Chances are you’ve probably heard of Duolingo – the most downloaded education app in the world – or you’ve even given it a try. I did, in an attempt to learn Portuguese. The only word that stuck with me after briefly using the app on a daily basis is maçã, which I can now proudly tell you, means “apple”.
However, I loved using the app. I was positively impressed by Duolingo’s high functionality and its pretty UI. And I feel the same way about this new discovery: the Tinycards iOS mobile app. It’s super easy to use, 100% free and a lot of fun.
Tiny cards, big fun
You’ve guessed it: the Tinycards mobile app uses the beloved flashcards learning method, adding spaced repetition and other smart learning techniques, in order to help its users remember new material on various subjects. As my first ever lesson on Tinycards, I gave the Greek Gods a shot.
Finding your way in the app is really no biggie. Tinycards consists of the lessons you may go through, be they in Your Stream feed or in the Trending feed. By the way, the Trending feed is where you can find a lot of lessons made by other users, just like yourself. The app menu consists of 4 blocks. The first one is the actual lessons feed mentioned earlier, then a Search bar, your very own Favorites and last but not least, your very own profile, that you can set up with a profile picture, username and a bio. While you’re on the Profile screen, go check out the different settings you can select for the app, like Practice reminders and so on. The Profile screen is also where you can go to make your own deck. Ain’t that cool?
Now back to the lessons. Select whichever one you want from your Stream or Trending feed. The screen for a lesson is split up in two. The upper part will show you some info on the lesson itself, just swipe right and left. Also, this is where you’ll find the option of adding the lesson to your Favorites, by tapping the star icon, or the option of sharing the lesson via Facebook and its Messenger app or in a private message. The lower part is where all of the lessons are, that will unlock one by one, as you advance – or you can checkout all the flashcards separately.
Let’s hit a lesson. Every card you get has two sides to it – just tap on the card to reveal them. After you’re done studying a card, just swipe the card away. During a lesson, the app will distribute different kinds of questions, in order to make sure that you’ve memorized the information handed to you. Don’t worry about getting the answers wrong, the app will drop you hints when necessary. You can also go over a card as much as you like to, inside the lesson as well as checking the cards out separately. While in a lesson, you’ll see a progress bar in the top part of the screen.
What’s hot?
Make your own card decks
We were positively impressed by the feature of making your very own flashcard lessons. Creating a lesson yourself is a neat experience. You can choose a cover, title and description. Make sure to click the Settings icon in this screen, for you’ll have the cool options of setting the lesson as private if you will, of adding audio to your cards and setting the learning experience for the learner. Just add image and text on the cards as you wish. Remember: you can add up to three different facts on the back side of a card. Save the lesson as a draft and publish the deck whenever you’re ready.
Variety
There’s a lot to choose from, ranging from language courses, to science, history, geography lessons, to lessons on Pokemon names. Chances of you not finding something you’re interested in are slim.
Sleek UI
Reason for the Tinycards mobile app being so easy to use is the fact that the UI is so spot on. Nice coloring and animation-like drawings, this iOS app is a joy to look at. You won’t be distracted by anything – it’s just you and your lessons.
You might also like to read: What a UX and UI designer does for your product
What’s not?
Little content available
We’re encouraged by the creators to choose from thousands of topics. Unfortunately, we only found 12 lessons in Stream. And we were kinda’ hoping to see at least one or two new lessons every day.
Bottom line
The Tinycards iOS mobile app is a whimsical sight for your eyes. The animation-like appearance of the cards adds to the fun of learning cool facts on various subjects. It’s a nice and modern way to fill up your time with some extra knowledge. We hope to see Tinycards available on Android soon as well.
(Note: We are not affiliated or endorsed by this app. We just really love mobile apps and we want to share them with the world and give people great mobile experiences)
Get the Tinycards iOS mobile app here.
Are you thinking of building your own educational app? Check out our explainer on the differences between
Proof of Concept, Proof of Concept and MVP
Sinziana Chitea
Content Marketer
Content Marketing Specialist, teasing everyone into taking cute pictures for Instagram. Discovering the tech world bit by bit, and writing it all down on the agency's blog. Enthusiastic about everything visual. And sweets and dogs.
