Enriching the Learning Experience
Introducing a conversational feature that uses coursework knowledge to simulate realistic conversations.
For this conceptual project, I explored ways to enhance Duolingo’s platform by designing an alternative learning methods to help users reinforce and practice their skills.
My goal was to ensure users feel connected and effectively retain newly acquired knowledge, thereby enriching their overall learning experience.
Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher, Information Architect, Interaction Designer
Duration: 1 month
Target Group: Language app users or people interested in learning a new language virtually
Problem: Language learners don’t how to apply new language skills in real-life situations
Objective: Design a feature to enhance the learning experience
Impact: Users gain deeper, more relevant, and practical learning, along with greater confidence in using the language
Why Does This Project Matter?
A language learning app, like Duolingo, should help people learn languages effectively. If it’s not doing that, it’s not fulfilling its core mission. Hence, I was interested in uncovering a crucial element that was making it fall short of its purpose.
VIDEO PROTOTYPE: A glimpse into the final design
Revealing Gaps and Opportunities for Differentiation
First, I needed to understand where Duolingo stood in the language learning market. In which areas did it perform better and worse than its competitors? My goal was to Identify gaps in Duolingo and other language learning applications through competitive analysis, aiming to differentiate Duolingo by addressing these shortcomings. More importantly, I wanted to help it fulfill its core mission of effectively facilitating language acquisition.
Summary of Interview Findings
75% DON’T
Offer speaking activities
Help users reach fluency
50% DON’T
Offer a progress tracker
Provide constructive instructions
Gathering Direct Insights From Language App Users
Gaining a deeper understanding into users’ needs, behaviors, and pain points with language learning apps through interviewing.
CHALLENGE
Not specifying my audience made it difficult to gather valuable insights from the interviews. By broadly targeting general language app users, I faced the following obstacles:
Questions not tailored to extract useful, specific insights to enhance Duolingo
Difficulty finding patterns in participants’ answers due to their varied experiences and preferences using language learning apps that differ slightly from Duolingo
WHAT I SHOULD’VE DONE
Recruit only Duolingo users to interview to gather more relevant and applicable findings for this project.
Summary of Findings
POSITIVES
User-friendly
Fun
Flexible
Encouraging
Make friends
Gamified
Provides the service it’s supposed to
NEGATIVES
Pushy ads interrupt UI flow
Some people don’t use the app for what it was intended
Unmotivating book-based learning
No speaking practice
Lack of grammar and vocabulary explanations
“No speaking practice” and “lack of grammar and vocabulary explanations” were two points in the negatives section that caught my attention for the following reasons:
Applicable to Duolingo
Could be worked on within the given time frame of 80 hours
Supported my research findings
Hence, I focused on these two aspects as I brainstormed design ideas and planned my approach to the design solution.
Who am I designing for?
Crafting two user personas to visualize the two target groups uncovered from the interviews.
Ester represents the people who have prior knowledge and continue learning.
Chad represents the people who are learning a new language from scratch.
What is the problem?
Duolingo users lack motivation to learn long-term and fail to reach their language learning goals because the app's content lacks relevancy and doesn't consistently meet their needs and/or interests.
Design Approach
Implementing a conversational feature
Why? Due to the following reasons:
Research findings showed most apps didn’t offer speaking activities
Interview insights from iTalki and HelloTalk users unveiled a strong interest in learning through speaking with tutors or native speakers, highlighting the benefits of conversational practice
Visualizing the effect of this new feature on Duolingo users
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Storyboarding showcases empathy for the user’s situation and illustrates how the new feature transforms users’ initial frustration and confusion into achieving their goals and feeling accomplished.
FEATURE ROADMAP
Due to time constraints, I prioritized a short list of specific components for the speaking feature chosen based on the following criteria:
Achievable within the given timeframe
Align with Duolingo’s design principles and user flow
Ensure user-friendliness.
Priority List:
Levels: to give users the option to pick the level of difficulty of their chat
Suggestion box: to assist users when unsure on how to reply
Correction: to inform users of mistakes and how to fix them
Completion screen: to show users they are done chatting
Bringing design vision to life
Sketching and designing wireframes on Figma for this project was streamlined due to the existing brand and UI design style. My goal was to incorporate the new feature and its flow in a way that appeared natural in Duolingo.
VISUALLY ASSESSING LAYOUT, COMPONENTS, AND ALIGNMENT WITH APP’S INTERFACE
TURNING SKETCHES INTO HIGH FIDELITY SCREENS
Got questions about my design decisions?
FIRST SLIDE
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Each character chatroom offers five different kinds of conversations. This will give users more chances to practice what they learned in each unit through five different conversations.
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The idea is that the conversation style and difficulty will vary per character and their personality. For instance, Bea might speak politely and formally, whereas Eddy might be more blunt and casual.
This detail will let users experience conversations in different lights and gain a comprehensive understanding of the language they're learning.
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Its original purpose was just to keep track of the number of conversational activities the user finished for each character's chatroom.
However, it would be nice if users received some sort of reward for their hard work to boost their motivation.
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It allows people to record voice messages to practice their speaking and pronunciation.
Due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to develop that concept, but I wanted to present it regardless.
SECOND SLIDE
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If the answers is correct, a green check will appear on the left of their reply. If it's wrong, a red cross will appear instead with the corrected answer shown underneath.
