Today we launched our brand new LingQ Widget. No longer will you see the original “floating” widget. Although we liked the design of the original widget with its speech bubble shape and blue and green trim, we have changed designs to improve its functionality. First of all, we have fixed the widget to the bottom of the page. It was convenient that the old widget could be moved around and minimized but this caused stability problems on occasion. Now, we have rearranged the page so that the whole page can scroll with only the widget fixed at the bottom. We have also removed the sliding menus from the right hand side which displayed the Saved LingQs or Item Menu views. Now, the Item status information is always visible on the right. You will see that the Saved LingQs list is now visible in the widget area when no term is selected and you can return to the LingQs list at any time by clicking List in the widget. Finally, you will notice that the new widget is significantly faster than before. Anything to help our members learn faster!
You will also see a completely redesigned Events page. We have combined the My Events page with the Available Events page. You will now see the events you have signed up for in a list above the main Events list. You will also see that all events now have an image attached to them and we have tried to streamline the look of the page. We think this makes the Events page more attractive and clearer. We have more improvements to come on the Events page but this is a good start. Enjoy!
Finally, many of you have been asking us when we would show the New Words numbers again in the Store. We had removed them a few weeks ago to speed up the site. We have now rebuilt them and they are once again available in the Store. Thanks for your patience as we restored these numbers and , as always, let us know how you like all these new updates.
Hi,
I was working on the site when it stops. I waited as I knew you had planned improvement. I had a good surprised to see the changes you have done when the site works again.
The LingQ widget is faster, you’re right, and the design is nice
There was one thing that was in the old widget though is the fact that we could close it if we wanted to; it’s not possible to minimize it now if we want I did that when I just wanted to read the text only.
I was reading a text earlier on and when I finished it and wanted to update it, there was an error. I cannot click on any items that I read or listened to it.
Each time there was a message error (type error: m has no properties) I switched to the wordesk and the number of time I clicked was written. As I clicked three time on Read, I clicked to decrease this number but the message appeared again. However it was taken in consideration too even if there was the message error. There is problem here.
On the Overview page, my scheduled events have disappeared too.
The new design is really nice. Especially I like the photos of the tutors in the new event page. It would be fine, if you added the missing photos of some of the tutors.
If you experience strange problems like broken design or funny javascript errors, please click your browser’s refresh button. That should solve 99% of such problems. This is caused by some files stuck in the browser’s cache. We’re working on an automated solution right now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I’m really happy with LingQ today!!
First of all, I’m glad having the new word percents back. Also, not only the new lingq widget is much faster, but the flashcards and workdesk too. Last, but not least, I liked very much the new flashcards design. It’s much more effective.
Congratulations, boys! You’ve done a great job!
Thanks for all the positive feedback and also thanks for pointing out some bugs!
Marianne, we will fix the Upcoming Events list right away and we will look into what we can do to close or minimize the new widget.
Andreas, we are working on getting all of our tutors to get their profiles completed. We hope all of our members will do the same! You can add your image and descriptions on the Settings page. The “Join Now” button should display instructions on how to join the event. This should be fixed shortly.
Ana Paula, thanks for noticing and appreciating our efforts!
Could you please explain the functionality of the new, green ‘Join Event’ button on the top right of the New Events section. I mentioned this question earlier.
Hi Mark
Thanks a lot, you’ve done a great job. This widget is much faster.
I have two suggestions if they are possible. First, I like to hear the pronunciation of the new words, especially when I import a new passage. I would like the new version to do that.
the other suggestion is minimizing the widget. It takes a big space. I prefer if I can minimize it when I don’t use it.so I don’t have to keep scrolling the page.
In any case, it is a big improvment. Good job.
Just a comment on suggestions and improvements. We very much welcome all suggestions and requests for improvement.
I just want to caution you that we cannot accommodate all suggestions and requests, nor when we do so can we always do it quickly. There is a lot yet to do and Mark and his team have to proceed based on priorities that reflect the needs of the system and a majority of users. It may seem at times that we are not responsive, but we are trying.
Please keep the suggestions and requests coming! And please comment on other people’s suggestions so we know what a majority or people really want.
Following Steve’s suggestion, I’d like to comment on Nancy’s idea about having some kind of automated voice generator for the lingqs. I would like very much to have this too.
I know the technology for this is not that good right now, but could help to solve quickly some pronunciation doubts.
Nancy, at first sight I also found the lingq widget too big, but I became used to it quite quickly. I don’t know about you, but normally my items are not too small, so I would need to scroll anyway.
We have no plans to add any pronunciation for the words in the near future. This is a common request, however, and we will eventually look at adding something like it. Regarding the widget, it is possible that we will look at a way to minimize, at least partially, in the next little while.
Having done a bit of development work myself in the past it may be worth adding a separate ticketing system for handling bugs, suggestions, updates, priority levels, status etc. I know it’s a bit more work now but it would definitely help in the long run.
Forums are not very efficient at handling these type of issues - you end up with 5 different threads all talking about the same issue.
I did that when I just wanted to read the text only.