Would item type categories & item progress levels being different colors be a UI improvement?

Hi there - I’m new to WK and there’s a user interface design choice I was a bit confused by at first, and honestly it still throws me off a bit despite now understanding what’s going on. Or maybe there is a reason for this that I’m not aware of that someone can explain to me. Also I’m aware this is probably a super nitpicky thing to point out

I noticed that the item type categories (radicals, kanji, vocab) use the exact same colors as the item progress levels (enlightened, apprentice, guru) and as a new user I did find this a little confusing. I was looking at my dashboard and noticed my new unlock items were the same purple color as the Guru level and didn’t understand until later that this had nothing to do with what level the item was at for me, but was only to differentiate between item type categories. Granted, I know the site clarifies that the colors are used to categorize items during lessons and reviews, I just simply found that using the exact same colors was maybe a little confusing to beginners. But who knows, maybe I’m the only one that was ever confused by this. Lol

I thought maybe using different colors for the two would help differentiate it a bit? I understand it will probably make things less pretty, however, having more colors instead of the more minimal color scheme WK currently uses. A quick example: https://i.imgur.com/qw2D2qT.jpg

Huh, I see what you mean, but I don’t remember being confused by it in the beginning.

Are you new to Japanese? Perhaps because most people are already somewhat familiar with the concepts of radicals, kanji, kanji readings and vocab before they start here, the categorisation seems pretty straightforward. I could see myself being confused if I were completely new to Japanese at the time, now that you mention it.

Another super nitpicky thing to point out is that the alteration you suggested would throw off the colour scheme WK has going on, which is like, super nice.

I’m new-ish to Japanese, have only been learning for about a month and a half, but I knew what radicals/components and kanji are and how the Japanese writing system incorporates Kanji prior to starting WK.

It was just the fact that items you learn are categorized by both A) type and B) your progress learning them, and both category groups use the same colors, that confused me at first. I was looking at my items and was wondering if the color referred to type only (like in the lessons and reviews) or if it referred to my progress with that item as well outside of the lessons/reviews. Hopefully that makes sense.

Anyways, yeah it would make the design less slick to use more colors, but I found it a little less intuitive than it could be. I also think about these things way too much as a UI designer/dev. But ah well! Still enjoying the site and if this is the only thing I can find that bothers me I suppose that’s a good thing, eh?

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.