I studied Mandarin for a few months, and this looks like a really cool service. Not sure if it would have a negative impact on handwriting - the repetition is really key.
I have to say that the writing style aggravated me. "We were but swaddled babes, greenhorns looking about ourselves at the vast and splendiferous plain of entrepreneurial possibility that lay before us." - this sounds like you are poking fun at yourselves, which is cool - but I don't think you are. Which makes it not cool.
This would largely be solved by toning down the thesaurus usage, I think. You used a lot of cool sounding words instead of their simpler, clearer alternatives.
Anyway, that's just me. I do think the product looks pretty awesome though. I wrote a few characters on the demo, and it went really well. It seems like someone who has zero knowledge of chinese wouldn't be able to use the demo at all, though.
Hey trefn, sorry about the flowery language. I've always thought that high Victorian prose sounded humorously formal and stiff, so whenever I'm writing for fun, I use that style.
The lack of a tutorial is something we haven't overlooked, it's just not done yet. You're right that people that don't know Chinese wouldn't be able to use it though, which is a fairly substantial problem. We need to fix that soon.
I have to say that the writing style aggravated me. "We were but swaddled babes, greenhorns looking about ourselves at the vast and splendiferous plain of entrepreneurial possibility that lay before us." - this sounds like you are poking fun at yourselves, which is cool - but I don't think you are. Which makes it not cool.
This would largely be solved by toning down the thesaurus usage, I think. You used a lot of cool sounding words instead of their simpler, clearer alternatives.
Anyway, that's just me. I do think the product looks pretty awesome though. I wrote a few characters on the demo, and it went really well. It seems like someone who has zero knowledge of chinese wouldn't be able to use the demo at all, though.