3 ms·

This really looks like a case study of how to optimise to local maximums and how to focus on improving metrics without having to improve the product. None of t

This really looks like a case study of how to optimise to local maximums and how to focus on improving metrics without having to improve the product. None of the included examples creates an actually better product for users or talks about addressing user needs or addressing user feedback. As a developer of a consumer app, there is always the danger in spending all of your time working on levers to squeeze ongoing % increases in metrics. It's a danger as I think the more time you do this, the less time you look at your product holistically to see how it can be improved more substantially to meet customer needs. This broader view can result in more substantial gains than growth hacking tweaks.

nottathrowaway3 4y ago
Funny that they decided to imitate Gardenscapes and other gamified mobile games that everyone hates. These games make money essentially by giving 0.01% of users an unhealthy addiction that causes the to spend thousands on the game. Maybe they should try to imitate indie games. I guess it's hard to do that when you already took lots of money from VCs or if you are a $3.5B public company.
rvba 4y ago
In the current iteration of app it feels that one can get "gamified" and focus on virtual points instead of actual learning. One could argue that gamifying makes you engaged longer, but On a side note: the German course spectacularly fails to introduce articles (der/die/das) in quizzes. Also it feels that it fails at explaining declension / deklination as well. Im using duolingo to refresh my German (that I studied earlier) and it feels that the important part of the language could be pushed better. Especially in those quizes that the app seems to push on everyone to get points. Those quizzes (as much as I hate them) would be so much better if words would have articles. Now for some reason it shows pairs "car" - "auto", when it would be much better to have it "car" - "das auto" to learn the article. Other posters really commented how the product seems to be less and less focused on learning and more and more on gamification. Still it is kind of a not bad way to refresh things that I learned at school, when say standing in a queue, but perhaps reading some books / articles with "simple German" and then real articles would be faster.

nottathrowaway3 4y ago

Funny that they decided to imitate Gardenscapes and other gamified mobile games that everyone hates. These games make money essentially by giving 0.01% of users an unhealthy addiction that causes the to spend thousands on the game. Maybe they should try to imitate indie games. I guess it's hard to do that when you already took lots of money from VCs or if you are a $3.5B public company.

rvba 4y ago

In the current iteration of app it feels that one can get "gamified" and focus on virtual points instead of actual learning. One could argue that gamifying makes you engaged longer, but On a side note: the German course spectacularly fails to introduce articles (der/die/das) in quizzes. Also it feels that it fails at explaining declension / deklination as well. Im using duolingo to refresh my German (that I studied earlier) and it feels that the important part of the language could be pushed better. Especially in those quizes that the app seems to push on everyone to get points. Those quizzes (as much as I hate them) would be so much better if words would have articles. Now for some reason it shows pairs "car" - "auto", when it would be much better to have it "car" - "das auto" to learn the article. Other posters really commented how the product seems to be less and less focused on learning and more and more on gamification. Still it is kind of a not bad way to refresh things that I learned at school, when say standing in a queue, but perhaps reading some books / articles with "simple German" and then real articles would be faster.