New Year, New Look

Chatterbug News
#1

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Hey Chatterbug Community!

At the start of this year we’ve been rolling out the new design for Chatterbug web. This update includes a simplified navigation, quick access to recommended study activities, improved interaction for how to progress through the curriculum and more.

Here’s a video overview of what we’ve updated in more detail:


We’ll continue to slowly roll out the new design to everyone in the coming weeks. We’re looking forward to seeing what you think and improving your experience while learning a language with Chatterbug.

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#2

Hello! I like the overall new UI look and feel. I have a question though.

In the 24hrs before a scheduled lesson, the appointment reminder is huge and replaces the “start studying” button. (it easily takes up 50% of my screen). Would it be possible to have the “start studying” button return and the reminder be slightly smaller? I know this is a minor complaint because if I choose one of the three other activities at the bottom of the page they seem to function the same way as the “start studying” button did. It’s just a bit confusing at first glance.

Nice work overall though!

5 Likes
#3

Hey @kthxbye. The size of the upcoming Live Lesson was by design, as we did not want folks to miss this, as well as have the chance to preview their lesson and Tutor. You have a valid point about the real-estate that the upcoming Live Lesson takes up on the home page and I’ve noted your feedback. We’re looking forward to fine-tuning this experience even more. If you have more comments please don’t hesitate to write into our support team. Thanks for the feedback!

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#4

Congrats on launching the redesign. Really like all the improvements and visual refresh. Well done to the whole team!

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#5

Debbie downer here. I am not a fan of the new Setup.

  1. SelfStudy has changed from a ‚daily summary’ to weekly. It’s not a real big challenge to divide total week by 7 to get your daily figure I realise but I’m not a fan of the new Setup.
  2. Has the flash card algorithm changed? I’m either getting all really old cards or 80% new words in one session.
  3. Preparation for the next lesson seems to have changed. Before you would get a preview of new words but also grammar concepts. It doesn’t seem to to happening.
  4. Total agree with the massive ‚next class‘ block in the middle of the Page. Email and text alerts do fine in my opinion.

But I am still loving my classes and the daily self study.

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#6

Great feedback @No_longer32. We are working on improvements for setting goals, as well as recommended flashcards. Apologies that they aren’t working as expected. On the preparation for the next lesson, I’m curious what has changed from the old interface to the new on how you prepare because we didn’t change any functionality there. This is all very helpful– thanks!

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#7
#8

Overall I like the new design, but like @No_longer32 I miss the daily summary (specifically, the minutes/day statistic).

I’m also curious about how the Language Goals calculator works. I’ve played with it a bit and noticed that my completion date does not change when I adjust the ‘Study minutes per week’ slider. It doesn’t matter if I plug in 20 minutes or 420 minutes - the completion date stays the same. This seems flawed to me.

Only adjustments to the Live Lessons slider affects time to completion. I understand the value of live lessons, but surely the self study minutes must count for something. As it stands, it just seems like a tool designed to drive subscription upgrades.

2 Likes
#9

Having worked in the new system for a while now, some things are standing out to me more.

A little more insight into how the progress percentages are calculated would be nice. Of course one wants to prevent a learner from gaming the system to an extent, but right now it is fairly opaque. Previously I could see my work directly push the numbers and get feedback. Now, doing the same amount of work, I don’t really understand the progress bar movements anymore.

Also, under “My Course” in the new UI it would be nice to see my card/video/writing numbers without having to click through. Currently if I want to see exactly how much I have to complete for any given unit I have to click through or open another tab. As a completionist, I like to refer back to the “My Course” tab several times a session to view any updates. The Green checkmark and progress bar are helpful at a glance, however the three small activity icons being either on/off are not very helpful in detail. I liked the previous design that showed exactly how many cards, videos, etc… I needed to complete a unit. The new design has removed some useful (to me) information in exchange for a cleaner (?) design.

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#10

Speaking practice for us is really important in becoming fluent in the language. In the old progress, study defined your progression through the curriculum and we ended up changing it to exercises completed in Live Lessons. Study prepares you and allows you to practice. You can keep studying the material as you did before in the old interface. Now you just pick up your Live Lessons from where your last one was completed in the unit. We could definitely be more transparent about this change, as well as improve how Live Lessons and Study work together @Peatlander and @kthxbye. We want to improve goal setting and creating a more flexible way for everyone to succeed and keep motivated– as every learner is different and wants different things from the system. I really appreciate the feedback!

And on your other note @kthxbye– we added the other study activities to overview page (not just flashcards and Live Lessons in the old interface), but did not get more granular on exactly how much is complete for each study activity on that overview. This is something we can definitely improve on. Thanks!

4 Likes
#11

Thx for the info, Amy.

#12

I like the new look, it’s fresh and simple, but I’ve got a few questions about the new interface.

  1. How can I access the recent texts for reading? In the old interface there was a page with recently read texts. Is there a page for this or can I find texts only through a unit it belongs to?
  2. How can I access all my writing practices? Right now I can only get access to the latest one, but I’d really appreciate an opportunity to go back and check my old writing practices as it helps me to see my progress.
  3. Is there a page with all grammar concepts? Right now I can only access them via units or search
1 Like
#13

Great question @marunyash– you are correct that you can go into each unit and see all the activities. We are still working on getting all readings, all writing practice and all concepts hooked up and working in the new interface. These would eventually be accessible from the Achievements page.

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#14

Hi @marunyash :slight_smile: Here is the link for all the German grammar concepts. It also has a search bar that turns out very handy to look for specifics. I hope it’s what you’re looking for.

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#15

In the old progress, study defined your progression through the curriculum and we ended up changing it to exercises completed in Live Lessons.

Could you talk a little bit more about that? I don’t really understand that.

#16

Definitely. In the old progress (which had the old interface), the amount of study you did moved you through the curriculum. Whatever unit you were last studying is what your Live Lesson would be focused on. Many students could breeze through levels without having speaking practice in Live Lessons. We have changed it so the next Live Lesson is where you left off with your previous Live Lesson. You can still keep studying ahead as you did before. As you can see in my example I am currently working through unit “Reklamieren”, but I have studied ahead on vocabulary and other study activities (shown with badges per activity).

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We’ve gotten already some good feedback on this approach and want to learn more how we can best assist everyone’s language goals. Let me know your thoughts @kevinpc.

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#17

Regarding Writing Exercises:

In the new UI, is there a place to look for ‘alerts’ or ‘notices?’ For example, right now I’m not sure there is any way for me to be notified when a tutor has returned a writing assignment or where it is. I know that I get an email separately, but in the web UI? At the moment, on the website, I feel I just have to remember which writing assignments have been recently done and drill down into:

My Course ->(wait for animation…, then scroll back to the correct Unit)
->Click on the Unit
->scroll to the bottom of the Unit page
->click on the Writing Practices
->Click on “View Entry”
->and finally inspect the light colored button at the bottom

Am I missing something? Is an outside email the only notification method?

#18

Where can one see their historical list of Live Lessons for playback and review? This was available in the old UI. Currently I can only find snippets of each lesson by finding an associated Exercise. Also with the snippets, our logged text chat is not available.

If there is a URL that is hidden or an area I don’t know about, pls let me know. Being able to playback old Live Lessons and review the text (I have been using it for live note taking) is very helpful.

1 Like
#19

Try the Achievements page and scroll till the Live Lessons block, there will be a link with the ‘See all live lessons’ text

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#20

Oh thank you! I was not able to find that on my own.