Help me make the ultimate 3x3 beginners guide for your friends and parents!

[Fnallbin]

The last couple of months I've been working on making a modern, interactive beginners guide after seeing that the same old PDFs i learned from myself still circle the internet. They're mostly great, but with some interactivity it can get even better. I also think learning the "CFPO" beginner method that many teach hinders the person from continuing their speedcubing journey afterwards.

I've nagged my friends and family to try it out and have received great feedback that I've used to iterate on it, but now I'm running out of willing participants!

I'm open to all feedback, but here are some questions if it helps:

1. Do you remember any small tidbits of information that helped you in the beginning, that the guide is lacking in?

2. Which parts are too verbose, or have confusing wording?

3. How could I better visualize some parts, both the setup and the solution?

4. Do you have anyone you've been thinking could get into cubing? Give them a cube and this guide and see if they get confused at any point!

How to Solve a Rubik's Cube — SpeedcubeQuest

Learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube with our free, interactive beginner method — a step-by-step layer-by-layer guide with animated 3D examples and no experience needed.

speedcube.quest

Thanks!
Albin

 

[Eriol]

I think that it's too difficult to expect a complete beginner to be able to solve the cross intuitively. Most beginner guides use the "daisy"-method, first moving all white edges to the yellow center and then aligning them with the correct center and moving them down. Especially since this is the first step it can't be too hard or people will give up if they can't get all the pieces in the correct spot.

I think you also should add something about "lucky" cases, such as the yellow cross already being solved when you get to step 5.

 

[CaptainK]

Great work! It's very neatly laid out and the animations are nice.

I think it would help if you explained how some of the steps work. When I first learned the beginner method, it felt unsatisfying because I didn't understand why the process worked, or where I was going wrong. For example, one common beginner mistake is inserting the white edge into the top layer, but flipped. When the white edge is in the middle layer, there's two ways to move it to the top, one that results in the correct orientation, and the other that is wrong. So if the white edge is flipped, just move it back to the middle layer, and insert using the other face. That's what F U' R U does, but it feels more intuitive if you describe the moves rather than give an algorithm. That said, I think these explanations should be in an optional sidebar or collapsible box, because I like how succinct the guide is right now.

It really helped me to know that R U R' U' swaps the front top right corner and front bottom right corner, and rotates both pieces. 2 positions and 3 orientations means 6 permutations. So the first layer corners can be solved by just spamming R U R' U' to cycle through the permutations, and repeating 6 times returns to the original state. I also suggest introducing L' U' L U as an equally valid option, since beginners seem fine with left-hand moves, and don't care about finger tricks or regrips. And I'd encourage beginners to practice the reverse of these algorithms, U R U' R' and U' L' U L. This should help explain how middle layer edges are solved. It's taking the corner out with one hand and inserting it back in using the other hand, but with proper setup so the edge goes in alongside the corner.

R U R' U' also flips the orientation of the front right and back top edges (and cycles their positions, but whatever). So F (R U R' U') F' flips the front top and back top edges by adding a setup move and undo-ing it. This is how the yellow cross is solved. R U R' U R U2 R' takes out the front right F2L pair and re-inserts it, but in a way that rotates three of the top corners clockwise. The orientation of the front left corner and the top edges are unchanged. This is how the yellow face is solved. If the yellow pieces didn't re-orient as expected, but the first two layers are still solved, it's because the algorithm was done from the wrong angle.

Permutation of the last layer is where things suddenly get difficult. I love that you animated the bottom two layers in the T-perm! Watching how the blocks move is super important, and hopefully carries forward when learning other PLLs. I would maybe just add the usual diagram showing the right corners swapping and middle edges swapping. Yeah it's silly and cliche, but does explain why it's called a T-perm and reinforces where the headlights should be. Same with the Ua perm, I think a diagram of the edge cycle would be helpful, so it's easy to understand why the algorithm is needed 1 or 2 times. And you can reason why the reverse or the mirrored algorithm would work!

I know I didn't need to explain all these things to you, but these are the realizations I wish I knew sooner. It became so much easier to memorize algorithms and the solution process once I grasped some of the logic behind it. One last recommendation, include an overview of what the cube should look like after each step. I learned to solve the last layer in a different order -- EO, EP, CP, and finally CO -- and I used to forget which step was next. With EO, CO, CP, EP, the yellow face is a clear milestone at least.

 

[jamol]

It's really well made and nice work!

I also recently made an interactive tutorial with cube scanning (the tutorial is based on the scanned cube). So I also have some experience.

I think more explanation is needed for white cross. It can be difficult for a beginner to understand how to make it. Another idea is doing it with a daisy.

In the First Layer Corners learning 3-4 algorithms might be hard, I think repeating R U R' U' and having U R U' R' is better(only 2 algorithms).

In the Middle Layer Edges an edge can be in the middle layer and it's nice to have explanation for this case also.

In the Last Layer steps I noticed there is no image for the solved case. For example in the Yellow Cross there is no image of solved yellow cross.

 

[Fnallbin]

Thank you all for the thorough and insightful feedback! After no replies the first day I thought the thread got buried, but was now pleasantly surprised.

I'm currently working on changes based on your input, I'll be back soon with an update.

 

[Fnallbin]

Hello again!

I listened to all of your feedback and implemented these changes:

1. Intuitive cross too hard → daisy method
2. Too many corner algs → one "Rightie" trigger (repeat ×N)
This is one of the hardest steps to know how much explaining is enough.
3. Explain why R U R' U' works → shuttle / twist / return explainer
4. Missing "edge stuck in the middle" case → flipped-edge fix added
5. Frame middle layer as take-out/set-up/put-back → tied to the reverse Rightie/Lefty
6. Show the finished yellow cross → milestone checkpoint cube
7. Lucky "cross already done" case → dot/L/line/already-a-cross + skip note
8. Show piece cycles → T-Perm (T) and Ua-Perm (U) cycle diagrams
9. Show the cube after each step → spinning checkpoint cube on every step
10. Optional "why" without bloat → short skimmable info cards

Step 3 - The bottom corners and RUR'U' explaining is imo the hardest to get right. Please do have a look again, and let me know if you have input in how the new sections could be improved! https://speedcube.quest/guides/how-to-solve-a-rubiks-cube

I attached some screenshots of what it looked like before if you don't remember, or if someone comes in late.