• 5 October 2016Landing page redesign in progress

    The home page has been terribly outdated for years now and I have been working on a redesign. Check it out : new landing page concept (png image), and let me know what you think !

    There are multiple goals with this redesign.

    • Both for new visitors and potential employers, the new design hopefully does a better job of conveying what the website is about and what's inside.

    • I need to refresh myself on fancy CSS frameworks like Bootstrap, so I can try those on the landing page without having to refactor the whole site.

    • Mobile / responsive redesign. Although there is more work to do inside the website, new visitors hopefully will get a better impression. The flashcard review page in particular, is responsive and mobile friendly, but a new visitor wouldn't know with the outdated home page design.

    • Removal of the Amazon affiliate links. Amazon has earned me pennies. At best , I would receive a postal cheque from Amazon.com for approx. 120 USD every six months, and then the bank in Belgium would take nearly 20 EUR just for "transaction" purposes. In theory it was a great idea to support Mr. Heisig's books while I benefit from the audience. In practice though, most visitors who register likely have heard about the "Heisig method" and purchased the book before they were told about the website. So now the landing page simply "recommends Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig to work along with the website". The fact is, that it is possible to study kanji with other books or school programs, and while the navigation is more cumbersome, it's still possible to benefit from Koohii's kanji mnemonics and even the flashcard reviews since the flashcard prompt (the keyword) can be edited.

    So there ya go. Feedback from members and especially new visitors would be most welcome!

    In other news I know, trust me, I'd rather add a new feature. I want to add something very cool to the flashcards, potentially the easiest way to customize one's flashcards with vocabulary. But I need to dig out very old scripts for that which will take some time.

    I couldn't make significant updates to the website the first half of 2016 because I was in a crisis. I started psychotherapy and massage early 2016, to heal from the anxiety I have endured much of my life, which comes from the abusive environment in which I grew up. I'm doing a lot better now!

    I rarely write about myself here so that was a little diversion. I've sometimes thought about sharing more experiences on a blog as such, but it takes far too much time to write. Maybe someday...

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