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Show HN: I built an app to improve your Vocabulary
- wccrawford 15y ago'IQ' already means something in this realm. Re-using it is a very bad idea. Having to click 'next word' after each word gets old fast, and seriously slows down your studying. This doesn't offer any way to learn the words, only to remember them. An SRS is only half of the solution for learning new things. You need a learning module for when they encounter new words.
- TenJack 15y agoThanks for the feedback. What do you mean by learning module exactly?
- wccrawford 15y agoedit: Nevermind. I hit 'practice mode' because I didn't understand you had to hit 'copy to my account' to use 'learning mode'. Learning mode properly introduces things. (Could use pronunciation/audio)
- Inufu 15y agoYes, please get rid of the "next" button or at least allow me to advance with my keyboard - preferably the space key.
- TenJack 15y agoSo I initially included this step so that you can review a word that you miss. But yea, I think it is a great suggestion to remove this if you get a word right. Also, including a keyboard trigger is an awesome idea! Thanks.
- ecaradec 15y agoActually it seems to work for me as a way to learn words because I get the meaning of the word after failing. I don't mind clicking next because I often don't know the words (I only got 8500 at the vocabulary test earlier, so I fail quite often ). May be the next word button should only display if you don't make a 100% score ? The app is really useful for me actually.
- w1kke 15y agoI am not a native english speaker and in my english class, the teacher always had us write one sentence using the new word we had to learn. This way we built our own context and understanding of the word. Maybe that could help in learning the words.
- henryw 15y agovery nice idea. people can come up with some very cool public lists, like the http://wordstash.com/lists/167-100-words-you-should-know http://wordstash.com/lists/167-100-words-you-should-know just for fun here's a sentence with 11 of those words: my fatuous and vacuous chicanery in pecuniary jejune only serve to inculcate me the quotidian need to abrogate the belie of ego--my circumlocutious lexicon aside.
- gjm11 15y agoUnfortunately, that isn't a sentence: "jejune" is an adjective, not a noun; "belie" is a verb, not a noun; "inculcate" takes an indirect object with "in", not a direct object. (Well, it does take a direct object, but it's the thing being inculcated, not the person it's being done to.)
- Inufu 15y agoyou might want to put a different picture of you on there - it looks like you are totally stoned. Maybe you are, but that's not the point xD
- TenJack 15y agoHaha, I'm not at all, but yea, I will look for another pic.
- Inufu 15y agoI really like the app so far. Especially the waterfall game is cool. I'll use it to brush up my spanish. :)
- TenJack 15y agoGood to hear! Thanks.
- reidrac 15y agoThe page doesn't seem to render properly here (Firefox 5 and Chromium 12 tested). In case it helps: http://i.imgur.com/xvEZE.png http://i.imgur.com/xvEZE.png
- TenJack 15y agoWoh, yea, I haven't tested in Firefox 5 and Chromium 12 at all. Thanks.
- angdis 15y agoBack when I was preparing for the GRE (in the early 90's), I found two things to be very useful for increasing vocabulary. 1) Anu Garg's "A Word A Day" (wordsmith.org), back then it was just a daily email subscription that emailed out an advanced vocabulary word. One per day, simple and effective back in th'day when people received a volume of email that was actually consumable in one day. 2) A buddy passed on to me a huge stack of index cards each one containing a turgid vocabulary word that you would never use in real life but that would be common on the GRE or in a George Will essay. I recall that when I took the GRE, there were a couple of words that I would not have known if I had not prepared with the cards and at least one that was on a word a day. A few words is enough to seriously boost your GRE score and totally worth the small investment in time (a few minutes everyday for ~6 months).
- pwr 15y ago1 error prohibited this user from being saved There were problems with the following fields: Password must contain only letters, numbers, and underscores
- ch0wn 15y ago"Password must contain only letters, numbers, and underscores" Could you fix that please? There is no reason to restrict what a password may contain.
- TenJack 15y agoYes, that is a great suggestion.
- rpedroso 15y agoAgreed. Also, up the max password length -- 20 is far too small for those who use password managers. Not that I am terribly worried about someone breaking into my WordStash account, but I don't want to have to change the settings on my password generator.
- tricolon 15y agoIndeed; I have some long passwords... Go for at least 64 characters.
- dkarl 15y agoDo you have a mobile app or a mobile-optimized interface? If so, you should mention it on the front page. I use Anki for studying vocabulary, and for reviewing I use the iPhone app exclusively. I only use the web interface for managing my lists. If you want to make a few bucks, you'll have no problem getting your users to cough up money for a mobile app, because of how handy it is to review in odd moments. (I just checked Anki in the app store, and it's priced at $25 [1]. For the record, I paid less than that when I bought it, but I would have gladly paid $25.) Also, make sure you test and advertise your support for non-ASCII characters and non-English dictionaries. [1] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ankisrs/id373493387?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ankisrs/id373493387?mt=8
- lynaghk 15y agoI designed a very similar spaced-repetition algorithm flashcard learning app for the Kindle (screenshots here: http://keminglabs.com/#/kindle/ http://keminglabs.com/#/kindle/ ). It's in Amazon's review process at the moment, but if you have a Kindle and want to test it out I can get you a dev copy. Tenjack---drop me a line if you want to chat about collaborating on some of this. We got our definitions from Wiktionary as well, but we're looking around for other resources.
