Honestly, I like most of the changes (though I think enabling a summary should be an option) but every big update highlights the same problem: a lot of basic and very desired features are only delivered by apps or scripts and that’s a shame. I understand how angry and frustrated some are.
8 Likes
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Good: I love timeouts going away. Being able to keep a WK tab open and bang out a few reviews here and there between other things is wonderful.
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Neutral: Losing the summary page doesn’t bother me personally, but it’s enough of a big deal to others here that it definitely should come back.
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Bad: Breaking Double Check. WK either needs an undo, or much more comprehensive accept/shake lists. I hate playing guess-the-synonym. “Oh, you put ‘conversation’ instead of ‘discussion’… back to Apprentice for you!”
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Bad: Breaking Confusion Guesser. Knowing WHY I get things wrong is important in learning. Am I putting the kunyomi instead of the onyomi? Getting two similar kanji mixed up? After this update, who knows?
13 Likes
I CANNOT function properly without the double-check and autoadvance script. Other than temporarily broken scripts… It’s not a big deal
4 Likes
I don’t think these changes meaningfully improve anything and actually make the site less useable, especially in the short-term as user scripts are broken. It’s actually pretty demotivating and is really confusing as an end-user, as I imagine most of the “improvements” were on the back-end and will make actual user-facing improvements better in the long-run, but it will take some time and effort to rebuild some of that good will.
11 Likes
I’d just like to know why any of this was implemented really 
I’m not sure the last time I saw UI complaints.
if it aint broke…
16 Likes
The Keisei Semantic-Phonetic Composition script is not a crutch, but it adds highly valuable functionality.
The Jitai script is not a crutch, but it adds highly valuable functionality.
The Pitch info script is not a crutch, but it adds highly valuable functionality.
etc.
The Double check script is a crutch…
But is it my damn fault that my metaphorical leg is broken???
Did I perhaps choose to be sligtly dyslexic, prone to typos, and a non-native speaker of English?
What I’m trying to say is: there are lots of legitimate reasons to be upset about scripts breaking, including reasons you can’t just “opt out of”, and disdainfully dismissing them as a “personal choice” to “rely on crutches” does nothing but subtract from the conversation.
45 Likes
I echo the sentiments of some other users here. I feel a lot of these UX experiences have a worse flow of study and make things more difficult. I’m really not a fan of how the screen jumps down when I expand to see the definition/reading of something I got wrong. It’s very jarring and doesn’t let me make as nice a connection between reading and writing and means I have to scroll up right after clicking when before I didn’t, taking my focus and slowing me down because I have to switch my hands to a completely different area and action which was never necessary before. I wrote this and edited after first impressions but I just (slowly) got through my big morning review batch now and I really, really hated this along with how expanding the material is in general. Having to scroll to see the meaning and kanji at the top at the same time (kanji composition used to always be visible too, now it’s at the bottom and also hidden behind another click, making the problem even worse) and the jumping around of my perspective when I expand is really infuriating, and I also found myself just not reading nearly as much about what I got wrong because it’s all so spread out and separated. Gonna hurt long term. It’s also especially infuriating because not all words jump around so extremely like this when you expand them, and the inconsistency further breaks your flow. I also don’t really buy the consistency reasoning because it’s much easier to read what you need to read in lessons compared to reviews now, since it’s all a uniform size and not vertically stacked and doesn’t jump you around.
I was also a big fan of the summary pages right after lessons. Very helpful and let me see exactly how I did and potentially target some things to refresh.
I also don’t personally like seeing so much information during reviews. If I’m being tested on the reading, all I want to see when I expand it is the reading. I find seeing the rest all at once overwhelming and it also tempts me to look at a lot of other stuff during reviewing, when I should be doing it after I get through my review batch. It’s another thing that slows me down and makes reviewing scarier.
It’s also a less efficient use of space. I used to be able to see the kanji composition and reading or meaning without having to expand anything or scroll in the old design. I find things like that very frustrating. Scaling down my page helps a little but that’s a band-aid and shifts the annoyance in another direction really. Ultimately the balance of the old UI was better and more efficiently used on desktop, and it was easier to see immediately what I needed to see and continue with reviewing.
I always thought the different layouts made sense for what you were doing and why they were there. During lessons, it made sense to see more information at once, during reviews, you’re just reviewing one element separately at a time and don’t need all that, and then afterwards if you wanted supplemental study you could use the summary page to view more. How it is now just makes reviews feel counter-productive because it’s too much information at once and too spacious so it feels hard to digest it. I don’t have that feeling of I can just glance at it and get it and move on, on top of the UI shifting vertically when it never had to before. It’s really slowing me down and making reviews frustrating and makes me want to not even expand the info when I get something wrong because it’s so shocking to the senses. When I do expand it, I feel overwhelmed by what I’m trying to process and don’t really read as much. It’s just too big and spread out now and scrolls the page around further adding to that feeling. It’s inconsistent between words too.
