Forecasting Reviews on Preview (or Previewing Review Forecasts)

[oldbonsai]

Hey all!

Continuing our Extreme Dashboard Makeover: Slow Edition™, we’re introducing a couple new tools on the dashboard: the review forecast and illustrated, you-can’t-miss-them lesson and review buttons. It’s all up right now on the preview server!

The review forecast does just what it claims: it shows when new reviews will show up, broken down by the day and then the hour in a simple, easy-to-scan format.

Since we didn’t want to get into speculation, prediction, or machine learning (or accidentally unleash SkyNet), the forecast is pretty simple. It only shows new things being added to your queue if you do nothing . After you do reviews and come back to the dashboard, the forecast changes to reflect the availability of all the things you just reviewed.

The illustrated lesson and review buttons are, well, buttons that, uh, have illustrations. Since those two things are what everybody should be doing on WaniKani, we thought it might be good to call them out front and center. Aya is working on some amazing illustrations that will swap out at varying counts of lessons and reviews. While she finishes those up, though, you’ll have to suffer through the for-position-only graphic of old-man Koichi that Viet and I put together.

You’ll also notice that we took away a couple things to make room for all this: the “available now”, “next hour” and “next day” sections up top. The huge buttons should handle what the available now section did when you had stuff available. The rest of the states should show up in the review forecast area, clearly highlighting the next time reviews are coming up.

We’re getting the feature up a little early to get your feedback on how it works. We’re still working on polish, finalizing artwork, and refactoring some of the code. Once we have your feedback, make tweaks, and finish that polishing, we’ll put up another announcement with a firm launch date.

We’re excited to get your (constructive) feedback on how the new features work with your WaniKani planning. As always, keep up the hard work on those reviews!

[seanblue]

Paging @Kumirei.

[seanblue]

Is it weird that my favorite change here is the rounded corners for the SRS totals and the slight space between each of the levels?

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Regarding the forecasting itself, it doesn’t come close to Ultimate Timeline in terms of functionality, but I’m sure users that don’t use scripts will appreciate the additional information. It’s simple and to the point. I’d recommend maybe adding daily totals though, if you can figure out a way that doesn’t cause confusion with the running total.

I think the new Lesson and Review icons are a bit too big. On my tiny laptop screen it means I have to scroll to see the SRS totals. Seems like a waste to me since that information can just stay in the page header.

[girakacheezer]

Looks like I’m going to have a busy Friday morning…

This is a neat feature, hope it sticks. I agree with @seanblue though, the new Lessons/Reviews buttons seem a bit large.

[lvwc]

Also agree–buttons at top are a bit oversized. Would be nice to be able to see my radical and kanji mini-progress bars without needing to scroll.

Probably just a few years of conditioning, but feels so weird to me that they are now on the left side of the screen rather than upper right corner. That feeling will likely fade with a bit of use, though.

The bar graph for upcoming reviews is ace. Have always been too lazy to install scripts, so this is a VERY welcome schedule-planning tool for me to stay on the Crabigator wagon.

[tip]

I like the size review and lesson buttons but still think new users will miss them. Could they be animated instead? Slow blink or spinning wheel when there is a review or lesson available? Maybe an hourglass when nothing is available…

[BigEm]

I have to say, I’m not really a fan of the new review forecast thing. I don’t know if it’s the lack of column titles+dividing lines or the vertical setup, but I just think it’s a bit weird. Full disclosure, I’m using the Ultimate Timeline script, which I like tons better, especially as it shows what kind of items are coming up via different colors. So it might just be my “ew change is bad” feeling that’s making me more against than for it.

There also seems to be way too much space next to the Lessons/Reviews buttons? Maybe they’re just too big? But I really like the idea of graphics that change depending on the number in each one (and I like old-man Koichi, all the graphics should be some version of him). Maybe fill in the extra space with a smaller version of the “available now” and such stuff? I don’t know if that would be too cluttered, but just a thought. Or maybe center them?

As always, thanks for all of your hard work and I appreciate how committed to improvement the WK Team is! I’m looking forward to the improvements down the line!

[NicoleIsEnough]

Agree with everything that was said before, new buttons too big, etc.

