Research • Design • App • 2022

DYNAMIC DUO

Language Learning App Redesign

About Dynamic Duo

Hola. Ciao. Bonjour. Learning how to say hello in various languages can be easily accomplished through a language learning app. However, even with their immense capabilities, language learning apps still have their faults. For this project, my UX team redesigned elements of the language learning app, Duolingo, to improve users' language learning experience.

Design Thinking

We approached this project by using the double diamond design thinking process. Though we focused heavily on the second diamond, we conducted six user interviews as well as competitive testing against four language learning apps to gain a sense of the app and its users.

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Design Process

We created several early, low fidelity prototypes to imagine how the app redesign might appear across various screens.

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We then translated these prototypes into high fidelity versions on Figma, creating screens like these:

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We conducted five usability tests with our hi-fi prototype. These tests helped us gauge what worked well in this version of the app and what needed improvement for our next iteration. We also conducted a heuristic evaluation to further inspect the usability of our redesign. Based on these results, we made several changes:

Before

Verbose text & inconsistent colors

Dumbbell training icon unclear

After

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Simplified language & improved color palette

"Brain training" icon more comprehensible

Our research indicated that users did not find the "life" or "heart" feature particularly useful while taking a language learning lesson. We decided to remove the heart feature all together in our final iteration, although we acknowledged that further investigation into gamification should be pursued with a larger subset of users.

Before

Progress bar vague & hearts visible

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After

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Progress explicit & hearts removed

User Research: Interviews & Competitive Testing

To visualize the key insights obtained from our interviews and competitive testing, we created an affinity diagram and spider chart.

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See more about our competitive analysis on our Miro board.

Our research revealed several issues users face while using the app.

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Based on our research, we created several user needs statements and "how might we" questions to guide our ideation. To narrow our scope, we honed in on the need to improve engagement, as emphasized in our second user needs statement.

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Ideation

We ideated by using Nielsen Norman Group's Design Studio framework: individually sketching out a variety of ideas, presenting and critiquing those concepts with the group, combining the strongest components of various ideas, and determining the most valuable elements to pursue.

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This process led us to three main ideas:

1. Personalized Learning Journey: recommended lessons & user’s choice practice

2. Adaptive Lessons: in-game & incentivized feedback to app to improve recommendations

3. Rewarding Gamification: revamped heart logic & bonus heart exercise

I created a storyboard to illustrate how a personalized learning journey might improve the language learning experience for a user.

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