Overview
Handwritten Flashcards is an online flashcards web app with a twist: all the flashcards are made using handwriting. Existing flashcards applications such as Quizlet and Anki all use keyboard input to create flashcards, but I had always found this way of input tedious and annoying to use. A good flashcard app should minimize the user's mental load, so all the user's efforts can be put towards learning.
Using handwriting as input solves multiple problems at the same time:
1. Entering flashcards on a keyboard is tedious and difficult especially if switching between multiple languages. Handwriting solves the need for special characters and enables interactions such as drawing.
2. Studies have shown that handwriting vocabulary aids memory more than through typing. Making the flashcards now becomes part of the learning process, rather than something you do to prepare for learning.
3. Handwritten flashcards allow much more flexibility. Handwriting/drawing can convey more complex/nuanced ideas than [Word : Definition] pairs which current flashcard paradigms use. The app also enables interactions such as showing/hiding annotations anywhere on the card, which are not possible in traditional physical two-sided flashcards. This would allow users to structure their flashcard content in a way that they best find helpful, rather than being prescriptive.
4. The digital nature of the app and the database eliminates the issues caused by the size and loose nature of physical flashcards.
Design Process
As someone who enjoys learning languages, I often use multiple applications to practice my language skills. One application I use is Quizlet, a flashcard making website. However, I never enjoyed using it. Making flashcards on a computer is currently tedious and annoying. Also, Quizlet has pre-created sets, which is convenient, but removes an opportunity to practice.
The initial insight to solve this problem is that using other people’s flashcard sets on Quizlet is counterproductive to learning a language because the creation of those flashcard sets is in itself very helpful for studying. However, creating a set in Quizlet is a hassle and involves lots of clicks (hence the popularity of using other people’s pre-created flashcards) and the layout of the cards only allows for typed text or images instead of hand-drawn annotations (lines indicating roots etc.). Further, handwritten notes are much more effective for memory retainment. Additionally, handwritten notes allow for easy annotations or drawing arrows between parts of sentences, aiding the internalization of grammar (for example, see fig.1).
Figure 1: Handwritten notes allow for flexibility for the user
My initial design was very similar to traditional flashcards, with a "front" and "back". I mocked up a prototype using Google Slides, and tested it on a user to get feedback.
The feedback I got was positive, with them saying that they would use the app if it were made and would prefer it over applications such as Quizlet, thus validating the core functionality on the app.
From further developing the application, I realized that the format has more potential than just showing the front and back of a flashcard. One potential new use case allowed by the app is to have annotations that appear and disappear over a vocab. This is done by using two different image layers and showing and hiding the layer on top. Hence, the core element I want to iterate on is the drawing on the "canvas" and allowing information to be revealed and hidden at will. This is the core experience of the app.
I redesigned the application to utilize this "layers" design and implemented it using React for the front-end and Firebase as the database system.
To evaluate it, I used it for a week to help me in my German class. I found that creating flashcards was surprisingly fun, and I found it easy to pull the web app up on my iPad and use without much stress . This is unlike with Quizlet, which has a complex interface that instantly reminds me of how many German words I do not know. Overall, I did feel that it did help me learn German. I used the app to learn numbers, and though I did not use the flip back and forth feature a lot, the process of creating it was already surprisingly effective, and I was able to use the vocab in my German class.
You can try the application out at brian.ma/HandWrittenFlashcards/#/addCard, but it is very much a work in progress at the moment.