Got an idea in my head to create a web app that would help people memorize existing stacks, or even create their own.

Enter: https://stack-trainer.vercel.app/

You can easily load in Mnemonica or Aronson by clicking the corresponding buttons. If there are other popular/well-known stacks that wouldn't cause problems I'm more than happy to set those up as default choices. I saved a custom config with the Dani DaOrtiz stack, but as far as I know his stack is not widely available without buying his book, so I didn't include it.

On that note, if you click "Edit/Customize Stack" you can drag and drop to reorder the cards and create your own stack. Export the stack config as a .json file, and Import it back in later for future study.

The default view is "Grid View" but you can switch to "Single View" to go through the cards one at a time, or if you click on any single card it will open it in single view and allows you to navigate back and forth through the stack from that position.

I included the "default" peg words provided by Harry Lorayne in "The Memory Book" to help with memorization. There is a short explanation on how to use the peg words on the "About Peg Words" page. As with the stack order, the peg words are totally customizable, and can be toggled on and off.

Finally, there is a pretty self-explanatory "Quiz Mode" that allows you to quiz yourself on the currently loaded stack. The card positions included in the quiz can be restricted to a specific range, for people who may find it useful to study smaller chunks of the stack as they build up to full stack memorization. When you press "End Quiz" it will give you some simple stats about the quiz session.

I'm hoping this can be a tool for people wanting to learn a stack, so please share with anyone who might find it useful! And also please give me any feedback to help improve its usability and I'll do my best to add new features/updates as time allows.

NOTE: I quite like the Quiz Mode on desktop, but it's maybe a bit cumbersome on mobile. I had the idea to maybe detect mobile users and have the answers load as multiple choice, instead of text input. Interested in hearing thoughts on that.

I like it, Curtis. Thank you.

I developed a mobile stack trainer a decade ago that I still use to this day.

Here are a few suggestions that I implemented for myself:

Let the user decide on the training mode:

a) card to number
b) number to card
c) mixed
d) Interval
etc.

On the input mode, for mobiles in particular, offering a multiple choice is definitely a must. Another one is a no-input mode, i.e. the user only thinks the answer, checks it and gets to the next question. This allows for speed building.

Also, an automatic mode is great when you want to train without having to touch the screen. You let the user set the Test and Reveal times. It's especially great when the test is purely auditive and no visuals are necessary. I use it when walking etc.

I have more suggestions to offer, but those should keep you busy for a while should you choose to implement any.

Best,
Claudio

Thank you, Claudio!

Very helpful feedback. I hadn't even considered no-input or automatic mode.
With all the tools available these days, I bet it wouldn't be too hard to add audio as well.
Time to get to work, and then when that's all done... eager to hear your other suggestions.

Had some time so implemented everything but the audio I think. Open to tweaks on the different modes, and the language to describe them.

Audio working now. I tested it on iPhone and you can load up the quiz in timer mode with the audio on, lock your phone, and the audio still plays. So, perfect for doing drills when it's not possible to look at a screen.

Need some feedback on if the audio is too verbose?

"What is the position of the King of Hearts?" vs. just "King of Hearts"
"What card is at position 22?" vs. just "22"
Etc.

That was quick, Curtis, and nicely done.

Short audio descriptions are best in my opinion to reinforce associations card/number more efficiently.

A couple more suggestions:

1) Options to test the stack in sequential or random order. Sequential (1, 2, 3 etc.) seems nonsensical until you work on a trick like Simon Aronson’s Histed Heisted where you have to recite your stack in sequential order without any hesitation while supposedly calling out the cards of a shuffled deck. Tough to do without hesitation.

2) Flag failures to give the user the opportunity to work exclusively on that subset of cards.

3) Drop down list for stacks (instead of individual buttons) and the ability to add more.

4) Training: show card pictures instead of card's 2-letter symbol. Again to reinforce the visual aspect of card / position.

5) Remember user's last sessions settings.

More to come after this batch, if you want

1) Stack order options added with a "Cut the Deck" toggle to start at a random position

2) Implemented a review option at the end of each individual quiz (unless every question was answered correctly!). Whenever the user gets a question wrong, it gets added to a queue, and then after clicking "End Quiz" there is an option to review the mistakes. It would be nice to keep track of this over all of a user's quizzes, to see weak points over a longer timeline, but that would require creating user accounts and setting up a DB and the whole thing gets a bit too complex for now I think. Maybe something for down the line.

3) Similar to the above, giving users the option to add new stacks that then become default options would require a bit more infrastructure. The solution I came up with for that was the "Edit" "Export" and "Import" options, allowing someone to configure their own stack and export it. That way a user could import it again later. The current stack and other settings are maintained through localStorage, but if the cache gets cleared, etc. all those changes will be lost. If you, or anyone else, has a request to add a stack to the default list I'm more than happy to add them though. Just let me know.

4) Changed the multiple choice answers to card pictures! That's a great idea.

5) It should remember your last session settings, unless you're in a private tab/window or clearing your cache, etc. Whenever any settings are changed it's writing those changes to localStorage, so it should persist across sessions unless explicitly cleared/blocked. If that's not working for you, please let me know which computer OS and browser and I'll look into it.

Small update: I added the option to export the card peg words and the peg word pairs.

Updated the About Peg Words page to include a note about those features:



The metrics on the website aren't explosive, but it does appear people are using the tool. Very cool to see.