The cost of one innocent interruption

According to a research study at the University of California, Irvine and Humboldt University, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus every time one gets distracted at work. Even if it was a 30-second interruption to check Facebook or a news alert, ultimately 23 minutes and 45 seconds are wasted. The above-mentioned study adds that “after only 20 minutes of interrupted performance people reported significantly higher stress, frustration, workload, effort, and pressure”. Here is the link of the above-cited research, click it at your own risk: hyperlinks are the ultimate interrupter of a stream of thought.
There are two kinds of interruptions: involuntary interruptions (e.g. someone calling you on the phone) and self-inflicted interruptions (e.g. checking your Facebook account). While we can’t do much to prevent your colleague from interrupting you, our duty is to shape Ludwig’s user experience in a way that helps you stay focused on what you’re writing

What was I doing?

This is how we did it: first, we envisioned the way our users would use our product and then we validated our assumptions in a real-world test that involved 36 volunteers who are users of Ludwig. As a result, we were able to pinpoint the critical moments where the writing process may suffer interruptions that result in a loss of our users’ precious focus and time.
The following example is a fictionalized version of a type of behavior that we observed in our test group, and it is exactly what we are hoping to prevent.

Sofia is an intelligent girl who works as a freelancer. While she is focused on writing an important email on Gmail, she gets stuck: she has an idea, she knows what she wants to say but she is not sure on how she could phrase it. After a few seconds, she thinks that she could search on Ludwig to find the perfect sentence to express that idea. As soon as she hits ⌘+t — i.e. the shortcut to open a new tab on any browser on a Mac, or the Windows correspondent, Ctrl+t — her eyeballs start browsing dozens of open tabs in search of the newly opened tab. Eventually, her sight gets caught by Facebook’s tab and, without any apparent reason, she ends up checking Facebook. Sofia spends some time on Facebook and gets back to her task a few minutes later. Once she finally opens Ludwig she has forgotten what she wanted to write. She returns to Gmail to check it and then goes back again to Ludwig’s tab. She finally searches for that sentence, she clears her doubt and goes back to finish her email. Well, in the end, it took Sofia more than 20 min to find that sentence just because she got distracted by Facebook.

Now imagine the same story repeating dozens of times per day to millions of people: these distractions quickly add up to an endless amount of wasted time and a tremendous damage to global productivity. Pop-ups, notifications, and messages are the enemies of your focus and goals. The problem is not that you, Sofia — and I — lack focus or self-discipline; the point is that we are humans and we might succumb to temptations.
Since we want Sofia, and all of Ludwig users (myself included), to be focused on what they are doing, we decided that we would design something that would prevent us — easily distracted, mere mortals — from stumbling upon other distractions while using Ludwig. In order to do so, we decided to put Ludwig in a safe environment and set it apart from potentially unwanted distractions.


How Ludwig Desktop saves you from interruptions

This is why we decided that we would build an app, both for Windows and Macintosh users, that would seamlessly integrate with your workflow, that worked without needing to go to your browser. In fact, if you wouldn’t have to switch from your text editor to your browser to use Ludwig, you’d be more focused. Ludwig Desktop allows you to conveniently search on Ludwig from any single app on your computer, without having to switch application. It doesn’t matter if you are writing on Word, Gmail, Google Doc, Pages or if you are reading a PDF or a website, once you highlight a piece of text and hit Ludwig’s shortcut key — ⌘+⇧+L on a Mac or Ctrl+⇧+L on a Windows — a convenient window, showing you Ludwig’s examples, will appear.

Ludwig Desktop App Integration Gmail Google Word text editor shortcut

As soon as you click out of Ludwig’s window, it’ll disappear like magic.
If you want to keep Ludwig at hand while you are writing you can also pin it and arrange it side by side with your text (by default it disappears because we didn’t want to be invasive).

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Ludwig Desktop comes with all the features of the web version, including the advanced search features, the translation, dictionar and most importantly it has a native integration with Library. As the name suggests, Library allowas you to add your favorite English sources, organize them in Collections and search them with Ludwig Desktop. You can access Library on the left tray menu.

Ludwig Ludwig.guru advanced features

In the same menu on the left, you can also find your chronology to see your previous searches and a number of sentences you saved for later use. You can also send us messages to give us feedback, explore the tour, just in case you want to review something, and access both your account and general settings (e.g. to customize the shortcut).

top menu icon pin filter

You can download and install Ludwig Desktop for free and you can use it for free up to 8 times per day. If you need to make more queries, then you can consider subscribing to one of our premium plans. Once you subscribe you’ll become a premium user and will also have access to all of Ludwig premium features on the website. Since the goal of the Desktop App was keeping you focused, we decided that we won’t put any distracting advertising on it.
With the Desktop App, you no longer have any excuse for being distracted and transforming your stream of thought into a great piece of text will become easier. Ludwig will be on your side as always, prompting you with the perfect sentence when you need it.

Have Ludwig at your fingertips anywhere you write

To sum up, these are Ludwig Desktop main features:

  • Works both for Windows and Mac
  • Seamlessly integrated with any writing and reading app on your computer: Word, Pages, Google Docs, Gmail, Adobe Acrobat, you name it
  • Search on Ludwig conveniently and without interrupting your flow of ideas while writing
  • Runs in the background, without consuming resources
  • Call it up any time you need it by clicking a shortcut
  • Disappears when you are not using it
  • Ad-free. Nothing disturbs your concentration
  • Integrates all the functions of the web version
  • 100% free up to 8 searches per day

What are you waiting for? Install it now and start writing with focus.
Are you still thinking about it? Share this post on Facebook, send me a picture as a proof, and I’ll add a 10% discount if you decide to subscribe to the premium version.