Suggestion to redesign the "Statistics" tab

[Ankikian]

With AnkiDroid using more and more of Anki Desktop UI, the data is conveyed less clearly on small screens.

See screenshots below :

-----

Then (Ankidroid 2.16.5) --------------------- Now (Ankidroid 2.17 alpha 3)

You can see that the “Forecast” graph has a whole tab dedicated to it in 2.16.5
Now the screen real estate usage is less optimal.
Data is less clear.

EDIT november 14th :
There is less data in the new graph.
The old graph makes a clear distinction between mature and young cards.

The screen doesn’t need to be rotated for the old graph to be legible.
The new graph doesn’t fully display in landscape mode.

There a gradiant in the colour in the new graph that corresponds to nothing.

OLD graph in landscape :

---

NEW graph in landscape :

[cjdduarte]

I prefer the new version. It’s more like the desktop.

[dae]

Personally, I find the latter easier to read too, as it’s not stretched across the long screen. If the numbers are too small, you can rotate your phone or zoom in.

[Ankikian]

There is less data in the new graph.
The old graph makes a clear distinction between mature and young cards.

The screen doesn’t need to be rotated for the old graph to be legible.
The new graph doesn’t fully display in landscape mode (see screenshots added in OP).

There a gradiant in the colour in the new graph that corresponds to nothing.

[dae]

Well you’ve scrolled down in the landscape comparison to look at the text below the graphs, so that’s not entirely fair

The gradient is primarily for aesthetics, but it also conveys how far from today the counts are. The young/mature division was deemed to not be important enough to include on that graph, but it can be seen in the reviews graph if you want to get an idea of the ratio.

[Ankikian]

Here are more screenshots.
Everybody can check on their smartphone too.
The whole graph doesn’t display fully.

This is clearly not designed with small screens in mind.

[dae]

It fits on an iPhone. You could ask the AnkiDroid devs to decrease the height of the top area and/or hide the status bar.

[Ankikian]

I pointed to a lack of readability of Anki Statistics UI on small screens.
You proposed rotating the screen as a solution.
Thanks.

TBH even if it worked, it would still be a sub-optimal solution.
But I just showed it doesn’t even work.

Back to square 1 :
I suggest a redesign of the Statistics presentation in Anki.
It’s ok if folks don’t agree

[brian.krznarich]

Can’t post the link, but ankidroid now has a github ticket for hiding the toolbar in landscape, and it appears that this will get done (but not in the next release).

• Hide the statistics toolbar on scroll 14991

Anyway, I registered here just to chime in on this one issue, as I encountered it as an Ankidroid beta user this February.

Ankidroid’s switch to the Desktop graphs is, for me, by far the biggest loss in the code standardization. AnkiDesktop’s graphs are great, if you are on a desktop with a giant monitor and a mouse.

Ankidroid had hand-tuned graphs for making the best of screen real estate. Swipes moved from graph to graph in full screen animations. No “manual scroll till you get your graph into the frame”. The new graphs are 60% of the width in portrait, and 20% of the height. They are much harder to see. Conversely, as pointed out here, they don’t remotely fit on the screen in landscape.

On top of that, the graphs are surrounded by padding, so to get close to “full screen” you have to pinch zoom the graph every time you open the statistics page.

Hiding the status bar will be an improvement in landscape, and it’s well-worth doing, but even with that, it appears that one graph will still not fit entirely on one page with all headers and footers. People will be forever manually fiddling with their screens “a little higher” … “a little lower”… “zoom in a little” … “zoom out a little” to see what they want to see.

As others have pointed out, I’m also sad to see that the “future forecast” no longer breaks out “mature” (dark green) vs. newer (light green) reviews in their stacked graphs. Not the end of the world for me, but it gave an idea of how I was coming along getting my deck to a “mature” state. Maybe this is something the core/Desktop app would consider incorporating…

While I will always be grateful for Anki Desktop and Ankidroid, and I understand the rationale for the code consolidation, this will be seen as a loss for many people. Squeezing a desktop UI onto a 5" screen is never going to work as well as a custom-tailored interface. If you like the new graphs on mobile, that’s fine of course. I’m just chiming in because feedback is feedback, and I want to let the earlier posters know they aren’t alone here.

Given the thought that went into this change, I don’t expect it will be undone, and I just hope that over time tweaks (like hiding the menu bar) make it a bit better to use.

To say something nice for the new graphs, the animation that occurs when you toggle “time” on and off (vs. card count) to compare how long you are taking vs. how much work you’ve done is rather nice. In Ankidroid I’d swipe between time/count graphs and just kind try to mentally remember the relative positions. This is a neat improvement.

[Ankikian]

Thank you for wording everything way better than me.

I think the need of better mobile UI will be more clear when 2.17 will be fully out.
People will update their app and react.