DECEMBER 12 UPDATE: We are now building software to enable Members and Patrons to mark lessons as “saved” and “favorite”! Launching early 2024.
This year listener donations have funded a massive round of upgrades for us. As you may know from our vision, our website is a collaborative effort undertaken with all our listeners and donors as we work together to help more people do more Feldenkrais. We want to offer all our visitors and donors the best technology and learning experience possible!
We’re excited about the changes we’ve already completed (see below), including our new custom search & filter. And we plan to launch on-site lesson tracking (ability to mark lessons as favorites or saved) at the beginning of 2024.
Our webmaster/designer/tech guru Barbara, our programmer Kamalpreet, and I are grateful for your interest and support, and we welcome your feedback.
– Nick
Early 2024: Lesson tracking right on our website, for Members & Patrons
- Mark lessons as favorites and/or saved. Track which ones you’ve explored, or save a personal curriculum for later. And never forget that favorite lesson for your sore (insert body part) again!
- Make your own user notes on any lesson (stretch goal; will explore in 2024, may be Patrons only)
- View your own lists of favorites, saved, visited lesson pages, and user lesson notes.
- Search your own user notes (stretch goal; will explore in 2024, may be Patrons only). Think of making searchable labels like how people use hashtags: #shoulders, #stressrelief, #kneepain, #posture, #walking, etc.
- Show full lesson status everywhere you see the lesson’s title linked on the website consistently: length, favorite, saved, and whether it’s Patrons Only. This one may take us a while or may not be possible everywhere for all info. To begin with, this information will be displayed on lesson pages and soon thereafter in search results.
On-site lesson tracking been on our wishlist for a long time, and we’ve heard similar requests from many users. It’s a costly development project, in software and staff. That is why it will be a donors only feature. Some features may need to be Patrons only.
COMPLETED: Create a new custom Lesson Search & Filter, for all users
DONE! It’s available right here. Find better search results, and filter lessons by choosing among these options:
- Free/Member lessons, Patrons Only lessons, or both
- Full-length lessons, shorter lessons, and workshops
- Level of physical challenge: most accessible, average challenge, more challenging
- Body positions to exclude: let’s say you can’t currently lie on your side, or sit on the floor. You can choose to exclude lessons in those positions.
Members and Patrons will still have the added benefit of searching within the lesson notes, allowing donors to take full advantage of the cross-references in the Related Lessons tabs, and our Source tabs.
COMPLETED: Upgrade all 120+ audio lessons, and our site’s look and feel
On April 26, 2023 we did the biggest upgrade we’ve ever done, adding up what we call FeldenkraisProject.com 2.0
- Homepage addition: New at The FP. Check out our newest posts, user comments, and lessons at the bottom of our homepage.
- Everyone can now open every lesson page, including Patron lessons marked. This makes it easier to browse lessons descriptions, free lesson notes, and user comments. (You still have to be logged in as a Patron to listen.)
- Made lesson lengths more obvious on all lesson pages, collections, and search results.
- Upgraded our audio lesson player to modern software, allowing better control on mobile devices and different playback speeds (0.5x – 2.0x).
- Simplified the look of our lesson pages for all users. For logged in donors, prompts to donate are removed.
- Improved login flow for our donors. Login on lesson pages no longer forces browser to navigate away from lesson.
- Installed new website theme software for more attractive display on all devices, better stability, and easier maintenance.
- Lesson notes tabs admin upgrade: New custom software makes it easier for me to edit lesson notes and expand our site’s valuable study info and cross-referencing system (Related Lessons tabs in particular).
In use already: Artificial intelligence sound editing
I discovered Adobe Enhance Speech, the most awesome implementation (maybe the only awesome implementation) I’ve found for the recent artificial intelligence boom. It’s already saved me hours when I’ve used it to master several recently added lessons.
And I’ve used it to remaster and dramatically improve the sound quality on some old listener favorites that were recorded over a decade ago, before I got good audio equipment. (Check out Activating the Arches and Your Navigational Pelvis. It’s like they’re FM radio now instead of AM!)
If you notice missing consonants in a lesson, let me know. They can be replaced. (Occasionally the AI misinterprets them as noise and cuts off the end of a word.)
