Why Wurdle?

The idea for Wurdle was born out a frustration with learning a new language. Adrian Lotrean, the founding developer of Wurdle, had just begun a foreign language course in his spare time. While the language school provided well qualified teachers who could explain grammar and direct pronounciation, learning vocabulary was something students were expected to do in their own time. A list of English words, with their foreign language equivalents, was distributed every couple of weeks and constituted the majority of the 'homework' tasked to students. However, little direction was given on how to learn the new words.

Searching for a solution...

Manual flashcards came first but were laborious to produce and inconvenient to carry around for frequent practice. So the search began for some sort of online or app-based product - of which there were many. But now that the convience problem had been solved another problem had presented itself. The list of words to be learned had grown to such a size that it was becoming impractical to get through the whole list in a reasonable amount time. And, due to their random nature, the words that were missed on one day were possibly missed again on subsequent days, leaving gaps in the practice process. Additional frustration came from having to deal with words, on a daily basis, that had already been learned, taking up time that could have been spent on other study.

A new approach was needed. Research led to information about the spacing effect and spaced repetition however, few products supported this more advanced feature. Of those available, many were limited by older technology and were cumbersome to use.

The need for something new...

Leveraging his skills as a programmer and database designer, Adrian assembled his own modest flashcard program and implemented his own spaced repetition engine. The result was crude, but effective. After less than two weeks of use, the number of flashcards needing to be viewed on a daily basis had decreased significantly. Other students in the class became interested in this flashcard program too but it was never designed be anything more than a personal tool.

Given the growing interest, the entire design of the flashcard program was reviewed, but with a focus on serving multiple users, both those studying independently and in a learning environment. The latest technology in the cloud, responsive design and app development was leveraged to produce a powerful learning system system, rather than a simple, digital equivalent of paper flashcards. The system would also provide tools for tutors and teachers, allowing them to easily distribute, direct and monitor their students' progress.

And what we have now, is Wurdle!