

Show HN: I built an app to improve your Vocabulary - TenJack
http://wordstash.com/

======
ForrestN
Constructive criticism: the visual aesthetic of the site is so busted that I
(and I expect many people) would never register to try the software. Some
ideas for improvement which are specifically calibrated to match your case
(not rules for sites in general, obviously):

\- Most of all, radically simplify. For now, I think it's better to just
explain what it is and put forward a simple call to action (create your
account and get started!) All of the accoutrements of a "professional
website", the images with overlaid text (test tubes because it's scientific,
for example) are distracting and too difficult to execute. Put all that energy
into the app and market later.

\- The cloud tile background is random and totally dominating. The first thing
I do when I visit is cycle my eyes around the strange margins full of clouds,
because they're the brightest thing on the page.

\- The color palette is nuts. Pick 3 colors that you've seen together on other
sites and stick to them.

\- Add a little more padding to all of the various boxes you're using. In
almost every case, the edge of the box is way too close to the text.

\- Swap out the squirrel clip art for a word mark. Pick one of these fonts you
like and write the name of the app in it:

<http://www.google.com/webfonts>

\- Add a wrapper to the whole website if you want a margin around the fixed-
width background. It looks really strange not to have consistent margins,
especially with the intense background.

~~~
dkarl
I like the images with words overlaid; it's the best part of the page. It
makes his site stand out from the current cookie-cutter standard. If you can
get decent results (not great, but decent) without looking like everyone else
the last thing you should do is adjust everything to the currently prevailing
style to make your site 20% more readable but instantly forgettable at the
same time.

I agree that the clouds are distracting, though.

~~~
ForrestN
If you can't see the difference between good design and bad, it's totally
understandable to think of all design as equivalently good. I would say that
there is no reason to conform a site to any sort of "cookie-cutter standard",
but when you are not good at design and aren't working with a designer, it's
much better to base your project on well-designed examples than to wing it
with pink and purple boxes and no padding.

Whether you're familiar with it or not, the trio of stock photos with
marketing messages listed over top is already cliche, but more importantly is
very poorly executed here. I think he should get rid of it because it's a
waste of time to try to learn how to execute it well, not because it's never a
good idea to have it.

As I tried to explain, I'm not arguing that all sites should look a certain
way, just that in my judgment this particular guy is better off making design
a non-issue rather than trying to trail-blaze.

~~~
dkarl
_As I tried to explain, I'm not arguing that all sites should look a certain
way_

... you're just giving him advice that would make his site look like every
other site following the conventional wisdom. I agree his site needs work, but
it would be more constructive to identify something unique and salvageable
about his site instead of saying he needs to completely remove his design
skills (or lack thereof) from the equation. It feels a bit negative and
mercenary for a site that he's put a lot of personal work into and doesn't
seem interested in monetizing.

Personally, I think the way he's done the text on the photos feels original in
this context. A professional analyzing the structure of the page might find a
cliche, but that doesn't mean much if the users don't see it. Otherwise
everything would feel cliche all the time. The solid background behind the
text isn't original (A Softer World uses it, and it might feel stale in a
magazine advertisement) but it puts you off the "product page" scent.

~~~
ForrestN
Obviously there's not much use in keeping this going, but I want to be even
clearer: the problem isn't whether or not what he's doing is cliche, the
problem is that it looks amateurish, distracting and unpleasant (sorry to be
harsh, just trying to be clear). It looks wrong, not just outside of my
expectations.

I originally gave him a big list of concrete ideas of how to improve, it's not
like I just said "boy this looks crappy" and told him to rip off existing
sites. My broader point is that questions of originality and uniqueness are
moot when you haven't crossed the threshold of basic quality, so it's
counterproductive to worry about them.

I can definitely appreciate your suggestion that I coat criticism with more
than just the "constructive" preface, and I could have offered that I think
it's a cool idea and that it looks like he's put in a lot of hard work. I'll
do that next time.

------
ch0wn
"Password must contain only letters, numbers, and underscores"

Could you fix that please? There is no reason to restrict what a password may
contain.

~~~
rpedroso
Agreed.

Also, up the max password length -- 20 is far too small for those who use
password managers. Not that I am terribly worried about someone breaking into
my WordStash account, but I don't want to have to change the settings on my
password generator.

~~~
tricolon
Indeed; I have some long passwords... Go for at least 64 characters.

------
angdis
Back when I was preparing for the GRE (in the early 90's), I found two things
to be very useful for increasing vocabulary.

1) Anu Garg's "A Word A Day" (wordsmith.org), back then it was just a daily
email subscription that emailed out an advanced vocabulary word. One per day,
simple and effective back in th'day when people received a volume of email
that was actually consumable in one day.

2) A buddy passed on to me a huge stack of index cards each one containing a
turgid vocabulary word that you would never use in real life but that would be
common on the GRE or in a George Will essay.

I recall that when I took the GRE, there were a couple of words that I would
not have known if I had not prepared with the cards and at least one that was
on a word a day. A few words is enough to seriously boost your GRE score and
totally worth the small investment in time (a few minutes everyday for ~6
months).

~~~
ecaradec
A word of the day would be a very good way to get people enter their email and
tip them to come back to the site. I'd leave my email without a thought.

~~~
TenJack
Good to know. i will look into implementing a word of the day. That's a really
good idea.

------
dkarl
Do you have a mobile app or a mobile-optimized interface? If so, you should
mention it on the front page. I use Anki for studying vocabulary, and for
reviewing I use the iPhone app exclusively. I only use the web interface for
managing my lists. If you want to make a few bucks, you'll have no problem
getting your users to cough up money for a mobile app, because of how handy it
is to review in odd moments.

