Bugs and appearances aside

[bezdomny]

What suggestions do you have to make Skritter an even more efficient learning tool?
Below are some of mine.

1. Retention rate check
   Are the user set Retention rates achieved? The displayed Retention rates seem different between 2.0 and legacy website. Which ones are correct? Does the current SRS algorithm really allow the users to achieve the goals set by the user? I do all my daily reviews but can’t seem to get close to my desired retention rate.

2. Don’t show the definition for tone prompts
   If I see a character and the definition, I will typically automatically translate the English, and draw the tone. Often without even looking at the character at all. There is a solution available with a setting “hide definition”, but that leads to definition prompts appearing with no info at all.

3. Hide number of characters required
   Maybe I don’t know the difference between 寂寞 and 孤零零, but seeing just two boxes makes me enter the right word for a given prompt.

4. Integration of sample sentences
   Sample sentences have the potential of bolstering the character knowledge. You will not only remember the words, but also see their usage in a typical sentence. Perhaps sample sentences are better integrated in the beta app. To avoid the pitfall of issue number 2,3 and 5 (memory trigger by outside info) I think they should be shown after completion of a prompt. Can more than one sentence be displayed?

5. Prompt character per definition
   If a character has 3 definitions, I will be shown all 3 definitions when prompted to write the character. Is that realistic, effective? My recollection may be triggered by only one of those definitions, and I will not know that the character also means something else.

6. Study burst
   Sometimes we have extra time to study and want to use this time to reinforce our knowledge of our existing corpus. Should there be a special mode for this, or should we just continue going through prompts after the due counter is at zero? What is an efficient use of study-time?

7. Hints
   Skritter automatically shows a hint if you make a wrong stroke. Sometimes after the first wrong stroke, sometimes after five wrong strokes. Especially with the sometimes extremely precise requirements this leads to unwanted hints. Would it hinder users if show hints would be manual?

8. Breakdown of characters
   Character breakdown is only available for single-character prompts, would be useful if we can dig that deep also for multi-character words. I believe this is already in the works. It would greatly help efficient memorization.

9. Create a searchable personal dictionary
   Users can search this dictionary on definition, on pinyin, on character, on character component - and also modify. If I learn today that a word I learned previously has an additional meaning, I can now not easily find and update that word. Or: display all characters containing a 青 component. Or: give me all words from my dictionary that have a ‘shi’ as toneless pinyin. This can help users find and investigate characters they often mix up.