- kaffeinecoma 15y agoIs there a public-domain dictionary that sites such as this use?
- 4J7z0Fgt63dTZbs 15y agoYou've got it wrong, you don't read to learn vocab, you learn vocab to supplement reading experience. A bookmarklet that acts as mouse over dictionary, added with a system that saves the whole context (and its distinguishing look) of whatever user is reading on browser, combined with a repetitive learning aid (like one you have as flashcard) is the right approach to assistive vocab learning.
- rpedroso 15y agoNot if you're a writer. Not that I want to read novels or papers that sound like a thesaurus threw up on a keyboard, but it's good to always have the right word to express a thought.
- rpedroso 15y agoIt would be nice if I could confirm that I 'know' words, and that I could opt for those words to not appear (or perhaps be grayed-out) in lists.
- ForrestN 15y agoAgreed, this seems really necessary especially after the first couple of rounds of practice.
- kirbman89 15y agoAre you tied into one of the online dictionaries via api? I had similar idea before social networking. I can see how this could take off. If not already, make it searchable by school, class, and textbook. Good luck.
- TenJack 15y agoI'm using wiktionary for definitions. It was the best solution I could find.
- nodata 15y agoSuggestion: show the visitor what the app does, give an example without requiring the visitor to do anything. Don't require account creation straight away.
- TenJack 15y agoYea, you can demo the quiz and game features for each list without creating an account. I should make this more clear.
- ForrestN 15y agoConstructive criticism: the visual aesthetic of the site is so busted that I (and I expect many people) would never register to try the software. Some ideas for improvement which are specifically calibrated to match your case (not rules for sites in general, obviously): - Most of all, radically simplify. For now, I think it's better to just explain what it is and put forward a simple call to action (create your account and get started!) All of the accoutrements of a "professional website", the images with overlaid text (test tubes because it's scientific, for example) are distracting and too difficult to execute. Put all that energy into the app and market later. - The cloud tile background is random and totally dominating. The first thing I do when I visit is cycle my eyes around the strange margins full of clouds, because they're the brightest thing on the page. - The color palette is nuts. Pick 3 colors that you've seen together on other sites and stick to them. - Add a little more padding to all of the various boxes you're using. In almost every case, the edge of the box is way too close to the text. - Swap out the squirrel clip art for a word mark. Pick one of these fonts you like and write the name of the app in it: http://www.google.com/webfonts http://www.google.com/webfonts - Add a wrapper to the whole website if you want a margin around the fixed-width background. It looks really strange not to have consistent margins, especially with the intense background.
- dkarl 15y agoI like the images with words overlaid; it's the best part of the page. It makes his site stand out from the current cookie-cutter standard. If you can get decent results (not great, but decent) without looking like everyone else the last thing you should do is adjust everything to the currently prevailing style to make your site 20% more readable but instantly forgettable at the same time. I agree that the clouds are distracting, though.
- TenJack 15y agoYea, I've gotten a lot of negative feedback on the clouds. That is one of the first things I am going to change. Thanks.
- ForrestN 15y agoIf you can't see the difference between good design and bad, it's totally understandable to think of all design as equivalently good. I would say that there is no reason to conform a site to any sort of "cookie-cutter standard", but when you are not good at design and aren't working with a designer, it's much better to base your project on well-designed examples than to wing it with pink and purple boxes and no padding. Whether you're familiar with it or not, the trio of stock photos with marketing messages listed over top is already cliche, but more importantly is very poorly executed here. I think he should get rid of it because it's a waste of time to try to learn how to execute it well, not because it's never a good idea to have it. As I tried to explain, I'm not arguing that all sites should look a certain way, just that in my judgment this particular guy is better off making design a non-issue rather than trying to trail-blaze.
- chrischen 15y agoHow do you get learning mode to work?
- TenJack 15y agoYou need to create an account and either create a new list or copy an existing one.
- mashmac2 15y agowordstache.com is also available... put a word on your mustache!
- wzdd 15y agoLove the idea, but the word definitions are lacking. From the top 100 list, churlish is defined as having the qualities of a serf or peasant. This is correct, but in common usage it generally means 'surly'. Knowing the latter definition makes the word far more useful. Similarly, epiphany (appearance of the divine) is almost always used (if you're not discussing the holiday or Christian mythology) to mean 'a sudden understanding'. There are probably others, these were just on the first page.
- mhb 15y agoSimilar to?: http://ankisrs.net/ http://ankisrs.net/
- philfreo 15y agoLooks cool. Some similar study modes to what we have at Quizlet (http://quizlet.com http://quizlet.com)
- abraham 15y agoDoes anyone know of an Android app that performs similar functionality.
- TechnoFou 15y agoFirst thought on the website is that you really need a design. An average user will automatically feel troubled with the overall looks of the site. Best example is a known war between iOS and Android. Even if the latter has more functionality most users are still appealed by the simplicity and the aesthetic of the former. With a fresh coat of paint and some more organization, you will have an amazing little site!
- Robin_Message 15y agoAccelerator key for next word!