(I just checked Anki in the app store, and it's priced at $25 [1]. For the
record, I paid less than that when I bought it, but I would have gladly paid
$25.)

Also, make sure you test and advertise your support for non-ASCII characters
and non-English dictionaries.

[1] <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ankisrs/id373493387?mt=8>

~~~
lynaghk
I designed a very similar spaced-repetition algorithm flashcard learning app
for the Kindle (screenshots here: <http://keminglabs.com/#/kindle/> ). It's in
Amazon's review process at the moment, but if you have a Kindle and want to
test it out I can get you a dev copy.

Tenjack---drop me a line if you want to chat about collaborating on some of
this. We got our definitions from Wiktionary as well, but we're looking around
for other resources.

------
TechnoFou
First thought on the website is that you really need a design. An average user
will automatically feel troubled with the overall looks of the site.

Best example is a known war between iOS and Android. Even if the latter has
more functionality most users are still appealed by the simplicity and the
aesthetic of the former.

With a fresh coat of paint and some more organization, you will have an
amazing little site!

------
wzdd
Love the idea, but the word definitions are lacking.

From the top 100 list, churlish is defined as having the qualities of a serf
or peasant. This is correct, but in common usage it generally means 'surly'.
Knowing the latter definition makes the word far more useful.

Similarly, epiphany (appearance of the divine) is almost always used (if
you're not discussing the holiday or Christian mythology) to mean 'a sudden
understanding'.

There are probably others, these were just on the first page.

------
pwr
1 error prohibited this user from being saved There were problems with the
following fields: Password must contain only letters, numbers, and underscores

------
wccrawford
'IQ' already means something in this realm. Re-using it is a very bad idea.

Having to click 'next word' after each word gets old fast, and seriously slows
down your studying.

This doesn't offer any way to learn the words, only to remember them. An SRS
is only half of the solution for learning new things. You need a learning
module for when they encounter new words.

~~~
Inufu
Yes, please get rid of the "next" button or at least allow me to advance with
my keyboard - preferably the space key.

~~~
TenJack
So I initially included this step so that you can review a word that you miss.
But yea, I think it is a great suggestion to remove this if you get a word
right. Also, including a keyboard trigger is an awesome idea! Thanks.

------
w1kke
I am not a native english speaker and in my english class, the teacher always
had us write one sentence using the new word we had to learn. This way we
built our own context and understanding of the word. Maybe that could help in
learning the words.

------
kirbman89
Are you tied into one of the online dictionaries via api? I had similar idea
before social networking. I can see how this could take off.

If not already, make it searchable by school, class, and textbook.

Good luck.

~~~
TenJack
I'm using wiktionary for definitions. It was the best solution I could find.

------
reidrac
The page doesn't seem to render properly here (Firefox 5 and Chromium 12
tested).

In case it helps: <http://i.imgur.com/xvEZE.png>

~~~
TenJack
Woh, yea, I haven't tested in Firefox 5 and Chromium 12 at all. Thanks.

------
nodata
Suggestion: show the visitor what the app does, give an example without
requiring the visitor to do anything. Don't require account creation straight
away.

~~~
TenJack
Yea, you can demo the quiz and game features for each list without creating an
account. I should make this more clear.

------
rpedroso
It would be nice if I could confirm that I 'know' words, and that I could opt
for those words to not appear (or perhaps be grayed-out) in lists.

~~~
ForrestN
Agreed, this seems really necessary especially after the first couple of
rounds of practice.

------
Inufu
you might want to put a different picture of you on there - it looks like you
are totally stoned. Maybe you are, but that's not the point xD

~~~
TenJack
Haha, I'm not at all, but yea, I will look for another pic.

------
philfreo
Looks cool. Some similar study modes to what we have at Quizlet
(<http://quizlet.com>)

------
Inufu
I really like the app so far. Especially the waterfall game is cool.

I'll use it to brush up my spanish. :)

~~~
TenJack
Good to hear! Thanks.

------
mhb
Similar to?:

<http://ankisrs.net/>

------
abraham
Does anyone know of an Android app that performs similar functionality.

~~~
GertG
Ankidroid: <http://code.google.com/p/ankidroid/>

~~~
abraham
Thanks! That looks to be exactly what I'm looking for.

------
kaffeinecoma
Is there a public-domain dictionary that sites such as this use?

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henryw
very nice idea. people can come up with some very cool public lists, like the
<http://wordstash.com/lists/167-100-words-you-should-know>

just for fun here's a sentence with 11 of those words: my fatuous and vacuous
chicanery in pecuniary jejune only serve to inculcate me the quotidian need to
abrogate the belie of ego--my circumlocutious lexicon aside.

~~~
gjm11
Unfortunately, that isn't a sentence: "jejune" is an adjective, not a noun;
"belie" is a verb, not a noun; "inculcate" takes an indirect object with "in",
not a direct object. (Well, it does take a direct object, but it's the thing
being inculcated, not the person it's being done to.)

------
chrischen
How do you get learning mode to work?

~~~
TenJack
You need to create an account and either create a new list or copy an existing
one.

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Robin_Message
Accelerator key for next word!

------
mashmac2
wordstache.com is also available... put a word on your mustache!

------
4J7z0Fgt63dTZbs
You've got it wrong, you don't read to learn vocab, you learn vocab to
supplement reading experience.

A bookmarklet that acts as mouse over dictionary, added with a system that
saves the whole context (and its distinguishing look) of whatever user is
reading on browser, combined with a repetitive learning aid (like one you have
as flashcard) is the right approach to assistive vocab learning.

~~~
rpedroso
Not if you're a writer. Not that I want to read novels or papers that sound
like a thesaurus threw up on a keyboard, but it's good to always have the
right word to express a thought.

