Dashboard Tour and General Update 
I reached level 40, the lemons 
of life took over, and all Japanese study progress stalled for the entirety of September. I am slowly rebuilding some study habits, but nothing too intense has been established. C’est la vie y’all.
The dashboard UI update was an exciting impetus for returning to Wanikani after fluttering in and out of Vacation Mode for over 30 days. As you will see, with 200+ items in apprentice, I need to weather the storm of reviews for a while before returning to lessons. I’m very excited to see the forecast illustrations that aren’t a durtle being blown away in a typhoon or perishing under three suns.
I will first say that I’m generally quite excited about this update! I think the customizable aspect is fresh and exciting, and I like that I’m able to put things where I like and remove features I don’t use. I’m grateful to the WK team for all the hard work they put into this design! And the illustrations… are so… cute.
I like reading through the community comments because I also see some places where UI improvements can be made. But for the most part, I think it’s a super refreshing update and is going to do wonders getting me through the last 20 levels.
Let me do a little tour of my dashboard so I can spill my thoughts~
Overall Layout
After playing with many fun configurations, I realized it was easiest for me to look at when arranged like a typical webpage (or somewhat like the old dash), with a sidebar and main content section.
Of course I have my lessons and reviews right at the top, my most important avenues.
Below that I want to keep an eye on my level progress. I’m getting used to this new widget layout, but I think I like it so far. I like seeing exactly how many items are in each level, and how many I’ve guru’d.
Finally, I’m soso happy to have a heatmap again. Heatmap has done wonders to keep me on track with Anki, and now that this is back, I’m going to be so motivated to fill in my square each day. It’s really interesting to see how much time I’ve spent on Wanikani this past year! (I installed the Dashboard Heatmap Dynamic Coloring Script because almost all my days are 100+ reviews and 100% dark red was overpowering my screen).
At the top left I’ve placed this study streak widget for Ultimate Motivation. the turtles and durtles are deeply adorable, so I am highly motivated to do at least one review every day to keep them appearing.
Below this I have the review forecast widget, which I reference frequently to plan my review times and know what to expect for the days ahead. I’m so in love with the weather illustrations.
Finally I have the item spread. For the most part I like to keep my apprentices ~100, so this is useful reference. Because that’s all the information I really need, I like that the small version of this widget is not super flashy and that I can click around if I want a deeper breakdown.
Finally we have the content I scroll for! As you can see, I elected to omit several widgets such as recent mistakes and item lists, as I never really used these much and they were taking up visual space. I’ve also omitted the correct percentage and days studied widgets. I know for a fact I’ll often fall outside the “learning zone”, so I don’t think the accuracy widget will feel very motivating for me personally. I also have been studying for so many years at this point that I don’t think that “days studied” will do much for me either.
However! Here’s what I’ve got:
Recent mistakes widget taking up nice big space on the left. I love how easy it is for me to play around with these cards when I’m bored in between reviews. Even if I only see 5 or so cards, when they come up in a review session later, I remember them. I would like to see a shuffle feature.
Extra study on the right if I feel so inclined (I do not often feel so inclined D:)
And a place to relax and feel good about myself at the bottom! My portal to the WK community, and a tracker showing the number of reviews I completed today. I wasn’t sure at first if I would like tracking this, but having it tucked away at the bottom, accompanied by a cozy illustration of being tucked away in bed, feels pretty satisfying, like YA I DID THAT.
Ok, that’s all for now.
Nobody asked for this and I don’t expect anyone to read it but settling into a new dash was a fun step in my WK journey.
Seeing more chill, adorable weather illustrations is huge motivation for paring down this apprentice pile.