For the review preview, what bugs me the most about it is that it doesn’t give me an instant feeling of the time. I have to actively read the labels and go like, ok, what day is today? And what time is it? And I need to actively calculate when that long bar will hit me. Whereas with Ultimate Timeline (which I like muuuuch better ofc ) the time is evenly spaced, so I get an immediate feel for how the reviews are spread over the next few days.
Also, I like horizontal much better than vertical, but that may just be my math/engineer brain that is simply trained to have the time along the x axis

[Haios]

I love the Review Forecast feature. I’m not a script person, so installing scripts was never an option for me, so I’m glad for this feature. I hope it’s one that gets to stay.

[bati]

I prefer just a number for the reviews and lessons but I could get used to added artwork if others like it. I think the Review Forecast will be useful. Thanks.

[jprspereira]

I know my account is always the exception, but I don’t really like those days there just telling me I’ll have 0 reviews. It seems like a waste of space, and it takes me way longer to process all the information. If I won’t have any reviews on that day, then it should just skip the day.

In my case, it would list Sunday (3 reviews) and then jump to Thursday (1 review). I think having today there is fine though. Also, I appreciate days of the month probably more than days of the week. Thursday? hmm… what day of the week is it today again…? So I wonder if there’s any way of inserting days of the month there.

[jupa]

I think the new buttons and the Review Forecast are nice! As someone who generally uses a computer at work for reviews installing scripts is not something I have the liberty to do. This information is much more useful than the old system. The buttons also look good and the transition from large buttons to tabs on the menu bar is seamless.

I agree with some people saying that the times that are included could maybe be done in a different way? I would prefer to know when the reviews are coming in relation to the entire day at a moments glance rather than double checking the times and intervals between those times. I think in my head I’m naturally inclined to calculate the information I don’t desire with the current layout. I was reading someone else’s feedback and I think I agree in that having the times evenly spaces gets the information across better. The reason I want to use the reviews forecast is not that review are coming, I know that they are, but generally at a glance how busy will my day, in terms of reviews, be.

Also I noticed some resizing issues that looked strange to me when I had some side by side windows. I am sure that those though will be worked out in a more formal release.

Although I like the buttons I think the large empty space in the corner at the right is awkward just for my personal tastes. I’d like to see them centered or that space used somehow.

I appreciate the work youre doing.

[Belthazar]

@seanblue

I think the new Lesson and Review icons are a bit too big.

Yes, but, how many times have we had people in here going “BAH! IT’S TOO SLOW!” simply because they’ve not noticed they have lessons waiting?

[sansarret]

I use WK on PC with 20+ scripts, and also on iphone.

Really dislike huge buttons, on iphone that’s the only thing that is visible without scrolling.
Current buttons are perfect on iphone, and OK on desktop.

Review Forecast is useful on iphone, and reasonably sized/summed up since it’s in accordion. On PC, it is too detailed (each hour), and no daily summaries. I’m pretty sure the script to remove it will become an instant hit, since it is still subpar to Ultimate Timeline. I’d say use mobile design on desktop for Review Forecast at least.

I appreciate that you are asking us for feedback.

[sansarret]

One more thought about Reviews/Lessons buttons, what if you make them look active/passive when count is non-zero/zero?

I completely disagree making buttons more flashy for the sake of new users who may miss them.
Regular users spend hour or two each day on this website, we cannot suffer thru any animation.

[sansarret]

@Belthazar

Yes, but, how many times have we had people in here going “BAH! IT’S TOO SLOW!” simply because they’ve not noticed they have lessons waiting?

That’s better than alternative. There is no failsafe design for pebkas. Regular users spend too much time looking at this site, and they are main customers.
otoh I’ve already paid lifetime, WK does not care about me anymore

[rfindley]

I like what I’m seeing in everyone’s images.

Tried it on my test account (jfindley), and it’s saying I don’t have reviews. Not sure why:
(And although my snapshot below was taken with scripts turned on, I did turn them off and got the same thing)

EDIT: I did 5 lessons and 4 reviews. Now my Review Forecast shows 5 upcoming reviews. So, apparently, it’s not counting reviews that are ready ‘now’.

[afunian]

I like the spacing between the apprentice/guru buttons, but I find the lesson/review buttons to be obnoxious… The review forecast is nice too.

[rfindley]

Ooh… On my lvl60 account, I like the message detail.
Knowing the date is handy!

[CvxFous]

The buttons are a tad big maybe, but also on a normal 1080p screen, every useful information is here, so it’s fine by me ?

EDIT: Well, seeing it again, on top right below search bar feels definitely a bit empty