4 ms·

Ask YC: Critique/comment on our webapp

2 points by jasonb05 18y ago

At the start of July myself and 3 friends committed our spare time to building a functional webapp within a month. We would love any feedback you guys can offer. Spicy Elephant http://spicyelephant.com Niche: Learning and memorization (flashcards) Monetization: subscription model (premium account) Core Advantage: web-based advanced (supermemo) scheduling algorithm (only study when you need to) cheers

yan 18y ago
Nice design. Don't know if I'd pay for the market, but I am not the target market. Also, typo on the first sample flashcard: "It is proven that if you review material to[ extra o] soon and you waste your time, too late and you have to relearn. Intelligent scheduling is about training at the point of forgetting."
- noodle 18y ago
  are you saying the phrase "too soon" should be "to soon"? thats not right.
  - yan 18y ago
    No, I added the 'extra o'. It says 'to' originally.
nostrademons 18y ago
1. Why not have people enter their answers onto the web form instead of using the honor system? The answers all seem to be textual, you could check them yourself and score them instantly. 2. Even if you don't auto-score them, it'd help to show the answer. It's sometimes hard to remember what you just said when you have to evaluate how well you said it. 3. The "Study" link needs to be more prominent when viewing a deck. 4. How's this better than paper flashcards?
- mmilo 18y ago
  Hi there, I'm one of the 4 folks working on spicyelephant and in answer to your questions: 1. We would not like to limit people to purely textual content, as it stands now you are able to include images in both questions and answers. Further to that, it would be hard to rate a person's recall based purely on whether they got the answer right (e.g. it could have been a random guess) 2. Could you elaborate on where you were failing to see the answers, because answers should definitely appear when studying. 3. Definitely something we can address, thanks for raising it. 4. The real gist of the application isn't in the electronic representation of flash cards, but the algorithm behind it that keeps track of how well you're recalling the answers and then let's you know when the best time is to study again. This studying methodology is known as spaced repetition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition) Again, thank you and everyone else who has taken the time to take a look and comment, your feedback and suggestions are all greatly appreciated.
  - nostrademons 18y ago
    2. It's not that I'm failing to see the answers, it's that I'd like somewhere to write my answer and then (even if it's not automatically scored) show me what I wrote and how it compares to the real answer. Otherwise, I'm not doing anything, I'm just passively clicking through cards. Same reason I write code instead of just reading language manuals. I used to do the latter, but it doesn't really teach well. Unless you're actively doing stuff and getting feedback on how you did, you're not really learning.
rrf 18y ago
Congratulations on pulling the app together so quickly. Out of curiosity, is there research to suggest that using flashcards is a superior way of learning? For example, for languages, isn't it better to practice with a native speaker to understand the subtleties of the language, expressions, etc.? Personally, I am now more likely to rely on the Internet as a store of facts, like capitals of the world, rather than commit such facts to memory.
- baker 18y ago
  Thanks for the kind words. "Personally, I am now more likely to rely on the Internet as a store of facts, like capitals of the world, rather than commit such facts to memory." One of the reasons we were motivated to build this application was the observation that people were 'outsourcing' their memory, eg. just Googling for information. Outsourcing our memory limits are ability to think deeply. Why bother remembering words when you can just sound out the word each time? Why bother remembering their meaning when you can just do a search on Google?
  - rrf 18y ago
    I'm no brain expert, but I'm not sure that we use the same part of the brain for remembering facts as we do for thinking deeply. Happy to be proved wrong on that.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
h8ck0r 18y ago
i got to this and was confused about what your app does "2. We intelligently organize when to study"
alaskamiller 18y ago
Is there a way to hide the answers to replicate real flashcards? All I'm seeing are two column lists.
- jasonb05 18y ago
  there's a study mode for decks which can be accessed in the listing of decks (far left) or on the desk describe page (top right). the listing you describe is a deck details page not intended for study. you make a good point regarding the accessibility of the study feature.
jasonb05 18y ago
I captured some thoughts about my involvement in this project in a post: http://www.neverreadpassively.com/2008/08/my-experiences-on-one-month-startup.html http://www.neverreadpassively.com/2008/08/my-experiences-on-...

