Why is my friend's duolingo different?

[jd87]

I just saw my friend unsing duolingo and the way his course works is a bit different to mine. I can test out of any skill whenever I like and I am not required to do any translations. When he clicks into a skill the screen looks different - the lessons are all layed out in order, he has to do translations to complete a skill. He can only "test out" if he hasn't yet done any of the lessons. What is going on?????

[stefano.zanella]

It could be an attempt of Duolingo's staff to A/B test a new lesson format, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing
In short, they pick a limited subset of users and show them a different interface. Usually changes between interfaces are minimal, maybe in this case they're trying something totally different.

[dieta]

• do you mean these different layouts ?
• layout-01: http://imgur.com/a/MpEOi
• and
• layout-02: http://s1.ipicture.ru/uploads/20120908/KQz7VhqZ.png
• see:
• http://duolingo.com/#/comment/46264

[jd87]

Hello yes dieta those are the two different layouts. It seems to be a bit of a mystery...

[susan_kamps]

My sister and I have the same issue. We both signed up the same week. She might have signed up "with Facebook". I may have signed up "with Google". Hers has the book icons for lessons. Mine just has circles. No skill tree on mine either.

http://i.imgur.com/iSKlfJU.jpg