Words skipping ahead uncontrollably

Skritter Website
1

I’m having some trouble figuring out how terms advance as you proceed through the study list. The front/back arrows are missing unless you successfully draw a character (or hit the checkmark thing in the corner, which I’m not 100% sure what it’s for really), and a lot of times it just skips forward if you tap the screen. I haven’t been able to figure out which portion of the screen it is, because it only happens when I’m trying to draw a character–sometimes I’m 3 strokes into drawing before I realize that the app just skipped 3 times and I’m on another word altogether with no way of going back, and no idea how the missed terms are going to affect my SRS.

Is this supposed to happen? Is there a way to skip characters without going through the extra step of hitting the x in the corner and marking the difficulty, or is this a bug?

Some other problems/suggestions:

  1. it would be nice to have a better, more consistently available way to scroll back through the queue. I understand why it’s problematic to put the arrows in the field for drawing characters, but maybe you could put a set up in the top corners above the Pinyin, in the gray field? There’s nothing up there now.

  2. The word counter barely functions. I generally have to go through the menus back to the dashboard to get it to update, and then after doing that I notice I have to repeat a lot of stuff that I was just doing beforehand. It all adds up to a lot of time lost.

  3. Is there going to be a way to set a maximum number for new terms? I don’t care so much about a “goal mode,” just would like to do things the same way the old app handles it, set a max number and then decide on a daily basis whether to stop early or finish all the new terms.

  4. Also there’s no daily stats section. I really would like–almost need–to know how many new terms I’ve either learned or begun studying TODAY. The weekly/monthly stats are interesting but not something I care so much about on a daily basis.

  5. The info section gets stuck. If the app auto-advances to the next term and there’s something I want to check on the previous term, hitting the back arrow and the info button still pulls info on the newest term. This is also a problem when the app accidentally advances automatically.

  6. The app has to stop and think a LOT, apparently after clearing a section organized according to some principle viewable only on the back end. Sometimes it gets stuck thinking, and I have to shut it down and restart.

  7. Is there going to be an option to change the reading field later (like for regional tonal differences)? I know this has come up before but I never had a clear understanding of how that was supposed to work.

  8. Would it be possible to allow simultaneous display of Pinyin and bopomofo? I’ve been wanting to learn the latter, but it doesn’t do me any good if I can only pick one or the other. A side-by side comparison would be helpful without necessitating setting up a separate study method.

Thanks

2

The arrow graphics are hidden until the character is finished being written, however you can still tap the areas where the arrows would be to navigate forwards or backwards. I think this is what’s been happening when the prompt advances on you suddenly, which shows how the graphics being hidden like that can backfire. We’re discussing other ways of how navigating prompts could be handled.

The idea you mentioned with the arrows being up top in the corners is being considered as well!

Hmm, does it update if you linger on the screen for awhile opposed to going back to the dashboard to get it to update? How long does it seem to take to automatically update?

It’s on the way. :slight_smile:

Good point, I’ll bring this up with the team!

I was able to reproduce the info screen pulling up words that were recently studied (that weren’t the currently prompted word), however it didn’t seem the same as what you were running into, where it gets stuck on the newest item, opposed to showing the item you had navigated backwards to. At any rate, I’ve opened an issue so it can be looked into, thanks for calling this to attention!

This will improve as more progress is made and 2.0 matures, things can definitely benefit from being speedier.

In the future there might be a way to edit the reading field for yourself, but currently the only way to update a reading is by submitting a correction report. Though if it’s a regional variance, that wouldn’t really go into the corrections since it shouldn’t be added for every person. Right now as a temporarily workaround you could add it to the mnemonic field, though!

This is a good point. My initial thought is there isn’t much real estate especially on the mobile apps (unless you’re using a tablet) and having both pinyin and zhuyin show up would take up some room, however it would be quite useful for learning to read it right on Skritter. We’ll brainstorm this one! One thing which might be nice is to only allow one option for readings, but to have zhuyin writing prompts like hanzi, which would show the pinyin reading, so you could learn to read (and write) zhuyin through a list, and once it’s learned, the pinyin option wouldn’t be needed anymore.

1 Like
3

Zhuyin writing practice would be awesome.

4

As long as I know where it is and what it does, it’s not so much of a problem. I assume at some point after there’s a stable build, there’ll be some kind of a manual/tutorial for users to read the basics. The weird thing is, I was swiping on the left half of the screen and it seemed to be jumping forward. That easily may have been a mistaken impression on my part though, given the speed that it kept happening. Hasn’t been an issue at all today.

It’s inconsistent. It seems to be connected to the “thinking” issue. I notice a lot of times the counter just sits still for 10-20 terms, then there’s a pause for processing, and after the app recovers, the counter number drops a bit. The thing is, it’s pretty clear the counter isn’t simply counting ALL reviews, but maybe only scheduled reviews, possibly including new terms. If I get one wrong and have to repeat it a couple of times, that doesn’t appear to make the counter drop at all. A few times I’ve gotten hung at 3-15 terms on the counter that just won’t clear, and even after exiting to the dashboard, they’re still there. At the moment I’m entirely in the dark as to how many new terms are being added daily since upgrading.

As things are currently, I put the local pronunciation right at the top of the definition field so that it’s prominent to me while studying. The drawback of this method is that i have to recognize mistakes as they appear in my study queue, and quite (or most) often I don’t. It’s one thing to try to allow for tonal inconsistencies from one region to the next, but I’m studying a list for a certification exam in Taiwan and it’s actually teaching me incorrect information that will possibly harm my test results. If there’s a list like TOCFL (and there is), then the information contained in it for study ought to be accurate, and mistakes easily corrected permanently on the back end. Not to huff and puff about it or anything, but at some point in the future this is going to be a glaring weakness if it doesn’t get resolved.

I think that’s what I was trying to get at. I don’t mean having both show up in the writing prompts, just have an option to have both displayed in the definition/answer. If they’re side-by-side it shouldn’t take up any more real estate except with longer terms like phrases or expressions.

Anyway, thanks for kicking the ideas around. I’m going to stick with 2.0 barring some kind of disaster, so I’ll pass more suggestions along if I think of anything potentially useful.

1 Like