2 points by jasonb05 18y ago

yan 18y ago

Nice design. Don't know if I'd pay for the market, but I am not the target market. Also, typo on the first sample flashcard: "It is proven that if you review material to[ extra o] soon and you waste your time, too late and you have to relearn. Intelligent scheduling is about training at the point of forgetting."

noodle 18y ago
are you saying the phrase "too soon" should be "to soon"? thats not right.
- yan 18y ago
  No, I added the 'extra o'. It says 'to' originally.

nostrademons 18y ago

1. Why not have people enter their answers onto the web form instead of using the honor system? The answers all seem to be textual, you could check them yourself and score them instantly. 2. Even if you don't auto-score them, it'd help to show the answer. It's sometimes hard to remember what you just said when you have to evaluate how well you said it. 3. The "Study" link needs to be more prominent when viewing a deck. 4. How's this better than paper flashcards?

mmilo 18y ago
Hi there, I'm one of the 4 folks working on spicyelephant and in answer to your questions: 1. We would not like to limit people to purely textual content, as it stands now you are able to include images in both questions and answers. Further to that, it would be hard to rate a person's recall based purely on whether they got the answer right (e.g. it could have been a random guess) 2. Could you elaborate on where you were failing to see the answers, because answers should definitely appear when studying. 3. Definitely something we can address, thanks for raising it. 4. The real gist of the application isn't in the electronic representation of flash cards, but the algorithm behind it that keeps track of how well you're recalling the answers and then let's you know when the best time is to study again. This studying methodology is known as spaced repetition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition) Again, thank you and everyone else who has taken the time to take a look and comment, your feedback and suggestions are all greatly appreciated.
- nostrademons 18y ago
  2. It's not that I'm failing to see the answers, it's that I'd like somewhere to write my answer and then (even if it's not automatically scored) show me what I wrote and how it compares to the real answer. Otherwise, I'm not doing anything, I'm just passively clicking through cards. Same reason I write code instead of just reading language manuals. I used to do the latter, but it doesn't really teach well. Unless you're actively doing stuff and getting feedback on how you did, you're not really learning.

rrf 18y ago

Congratulations on pulling the app together so quickly. Out of curiosity, is there research to suggest that using flashcards is a superior way of learning? For example, for languages, isn't it better to practice with a native speaker to understand the subtleties of the language, expressions, etc.? Personally, I am now more likely to rely on the Internet as a store of facts, like capitals of the world, rather than commit such facts to memory.

baker 18y ago
Thanks for the kind words. "Personally, I am now more likely to rely on the Internet as a store of facts, like capitals of the world, rather than commit such facts to memory." One of the reasons we were motivated to build this application was the observation that people were 'outsourcing' their memory, eg. just Googling for information. Outsourcing our memory limits are ability to think deeply. Why bother remembering words when you can just sound out the word each time? Why bother remembering their meaning when you can just do a search on Google?
- rrf 18y ago
  I'm no brain expert, but I'm not sure that we use the same part of the brain for remembering facts as we do for thinking deeply. Happy to be proved wrong on that.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

h8ck0r 18y ago

i got to this and was confused about what your app does "2. We intelligently organize when to study"

alaskamiller 18y ago

Is there a way to hide the answers to replicate real flashcards? All I'm seeing are two column lists.

jasonb05 18y ago
there's a study mode for decks which can be accessed in the listing of decks (far left) or on the desk describe page (top right). the listing you describe is a deck details page not intended for study. you make a good point regarding the accessibility of the study feature.

jasonb05 18y ago

I captured some thoughts about my involvement in this project in a post: http://www.neverreadpassively.com/2008/08/my-experiences-on-one-month-startup.html http://www.neverreadpassively.com/2008/08/my-experiences-on-...