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Until the progress bar on the very top is filled. If you make more than five mistakes and have no hearts left, the chatting exercise will be concluded until you earn more hearts.
This process closely resembles the way regular Duolingo lessons are structured.
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Its original purpose was just to keep track of the number of conversational activities the user finished for each character's chatroom.
However, it would be nice if users received some sort of reward for their hard work to boost their motivation.
Interactive Prototype
Try it out for yourself!
WHAT WILL YOU EXPERIENCE?
A seamless, intuitive, and consistent interface
A positive addition to Duolingo’s current language learning approach
Clear guidance at every step
Duolingo’s original gamified, fun and friendly tone
Assessing How Users Interact With the New Feature
Learning from past mistakes to gather useful data
Since I was working with Duolingo, I conducted usability tests exclusively with current or past Duolingo users. Learning from my previous interview mistakes, I ensured to specify this target group to gather actionable feedback. Their insights are particularly valuable because they are familiar with Duolingo and can accurately assess whether this change aligns with user expectations, the app's original coursework, and its overall flow and style.
PLAN
Research Goals
Determine potential users’ impressions of the hi-fi prototype
Understand users’ decision-making when navigating the prototype
Detect weaknesses in my design and prioritize revisions
Learn what to improve for an optimal user experience
Success Metrics
Tasks are completed smoothly from beginning to end with minimal confusion and frustration
Users know what to press and how to proceed from screen to screen without assistance
Users understand the function of icons and the purpose of the new feature
Methodology
Three participants will complete an in-person test that should take at most 10 minutes, granted there are no interruptions or setbacks.
Observations will be gathered and analyzed in a Word document.
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
Feedback Grid
Measuring Success
All participants did the following:
Gave positive comments
Showed support and found the content and overall feature idea appealing
Eagerly gave suggestions for improvement
“It feels like you’re chatting with someone.”
“I like how simple it (the design) is. Simple is good, especially when it comes to learning a language.”
“I wished there was a message after each lesson to explain answers to users.”
Recommendations
After gathering participants’ impressions of the new feature, I was interested in making improvements in the following areas:
1. Error messages
2. Suggestion box
Reasoning
My error messages weren’t the most helpful because they pointed out mistakes without an accompanying reason, bringing users back to square one. Grammar rule explanations are already nonexistent in Duolingo’s coursework, so incorporating that into the feature would significantly impact users’ learning experience.
Similarly, the suggestion box doesn’t offer meaningful information. It presents information to the user without fostering a clear understanding
Potential Iterations
I recommended moving forward with these changes because they have high impact and low effort.
Error messages: include a short English explanation of the correction.
Suggestion box: add a short English description and hints on how to reply adequately. Rather than spoon-feeding answers, the suggestion box will act as a guide so users can get a chance to think on their own.
Feature Revisions
Iterating screens according to usability test findings and analysis
WHAT DID I LEARN FROM THIS USABILITY TEST?
This was an eye-opening moment, as I discovered that despite striving to match an apps’ predetermined interface and format, I also had to consciously evaluate whether pursuing this type of design consistency would help users reach their goal. For instance, when attempting to align correction messages with that of Duolingo, most testers expressed dissatisfaction as they found them unhelpful.
While maintaining interface consistency is important, it is equally crucial to continually recognize areas for improvement in new or existing designs to enhance the product.
Project Outcome
As a result of all this work, I successfully incorporated a research-based conversational feature that seamlessly blends with the app’s interface.
I’ve gained the approval of potential Duolingo users, who were keen of the new feature.
Next Steps
What whould I do to continue improving this feature?
Develop exciting and relevant conversational activities specific to each character's personality
This is a concept I would've loved to work on more if I had more time. It would elevate the feature and differentiate it from a typical speaking activity.
Extend research and testing
Due to time constraints, I couldn’t gather sufficient data to strongly validate my decisions, leaving them less convincing. I would like to invest more time in research and consult with more users to ensure this feature truly enhances language learning for Duolingo.
Update feature content and flow for better language retention
Continually observe and gather users' feedback, revise which components do or don’t work, and modify them as needed for a more fruitful learning experience.
Reach out to the business
Would this feature align with Duolingo’s business goals? I’d like to discover how Duolingo would receive this feature, determine their interest in implementing it, and collect data to understand its real-world impact.
Accomplishments and Takeaways
Understood and addressed users’ needs through research
Followed through the design process
Came up with a potential design idea to enhance Duolingo users’ digital learning experience
Collaborated with mentor and stakeholders
Learned the value of innovation
It’s important to collaborate with a team to gain diverse perspectives
Working independently made it challenging to validate whether my decisions were optimal. Collaborating with a group facilitates discussions and idea exchange, helping to mitigate biased or poor design choices.
Effective research in requires a clear focus, specific goals, and a defined target audience.
One of my challenges in the design process arose from broadly interviewing any language app user, resulting in data and insights that were not directly applicable to Duolingo. In future projects, I aim to better understand the type of information needed to advance a project effectively.
The true measure of success of this feature can only be determined through long-term testing with real users and continuous data collection.
While my proposal for the conversational feature shows promise, its ultimate success depends on its alignment with user needs and business goals. Implementing the feature is just the beginning; its impact on improving user experiences and overall business outcomes, along with the measurable data gathered, will accurately determine its value.