Seeing the color change if a component of the compound word is burned makes it harder to read if you’re reviewing the kanji composition. I used to always be able to see this information at a glance in a corner on the old UI after expanding the current part I was checking during reviews. Didn’t have to expand, didn’t have to scroll, and I could still see the full word written at the original prompt. Less clutter too.
I like being able to add synonyms during lessons. That’s nice. Colors are nice too, and the appearance does seem snappier when entering answers. The rest I see from a user perspective of just wanting to show up and peacefully do my reviews though is… As another user said I think it’s a step backwards. Overall it feels to make reviewing a less smooth and effective process and not nearly as enjoyable as it used to be. Many things are distracting or overwhelming to the senses compared to before.
Not being able to press enter to advance too. What?
24 Likes
Am I crazy? Was there always “Visually Similar Kanji” section? Why did I realize this only now?
3 Likes
I did find the old site pretty sluggish, this one feels significantly more reactive. I may be more sensitive to lag than most though. Improving on this is probably worth breaking the API IMO, but it’s also important to make sure that the most useful scripts are updated before you remove the old interface…
Yeah the “crutch” part is a bad argument, everything is a crutch.
Oh you need spaced repetition, you can’t just remember the word correctly the first time? Maybe you should stop being such a failure tbh. That’s embarrassing.
Oh you need the website to provide mnemonics for you, you’re not creative enough to make up a two sentence story with the components? Do you need somebody to tie your shoelaces too or do you just use velcro?
All that matters is what gets us to our objectives in an efficient and not too frustrating way. This isn’t Dark Souls, there’s not a “good” and a “bad” way to finish the game.
14 Likes
Most of the changes are good but -please- bring back the summary page. It was really useful. And the box highlight is also really distracting.
7 Likes
Tofugu should really think about adding some of the very popular user scripts to their main service. Double Check and Auto Commit are a really great place to start.
P.S. Remove the black border around the typing area, it disconnects the answer with the kanji, and looks like someone forgot to take off a border on a text box.
5 Likes
Just throwing in my opinions.
Not sure if they changed the font, but it everything looks more formal, proper, and more boring. I do not like the black border around the answer box. Nor how opaque the “Your response” is, which I don’t know if it was changed, but it certainly pops out now.
I’ll be on Jakeipuu until everything is sorted out and fleshed out. I’ll be back on desktop when either it reverts back or an userscipt exists to bring back the old design.
6 Likes
This wanikani shit get serious quick
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If this is the price to pay to get Double Check and Auto Commit as options in base WK it might be worth the headache.
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i’m interested in whether or not there was some sort of “remove the review summary page” request that made this happen, or if it was entirely a developer whim
8 Likes
After reading comments… I wanted to give my opinion. I have never used any user scripts and to be fair, using wanikani was little bit painful. But I don’t think these updates are terrible or anything. People will calm down soon.
Issue is, why do people need so many user scripts? Wanikani should implement most popular scripts instead of changing how review page looks I think.
7 Likes
Writing a second post for this thread
Finished my homework from WaniKani for today and…It was the most unenjoyable session I’ve had in over a year.
The worst part is that I can very much confirm what some other users are describing - I’m not sure if it’s the brighter colors, but I actually have a headache during and after my reviews, and even felt slightly nauseous.
I’m not gonna lie…The idea that THIS is going to be the future of WaniKani, a tool I personally consider almost invaluable to learning Kanji in a fun and efficient way…That frightens me. Please reconsider this update.
21 Likes
I didn’t mind it (bar the script making me hit enter up to 5 times to continue) but in comparison to this update I completely agree with you. This is the one thing I am quite happy with.
On the downside, (and maybe this is an 
moment), inspecting at item info during reviews (via F) is way too slow. Not only does it just take much longer to show, it often exands to show me info from the last item I inspected.
If you’ve sunk hundreds of hours into something and made it work, then one day get it all totally shit on and get items sent from enlightenment to guru due to lack of redo-button you’d probably understand peoples frustration.
To make things worse, nobody asked for it.
18 Likes
- Undo it all for now—seems this redesign is not working for most people
- Reintroduce new elements slowly
- Don’t take away features, especially without any prior discussion
- Create a native, optional double-check feature—it seems to be the 2nd most complained about disaster in this thread after the summary page
And bring back the community posts on the homepage (I know this is old news by now, but I still miss them, wtf?)
Is this site under new ownership or have some new company philosophy?
34 Likes