from the Bowstones

What's new in DeutschTables v2.0

The re-implementation of much of the functionality should improve the user experience.

Published on 7 July 2023

I have now released DeutschTables v2.0. This involved a re-implementation of most elements of the site to eliminate the spaghetti nature of the code.

The changes from a user perspective are summarised below.

Performance

The new version is well under half the size of the old version. Furthermore, the architecture of the old version meant that in order to view one table it was effectively necessary to download the data for all tables; the new version has addressed this shortcoming. This means that the new version should load much more quickly than the old one, especially for the first time (when nothing is cached).

General user experience

  • The total number of entries in the table, and the number which have been marked correct, are now displayed underneath each table.

  • The three Adjective Declension tables are now separate.

  • The unnecessary “Start” step for small-screen users has been removed.

  • The “Mark” button is no longer hidden once everything in the table has been marked, which makes it possible to re-trigger the “Table Complete” popup if it is accidentally closed.

  • In Safari, the “Table Complete” popup is no longer permanently visible and no longer causes an unnecessary scrollbar to appear.

Accessibility

  • A keyboard trap on the homepage has been eliminated.

  • Semantic markup is more widely used across the site.

  • Screen reader users will find that each text entry is now labelled with its position in the table and whether or not the input has been marked correct, in order to aid navigation.

Visual

  • The Settings interface has been redesigned, and is now located separately from the homepage.

  • The stylesheet has been completely rewritten. The site has a similar appearance to before, but the consistency of the styling has been improved.

  • The timer has been relocated to below the table, alongside the new counter for the number of answers correct.

Further information

You can try DeutschTables v2.0 now at https://deutschtables.thebowstones.net.

The source code for DeutschTables is located at https://gitlab.com/py-mpixel/deutschtables-gri.