Building a language learning app — Case Study
For our third project at Ironhack Lisbon UX/UI Design Bootcamp, Joana and I had to design an MVP for a language app for the fictitious company Fun People Inc.
The Context
Fun People Inc. was founded in 2014 as an educational company. They currently offer in-person language, music, yoga, and cooking courses for adults. Workshop camps are their main draw. Every month, dozens of people attend workshops in various locations because the school has a unique recipe: they combine classes, outdoor activities, technology, humour, games, and other fun activities with their mission of teaching people additional skills.
Many people, however, are unable to attend the workshop camp due to time and financial constraints, but still, wish to participate in a course.
The Challenge
Fun People Inc. wants to provide an engaging online experience for students that can’t attend the workshop camps. The goal is to build an MVP of an online learning platform that will convert in-person learning into a completely digital experience, allowing people with limited time and financial resources to participate.
Our Approach
We decided to focus on language learning, and to do so, we had to first learn about the market’s offerings.
To get started, we examined the business landscape to determine which companies exist, what they do, what their pain points are, and how we can leverage these into opportunities for the product that we need to design.
Competitive analysis
The market is undeniably flooded with language learning apps. Several language apps provide unique features, such as the ability to connect with native speakers as language partners, and the possibility to answer interactive exercises on the target language.
We chose four companies to focus on: Duolingo, HelloTalk, Busuu and Rosetta Stone.
- Duolingo it’s the most popular among users. It’s completely free, and it allows users to learn and practice the fundamentals of the language of their choice. However, it falls short when it comes to providing opportunities for real-world practice.
- HelloTalk and Busuu both allow users to speak and receive feedback from native speakers throughout 1 on 1 chat, however, it’s quite limited since they both run on a freemium version.
- Rosetta Stone is a subscription-based app, but the first few lessons are free of charge. The TruAccent feature, a speech recognition software that can listen to your pronunciation and help you improve it efficiently, is one of the platform’s most appealing features.
- HelloTalk, unlike the other apps, does not offer language courses, which means that language learners who want to learn new vocabulary words through reading or writing will be unable to do so in the app. HelloTalk’s sole purpose is to help users improve their speaking skills.
Collecting insights
After completing our competitive analysis, we conducted an online survey and interviewed 2 people who had previously used language apps to better understand our users.
Survey results
We received 32 responses in total.
To ensure that we were only considering data from target users, we only considered responses from people who had attempted language learning outside of school.
Here it is our main insights:
- Living abroad is the preferred method of learning a language because it allows the interaction with native speakers and offers the possibility to feel immersed in the whole learning process;
- The lack of speaking exercises and the lack of feedback are the main pain points when using language apps.
Interviews insights
To gain a better understanding of the problem, we spoke with 2 people who had attempted to learn a new language through the use of an app.
The first participant stated that she doesn’t enjoy learning a new language through formal classes, which is why she ended up choosing to use different apps to learn a new language. However, the learning process was tedious, and after two weeks, had lost interest. It also commented that “linking language learning with movies would be more engaging and enjoyable”, revealing afterwards that this is what she enjoys doing when she wants to be immersed in the language she is interested in.
The second participant said that it felt the learning process was overly repetitive and quickly got bored.
Both participants stated that they felt the interaction was missing and that they wished the speaking exercises were better and offered the opportunity to engage with native speakers, without having to pay for that service.
All of these insights pointed to the fact that our product should be fun and exciting to use.
Meet Annah — Our User Persona
We started by creating a user persona that represents the target users based on the information that was gathered. The users demand an engaging, non-repetitive method of learning languages as well as practicing their speaking skills.
The Solution — Our MVP
Based on the feedback received, we found that the platforms that are currently in the market have a major flaw: they are too individualized and not interactive enough, and when they offer a better experience the users need to pay, which makes them less accessible.
So, with that in mind, we began brainstorming ways to incorporate interactivity and immersion into our product.
We realized that traditional tools like textbooks, which have been essential to our learning process (especially in school) can be too overwhelming and difficult to manage when used for self-study. According to what we discovered during our research, people learn best through rich and engaging experiences. Since it’s easier to remember words when they are reinforced by moving experiences. We also believe that engaging experiences help people not give up before they master the language.
So, how will our product work?
It’s going to be a language learning app.
Based on the language proficiency levels, each language has 6 levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2).
Each level has 10 modules and to pass the level the user has to watch a movie of their choice.
The level is finished once the final module is completed.
Afterwards, the user is given the option of chatting with another member who has completed the same level through the use of audio or video. The idea is that our users can share their thoughts about the movies they have watched, allowing them to interact with others who are also in the same situation as them. The purpose of this is for users to become more comfortable with the language they are learning, allowing them to practice their speaking skills.
The app will also offer the community section, where users can interact with others who are also learning the same language, as well as with native speakers.
Low-Fidelity
As part of our happy flow, our users had to complete a level.
We spoke with 5 people, and overall they liked the idea of linking movies to language learning. They stated that it would be “different” and “not so boring” compared to other apps.
During the tests, it was also possible to notice that some screens in our flow were missing. 3 participants felt the need of seeing how a module would work, before passing to the final round.
Mid-Fidelity
We were able to make some changes to our mid-fidelity as a result of the previous testing, which improved our users’ experience and reaction to the flow.
So here’s what we changed on our prototype after testing:
- We added 3 screens that show our users how the modules work, which they need to complete before starting the final round;
- The explanation of the final round became a screen (before it was a pop-up);
- During the final round, reminders were added with an explanation of what the users had to do. Allowing the users to recall the instructions that they have read before starting the final exercise;
- Instead of the flow ending with the “it’s a match” screen, it was added to the flow the possibility of seeing how the video chat would work and how the call would end.
Below you can watch the gif of our happy flow, or if you want you can check the prototype by clicking here!
Next Steps
For this project, we had a lot of ideas that we wanted to implement, however, the time was little, so for our next steps we would like to:
- Introduce other languages. Instead of focusing solely on one language, users could choose to learn another language at the same time;
- Develop the community, where our users could interact with others — with emphasises on the interaction between learner and native speaker;
Final Thoughts 💭
This week was challenging, especially with only four days to work, but I believe that our group worked well together and that we were able to pull off something special that we are proud of.
Thank you for reading ✨