Please leave feedback, questions, and requests for features in the comments section below – brief and anonymous is welcome, and I will reply to all questions. Our system may hold your comment briefly for moderation, so you may not see it show up immediately after submitting it.
Our 2023 expenses will be $25,000-$30,000 for our technology and part-time staff, in addition to around 800 hours of Nick’s time. Your support really matters.
Please reply to share comments, questions, and BUG REPORTS about our upgrades! Quick and anonymous is welcome (you can enter only your first name or initials).
We rely on your feedback to make The FP the best it can be!
filtering lessons by length would be cool
I’m glad you asked, it’s a vote in that direction. Barbara actually has that capability working on our test site, but for now I declined it because our default lesson length is around an hour. We’ve got almost 100 that fall in that category. We’ve got about 22 that are substantially shorter (45 minutes or less), but unless we have more it felt like a tease, to me! And I’m not sure how many more short ones I’ll publish, since I feel pretty strongly about the educational experience of an hour. Glad you asked, though – you’re encouraging me to keep considering this!
Hi Nick!
Very exciting changes in motion! So excited for you and how FP has grown!
A few random brainstorms…
One suggestion I have if possible at sometime, is at the end of session that completed to have a way for the link to next suggested lesson to pop up (that could be done at that time or done at the next time doing session, what ever is best for the person) or that it would auto play the next suggested lesson.
Another suggestion would be to have a way to interact with the page for each person to have a bit of a “log” for lack of a better way to put it, or even a heart to click for favorites (not sure exactly)
so that if could note lessons that were particularly helpful in a specific time. Or if you are working your way through them all a way to mark your spot to come back to, or if you post/email about a lesson and people not able to get to right away, can mark that lesson and why it spoke to us and want to try at a later date… not sure all of that made sense or even how that would lay out… just a bit of brainstorming “out loud”
Thank you for all you do Nick! Through your talents and generosity you change lives every day!
Deborah
Great to hear from you! Regarding the second thing, please carefully read the “Late fall or early 2024” section above. I think we’ve got all your interests covered there.
For the first one (that we suggest or autoplay the next lesson), that’s what the Related Lessons tabs are for. I believe that YOU are the better chooser of the next lesson than I am! So I want to give you choices, not a single suggestion. This is because your best learning and improvement depends on what you felt and got curious about in the lesson.
I’ve very recently signed up as a patron in the UK. Totally loving the excercises, so thanks so much for all the amazing input and generosity for putting the site together. I’ve already recommended it to various people I know and work with. The only problem I have is that every about 15 mins there is a stall in the lesson (it completely stops and I can’t go back or forward using 10 second option). I have to reset the lesson by going back a page and then tap forward to where I left off using 10 second forward function. Feels a shame to interrupt the session. Tried on 2 devices and same thing happens. Do I need to change settings? Apologies if this isn’t the right place to ask, but also wondering if new software might sort it. Much appreciation Helen
This is the perfect place to ask about this, and yes I believe our audio player software change coming on April 26 will probably resolve this for you. Caveat: we hear this about once a year, and we’ve never been able to recreate the bug on our end. There is a chance it’s something about your ISP company or your internet settings. Those factors do affect how your connection interacts with our software, so I’m still optimistic that our software change will make a change on your end.
Have you tried your same devices on another network? (Other advice is the typical stuff you’ve probably tried: reboot browser. Try another browser. Reboot device.)
Thanks for your generous support of The FP despite the technical troubles for you!
Many thanks indeed Nick for your prompt and really helpful response. Fingers crossed the upgrade will help as tried other browsers. Still loving the content despite the issues. 😊
I have no suggestions. I just want to thank you Nick and Barbara, for all the love and thought you put into making the Project so wonderful . Cheers!
We invite your comments on our search upgrade plans, right here:
Sometimes I do lessons in bed in the middle of the night. Some lessons are more suitable than others. I would love some help in identifying these.
You may have found this by now, but our new Search & Filter tool is the perfect way to find them. You might filter for Most Accessible (least physically demanding) lessons, and perhaps exclude all positions except back-lying, side-lying, and front-lying (if you wish).