ranting mood: what is it with all the flashcard options? I feel like I'm trying to configure an SAP install for a multinational corporation. The bloated flashcard settings were a terrible pain on the Palm and it's much worse on the Android. The epitome for me is the option to change the button configuration by selecting from a long list of cryptic numbers. Do we really need all this tweakability? It's not such a big deal because it's not something I look at every day, but it does seem like poor UX.

Another smaller problem was that the dictionary meanings were not set to display by default in the answers and it took me ages burrowing through the aforementioned settings to figure out how to enable them.

Finally, my history didn't seem to transfer properly from the Palm, so when I ran my first test I was presented with about 800 cards rather than the ~150 I expected. I changed some setting (again flailing through all the options) and then it was only giving me 7 cards. So I'm not sure what's going on there.

So my overall verdict is 5 out of 5 for the dictionary but maybe a 2 out of 5 for the flashcards. Show me how I can track my progress and I'd bump that to a 4.

 

[mikelove]

Re: No "cards learned" status in flashcards??

I have to tell you I was really disappointed when I finally installed the most recent release and found that there is apparently (unless I'm missing something) no way to track my daily progress. On the Palm Pleco after every test I would automatically go to the Statistics button and check my "Cards learned" to see whether or not I actually moved the needle that day. It was such a routine that I often wondered why this information wasn't just embedded in the dialog that pops up at the end of the test. Surely everyone always wants to know whether they are making progress.

Now it's very much like playing a video game that never shows you the score.

Is it just that I'm not seeing the right button to press? The new "statistics" seems useless since it forces you to look at each category individually and even then doesn't present you with the one piece of information that you'd actually want to know. I don't care how "easy" Pleco thinks a category is. I mean, it's Chinese! It's all frickin difficult. The one thing I care about is whether I'm actually getting anywhere or spinning my wheels and I need to know this for the entire subset of categories that I'm actually using in my tests.

Yes, this is actually all a simple labeling bug; if you choose category "None" (= "Flashcards" at the top of the category chooser screen) that will actually give you statistics for all cards. Sorry for the confusion - definitely something we'll deal with in the next beta.

A couple of lesser complaints while I'm in a ranting mood: what is it with all the flashcard options? I feel like I'm trying to configure an SAP install for a multinational corporation. The bloated flashcard settings were a terrible pain on the Palm and it's much worse on the Android. The epitome for me is the option to change the button configuration by selecting from a long list of cryptic numbers. Do we really need all this tweakability? It's not such a big deal because it's not something I look at every day, but it does seem like poor UX.

That particular tweak was actually one that was heavily requested by our Palm/WM users and continues to be fairly popular. It has to do with people's perception of scores - if you view 4/5/6 and 1/2/3 as equivalent (higher number -> remembered better) then you'd want them to overlap that way, whereas if you view 4/5/6 as equivalent to 3/2/1 (more extremely in the direction of correct/incorrect) then you'd want them that way instead. Likewise, some people prefer to have the more extreme item on the right and some on the left (both for ergonomic and perception reasons), and some people like to have all 6 options show regardless of whether they remembered a card correctly or incorrectly (so they can override it).

So it's one little option, but it unlocks a lot of potential, and particularly with something that people spend as much time in as flashcard tests we think tweaks like that are really important - the less mental energy you spend on figuring out which button to hit, the more you can spend on learning Chinese.

Another smaller problem was that the dictionary meanings were not set to display by default in the answers and it took me ages burrowing through the aforementioned settings to figure out how to enable them.

That's odd, it should just be a matter of changing the "Show" option on the main screen to something else. Do you mean that the dictionary example sentences weren't displaying by default? Perhaps that option is a little buried but I'll stand by the decision to hide them in general - again, we're trying to reduce distraction here, and the less information we show the better likelihood of your absorbing that information.

Finally, my history didn't seem to transfer properly from the Palm, so when I ran my first test I was presented with about 800 cards rather than the ~150 I expected. I changed some setting (again flailing through all the options) and then it was only giving me 7 cards. So I'm not sure what's going on there.

That one I'm not sure about - were you using version 1 or 2 on Palm before? Did you copy over your entire flashcard database or just export it to XML / reimport it on Android?

 

[Giraffe]

Re: No "cards learned" status in flashcards??

