Feedback: Irritating and Inconsistent Design Choices

  1. No. Revealing the correct answer after typing the incorrect one makes the game too easy. And what’s the point of showing the same answer prompt again? Obviously you will answer it correctly if you just saw the correct answer. No, let it return to the loop and be repeated some time later at the unexpected time. This is the only correct design choice. Similar situation happens all the time to me; I press double-enter fast and if the answer is incorrect it flashes away so fast that sometimes I do not even recognize what was wrong, did I made a typo or did I really made a mistake. And I like it that way. And by the way, failing an item once and failing an item twice during the same review session lowers the SRS level by the same amount. Only the third failure decreases the SRS level further. So you can fail it the second time and check the answer without lowering the score any more than if you checked it the first time it appeared.
  1. That is a great feature, I sometimes use it to deliberately tank the score all the way back if I think I genuinely forgot the item. I just repeatedly fail it a few times, even when I already know the correct answer. I think lowering the item level in WK is too merciful; if I fail an item once in Anki it goes all the way to the beginning, and I like that way more.

  2. You should distinguish possible readings of the kanji characters and possible readings of words, even if they consist of single character. Some words can have multiple readings, and WK support that, but most words have only one reading.

Q: How character “I” can be read?
A: It is “ai”, like in the word “while”
Q: Correct, but we expect another reading
A: Then it can be “ee”, like in the word “give”
Q: Correct.

Q: How word “I” is read?
A: It is “ee”
Q: Wrong.

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Most of your issues seem to stem from blindly mashing the enter key a few times?

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Personally I don’t think its unreasonable to want to get through a review session quickly. Wanikani is a useful supplementary piece of learning software, but when you have a job and family life and only a couple of hours a day to devote to Japanese study there is only so much time one can spend doing SRS reviews in priority of other learning methods.

Also, as I stated above, the delay feature already exists in wanikani, my complaint is more directed at why that failure delay is not the default rather than something that only triggers after you get an item wrong several times.

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Ok. Thank you for the clarification. I guess it just seems a little needlessly punitive to me when the Kanji and vocab look so similar out of context (as they are in an SRS, only the color background tells you the difference unlike in actual text). But from your answer I can understand from a linguistic point of view why they made the decision, I’m just not sure I agree with the decision considering the fact that kanji and vocab can’t be inherently distinguished in the system and the extra color coding is required.

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(Replied to the wrong post somehow)

Yeah, this is a drag, so the mistake delay script linked earlier in this thread is a must!

But I also wanted to mention that you can see the last 10 items you’ve reviewed by hitting the comma key, or clicking the checkmark icon second icon under the answer box. That way you don’t need to try to search for the item manually:

image

Also, please pay no mind to the “lmao your fault for hitting enter too fast” replies. That unfortunately happens in every thread even tangentially related to this topic, offering little beyond a finger-wagging admonishment.

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Thank you for clarifying how the SRS level system works. And similar to the response I gave above about the kanji and vocab distinction, I understand it now from a linguistic point of view, but I still think its needlessly punitive in terms of the kanji and vocab basically being indistinguishable out of context when viewed in a SRS. To your other points I think we probably just view wanikani differently. To me its an efficiency tool to make communicating at work easier. I want to get through as efficiently as possible.

Thank you so much for the information. This is really helpful and addresses my problem.

Thank you so much! I’ll check it out. Looks like it solves most of the issues I was talking about.

Thank you so much. That’s a really useful piece of information about looking at the last items reviewed. I really appreciate the help! I’m still beginning with wanikani so its useful to get inducted into the features by other users.

Yes, I from reading around I think some people on the forums seem to view wanikani as a game (which is fine) and are just saying “get good” and that whole elitist mentality. Personally I don’t view it that way. I’m using it because I have Japanese clients in my job. It’s work for me so I want to make it as efficient as I can to make progress in a way that suits me personally. Other people are free to do it their own way if they want.

Thank you again!

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You will eventually get tired of answering “vocabulary vs kanji … so inconsistent” threads as well.

I would personally hate to have a context sensitive enter button that does different things on mistakes, especially because this is loaded responsively with some lag.

This script fixes that and also allows you to retype typos

There’s a script that can automatically display all accepted answers when you press enter:

Make sure you check “settings” on your WK dashboard to configure when the answers are shown.
Also, I leave all of my personally-added synonyms lower-case so that I can immediately tell which synonyms came with WK (capitalized) and which I’ve added (all lower-case).

Hey, thanks for making this thread. I had exactly the same complaints about WaniKani, but I was afraid to voice them because I expected a backlash by the WaniKaniCanDoNoEvil people. Seems you got some of that, but most answers were really helpful. I also was continuously sooo frustrated by point (3), but the explanations do make sense so I guess that just has to be expected. As for the other issues, I’ve started using scripts too which has made my life a lot easier, but I find it odd that this site has so many scripts to fix issues obviously many people have in the first place. I really think that a short break after inputting an incorrect answer to give you a second to think about it should be part of the basic program shrugs
Anyway, good luck with your studies! I hope the scripts help and make your reviews fly more smoothly :slight_smile:

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There’s a difference between “WaniKani can do no evil” and “WaniKani understands that they can’t possibly please everyone so this is why they made an API.”

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The fact that this issue is still around is insanely dumb. Sure, you can use user scripts, but why should you have to download a browser extension and scripts just to deal with such a basic issue?

People seem to forget that this is a paid service. The fact that the API exists and that people can fix Wanikani’s issues through it shouldn’t exempt the development team from fixing basic design flaws.

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Not that I was even talking about the vocab vs kanji part but: I don’t understand this mindset. Why should I fear “getting tired of” doing something I am under literally zero obligation to do? If you look at a thread and think “ugh, not this again” then it’s perfectly normal to just type nothing at all.

In any case I’ve been here almost a year and a half so it’s not like seeing the same thread pop up repeatedly is something I’m unaccustomed to. That’s exactly what every single help/feedback forum that has ever existed is, not just WK. So I just move on with my life if I don’t feel like saying anything useful.

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Sorry, I’m already feeling the pull to the dark side to join Sith master Syphus there.

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i agree that it should show the correct answer. i think there is a script for that but there can should be an option for that.
Making mistakes, including typos is a part of the process. We are training ourselves to recognize given material. Repeating is the key so you profit anyways.

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I prefer that it doesn’t show the correct answer without my input because often I know what I did wrong and I want to try again with my second choice without being told. I only want to see the answer if I’m stumped.

But I did used to get dinged often by unconsciously/automatically pressing Enter twice too quickly. After I installed the “WaniKani Wrong Answer Delay” script (which I prefer over similar scripts), that doesn’t happen anymore.

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