Anki: recall the answer, then decide when to review it again
Anki separates review into recall, reveal, and self-assessment. Its four buttons do more than finish a question: they pass the difficulty of this recall to future scheduling. The design depends on honest feedback.
Form your own approach first, then explore the reasoning to check trade-offs and validation you may have missed. There is no single right answer.
Encourage honest recall ratings
You are responsible for the review module of a language flashcard app. After a wrong answer, users often select “recalled with difficulty” because they do not want their daily accuracy to fall. The system consequently delays reviews they need. Users have only ten minutes a day and also want to see progress.
- Design the experience from revealing an answer through feedback to the daily recap. Decide which progress information to retain, how to explain the role of “forgot,” and what happens to unfinished cards when ten minutes end.
- Walk through three forgotten answers followed by a correct fourth answer. Deliver a one-page proposal or annotated prototype. Explain how it supports both honest feedback and the desire to keep learning, and propose one observable criterion for a trial.
Explore the reasoning
Separate memory performance from effort invested, and consider which feedback mixes them up. Compare hiding accuracy with retaining it but changing its explanation. Observe whether users rate recall more honestly while still wanting to return.