Yes, this is actually all a simple labeling bug; if you choose category "None" (= "Flashcards" at the top of the category chooser screen) that will actually give you statistics for all cards. Sorry for the confusion - definitely something we'll deal with in the next beta.

It's still not showing me Cards Learned (only Total Cards, Average Score and Average Easiness).

A couple of lesser complaints while I'm in a ranting mood: what is it with all the flashcard options? I feel like I'm trying to configure an SAP install for a multinational corporation. The bloated flashcard settings were a terrible pain on the Palm and it's much worse on the Android. The epitome for me is the option to change the button configuration by selecting from a long list of cryptic numbers. Do we really need all this tweakability? It's not such a big deal because it's not something I look at every day, but it does seem like poor UX.

The less mental energy you spend on figuring out which button to hit, the more you can spend on learning Chinese.

I'm not sure that's true. Apple has done very well by simplifying, streamlining and, most of all, removing all sorts of options that people think they need but don't really miss when they're gone. I used SuperMemo on the Palm for a long time and was quite happy with its utter lack of options (except that I couldn't use the answers as the test). On the other hand, you're the guy that has to face the user, so I'll defer to your opinion.

Another smaller problem was that the dictionary meanings were not set to display by default in the answers and it took me ages burrowing through the aforementioned settings to figure out how to enable them.

That's odd, it should just be a matter of changing the "Show" option on the main screen to something else. Do you mean that the dictionary example sentences weren't displaying by default? Perhaps that option is a little buried but I'll stand by the decision to hide them in general - again, we're trying to reduce distraction here, and the less information we show the better likelihood of your absorbing that information..

Not just example sentences. I wasn't seeing the English definition at all.

Finally, my history didn't seem to transfer properly from the Palm, so when I ran my first test I was presented with about 800 cards rather than the ~150 I expected. I changed some setting (again flailing through all the options) and then it was only giving me 7 cards. So I'm not sure what's going on there.

That one I'm not sure about - were you using version 1 or 2 on Palm before? Did you copy over your entire flashcard database or just export it to XML / reimport it on Android?

It didn't seem possible to import the flashcard database from the Palm into the Android. In the end I exported to XML and then imported.

 

[mikelove]

Re: No "cards learned" status in flashcards??

It's still not showing me Cards Learned (only Total Cards, Average Score and Average Easiness).

Hmm, looks like a bug - the system is certainly generating the numbers but for some reason they seem to be getting cut off. But not on all devices, weirdly enough... anyway I'm sure it's just an Android UI glitch so it should be easy to fix, sorry about that.

I'm not sure that's true. Apple has done very well by simplifying, streamlining and, most of all, removing all sorts of options that people think they need but don't really miss when they're gone. I used SuperMemo on the Palm for a long time and was quite happy with its utter lack of options (except that I couldn't use the answers as the test). On the other hand, you're the guy that has to face the user, so I'll defer to your opinion.

Well I guess I just don't see the harm in having them there - most of them take next-to-no effort to keep running (literally took 5 minutes to get that feature ported to Android), and in the case of that particular option it's unlikely anybody is going to do much else on that settings screen unless they're a very advanced user - it's probably the single most obvious / user-friendly option in all of "Scoring." There's a big difference between eliminating options from the main interface - something I think you'd have to agree we've done very successfully on Android compared to Palm - and eliminating them from settings screens.

Not just example sentences. I wasn't seeing the English definition at all.

Well that's odd... which option did you change to get them to display?

It didn't seem possible to import the flashcard database from the Palm into the Android. In the end I exported to XML and then imported.

It's a little tricky to get it out of a Palm because of the wacky way we had to store databases on them; however, the "PlecoMover" utility included in the 2.0 installation package should be able to back it up to your SD card, and once it's done that you can simply copy that backup file to your iPhone and Restore Database on it.

 

[Giraffe]

I tried exporting from my Palm using the PlecoMover utility but the file that was created (PlecoFlash.pqb.backup) would not import into my Android.

 

[mikelove]

I tried exporting from my Palm using the PlecoMover utility but the file that was created (PlecoFlash.pqb.backup) would not import into my Android.

Database backups have to be handled differently from import / export files. To get that file into your copy of Pleco on Android, rename it to "PlecoFlash.pqb", then put it in the /Android/data/com.pleco.chinesesystem/files/databases folder on your SD card, making sure to delete the flashcard database file that's already in there.