"Bringing language to life"
Project overview:
The Objective:
To design an inclusive App that provides time-poor people with daily, relevant conversations and vocabulary.
As transplants to a new country and city, the frustration was that people wanted to be able to learn a language the way they live their lives - with topics and content that excite and inspire their learning process.
They didn’t want to use Apps that make them feel like they’d gone back to school, they want to feel less alienated and assimilate more quickly into their new home.
The Product:
There are lots of language learning Apps available but too many feel conventional & “school-like” that don’t into account the experience of neurodivergent people, with lots of emphasis on text.
When people move to a new place, the biggest challenge isn’t just the language, it’s finding their place and feeling confident in their new home - learning as they go - in a more holistic way that relates to their lives.
That can be even more difficult to navigate as a neurodivergent person in a neurotypical world. so the App is designed to be accessible to all.
Understand
01 | Competitor research & analysis:
Before talking to potential users for the App and what their needs were I wanted to research what services the competitors in this space provided their users with, what features were offered, how easy they were to navigate and most importantly - I wanted to see where the opportunities were for my App, Live & Learn.
The 3 competitors in this space were Busuu, Words Booster and Rosetta Stone.
All 3 Apps provided extensive, in-depth vocabulary learning and were well laid out, covering some important topics.
However, all of them were very focused on text-heavy content and very conventional in terms of how the vocabulary was taught - no different to learning at junior school. There was no place-specific content that taught new users about their new home in their new language, it was all very generic and not age-relevant.
When analysing the offers it showed me that there was a real need for more inclusive ways of teaching a new language, that were more relatable to users' new homes.
Empathise
02 | User research & analysis:
My first step was doing Qualitative User Interviews with a group of 5 potential users who had used language learning apps & I specifically wanted to speak to a diverse group of people - so not neurotypical and who were at different life stages - so needed different things.
My goal was to find out what Apps they had used before if any, and what they liked and didn’t like - building up a picture of their experiences.
I gathered as much as I could from these potential end-users to understand the challenges they face and how they felt an App could make a difference in addressing their pain points.
This informed much of the initial hypothesis of Live and learn - around what would help them and how they would like to interact with a learning App.
Live & Learn Initial User Research Interviewees
The Questions for my interviewees:
1: Can you tell me what your typical day is like?
2: What kind of thing do you spend most of your time doing on your phone?
Deeper dive: Do you have a favourite App? – Why do you like it?
3: Can you tell me about the last time you learnt a new language & how you learnt it?
Deeper dive: If the topic of difficulty comes up - Why was it difficult? What didn’t you like about it?
4: How do you feel about using an App to learn a new language?
5: When you have used an App to learn a language what did you find the most useful part of that experience?
6: Do you think any of their features were a “Must-have”?
7: Was there anything about the features you felt could have been improved?
Interview analysis:
Listening to my recordings from the interviews I could make notes and curate my findings into key takeaways that would inform my primary persona - by looking at users and “Doing”, “Thinking” and what they were “Feeling”.
Key takeaways:
1: Users wanted an App that took into account where they lived as Context really impacted how well they learned a language.
2: Different types of mediums (film or podcasts) were much more sticky and effective as ways of learning for different people. E.g: unsurprisingly people with dyslexia depended heavily on film or Podcasts - but this also was used by neuro-typical people - showing that it was relevant to everyone.
People moving to a new city and needing to learn a new language often are time-poor and want to be able to learn in a way that is more related to their interests and embedded in the place that they’ve moved.
Learning can be difficult, especially if you’re neurodivergent and don’t get on with reams of text. Becoming part of a new community means you have to be able to access it like a local, in a way that suits each individual.
03 | Understanding the problem:
From the interview insights I was able to create my Primary User persona, Carla Herrera - and build in her needs, frustrations and behaviours that reflected key call-outs from my user interviews, allowing me to prioritize the main tasks she would need in a language learning app.
This step included creating her User story | Job stories | Problem statement and the initial working Hypothesis statement.
Live & Learn Primary Persona
The Problem - what does Carla need?
Carla needs a way to learn a foreign language that is dyslexia-friendly, appeals to her interests and relates to the culture she's embedded in because she doesn't have the time or patience for what she feels are 'irrelevant' Apps.
The Hypothesis statement - how can my App provide a solution?
“We believe, that by creating a video-oriented interface that focuses on varied, culturally topical & relevant up-to-date conversations for language acquisition & retention, instead of a text-based, level-centred interface for Carla, Carla will be more engaged and feel more in control of her ability to learn, which will give her the confidence she craves.”
ideate
04 | Information Architecture:
User flow/tasks breakdown
Before I began the process of designing screens I created a User flow diagram to identify the key features within the flows that would best serve the needs of my primary persona’s needs.
This User flow diagram would work as the initial plan for which features would be available within the App and which screens I would need to design and how the user would navigate through them.
Task #1 User Flow
Task #2 User Flow
design | prototype
05 | Design & prototype:
Paper & pen wireframing sketches allowed me to try out quick ideas and look at ways that might solve provide easy navigation for Carla to find easy ways to learn a new language. My paper wireframes were then imported into Marvel to create clickable low-fi prototypes that I could then test on users.
Live & Learn Low-fi onboarding Wireframes
Live & Learn Low-fi Saving video Wireframes
06 | Usability Testing
The next steps were testing my low-fidelity wireframed initial hypothesis with my group of diverse users:
Scope: Usability testing on 3 tasks of the low-fi prototype of Live & Learn - a vocabulary learning App.
Schedule: Tests were done in person across 5 days in August 2021
Sessions: 4 individual sessions with each test participant.
Participants: Philip (CAD Designer) | Steph (Part-time teacher & film-maker) | Charlie (Artist & Mum) | Josie (Media buyer)
Equipment: Smartphone with the Marvel app and recording using another smartphone, with permission.
Usability Test plan
Scenario Tasks:
01. The App “Live+Learn” is all about learning a language through videos, podcasts or talking to people based on topics you’re interested in, specific to the city you’ve moved to or are staying in. You’ve just downloaded the App from the app store and want to learn a specific language and ensure your location and your interests are input as part of the sign-up process.
02. You want to make sure that the content you learn suits your needs and learning style so to ensure your learning is as convenient and relevant to you identify the medium options offered that you’d like to learn through and the time you’d like to take to learn with the App.
03. Now you’ve identified how you prefer to learn via the app and your timing needs you need to sign up so that you can log in the next time you want to use the app.
04. You’ve had the App for a few weeks and have subscribed to some channels of interest and you want to watch the latest video offering. Once you’ve watched it you’re keen to see the translation so that you’re confident you’ve understood it. You like it and decide you want to save it to revisit it later.
Usability Test Reports:
From each of the users' tests, I collated and extracted the key insights that using Jacob Nielsen's Error severity rating, prioritized the first round of iterations to the Live & Learn low-fi wireframe designs.
Initial Edits for Task #1 on the important process of onboarding the Users of Live & Learn
Live & Learn low-fidelity wireframe edit example
Live & Learn Mid fidelity flow
Conclusion of my Introduction to UX "Live & Learn" Project
The process of working with users and getting their feedback through the design process was invaluable and really helped me to keep them in mind when creating the initial designs for Live & Learn - rather than focussing on the features that I initially thought would be important. As an introduction getting to grips with the process of iterating was an exciting one, that I felt very at home with as a designer.
Next Steps:
My next steps are to flesh out the design - especially on the accessibility side of the design.
Looking at the other user flows and starting to design and test them to see where there may be more opportunities to improve the design.
I have also already started to think about how the Brand identity of Live and Learn would look and how that would also enhance the experience of the user.
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