Duofriends Duolingo Feature
Deliverables: User Interviews, Competitor Analysis, Secondary Research, Affinity Mapping, User Personas, Sketching, Wireframing, Usability Testing, Iterations
Overview
Duolingo is one of the biggest language-learning apps on the planet. It uses a gamified approach to learning a language. It offers lessons in over 40 languages, including fake languages from television and movies (like Klignon from Star Trek). It uses AI to track users’ progress, customize their learning, and give feedback. It also offers competitive spaces where users can gain points and compete in leagues. It has over 60 million active users all over the world.
Roles
Sole UX/UI designer responsible for user research, UX/UI design, brand creation, prototyping, and usability testing.
Challenge
As a language teacher myself, I enjoy Duolingo, both as a teacher and as a language learner. However, there is one major problem: it doesn’t have any feature for actually producing the language with another human being. This is important because using languages with another person requires a much higher-level application than the games in the app and is a lot more difficult.
Solution
Duofriends helps Duolingo users produce the languages they are learning by writing letters to other users who are learning their languages. Whether you are someone from Los Angeles learning Spanish writing a person learning English from Madrid or someone from Tokyo learning Portuguese writing a person from São Paolo learning Japanese, Duofriends will help you on your language journey.
Process
过程
عملية
Processo
Proces
процесс
プロセス
과정
प्रक्रिया
প্রক্রিয়া
Processus
عمل
Süreç
Proceso
διαδικασία
תהליך
กระบวนการ
Prozess
Quy trình
Proses
Mchakato
Proseso
Folyamat
Prosessi
процес
Process 过程 عملية Processo Proces процесс プロセス 과정 प्रक्रिया প্রক্রিয়া Processus عمل Süreç Proceso διαδικασία תהליך กระบวนการ Prozess Quy trình Proses Mchakato Proseso Folyamat Prosessi процес
1. User Research
Research Goals
See what other competitors are doing differently
Examine the goals of the company
Determine motivation for users choosing Duolingo
Determine what users want to use their language for
Determine what things users like about Duolingo
Determine what things users dislike about Duolingo
Examine what other ways users would like to apply their language skills
Methods Used and Key Findings
Methods Used: Secondary Research, Remote User Interviews, Competitor Analysis
Not many apps use the same sort of gamified way of teaching
The founder wants to make learning accessible to everyone in the world.
Some users had problems with specific accents despite having a high proficiency level due to a lack of exposure to said accents.
Users like that Duolingo is free.
Users like that it is fun and gamified.
Many users dislike that there are no writing options, or that the writing options are very simple.
Some users feel like Duolingo is too basic.
Some users feel bored with the repetition but others users liked it.
Many users enjoy the animations.
2. Define
I created an affinity map to sort through the insights from the interviews. The thing that surprised me the most while doing the interviews was how much people wanted the writing options to be better. As a language teacher, I thought for sure most users would have asked for more speaking options. In addition, many were dissatisfied with the translations on Duolingo, especially those learning English.
HMW’s
How might we help users produce the languages they are learning in more complex ways?
How might we connect users so they can practice with other people?
How might we incorporate more challenging writing activities so users can improve their writing?
User Needs
I’d like to give Duolingo users more challenging exercises so that they can continue to develop their ability to apply their skills.
I’d like to continue to make Duolingo fun so that users have a low affective filter and can continue to maintain a high level of engagement.
I created two user personas: The Worker Bee and The Family Man. Each captured a core user I was trying to target. The users interviewed during the research phase were either learning for family or work reasons.
3. Ideate
First Ideations
I wanted to do something that helped users with their writing.
I originally thought about giving users writing prompts that could be corrected by an AI.
Another idea I had was a guided step-by-step guided sentence writing similar to how Duolingo presents their stories.
However, a lightbulb went off and I found a better solution.
Storyboard Sketch
The Lightbulb Moment
Teacher’s Day
While I was in the process of ideating, my students wrote me a lot of letters for Teacher’s Day.
I was very touched by all of their kind words and I was also impressed with how they used many of the concepts I taught in class in their letters.
While reading the letters, a lightbulb went off. I reflected on how nice it is to receive letters. They hold more meaning than a simple text message and have more permanence than a spoken conversation. I decided that a letter-writing feature was the way to go, which led to the creation of Duofriends.
A letter from a student
Continued Ideation
User Flows
One user flow was chosen.
It was very simple, just how a person would write and receive a letter from another person.
The idea would be that users would need to complete or test out of the first three sections so that they have a very basic grasp of the language before getting access to Duofriends.
For the full user flow, click here.
Task Flows
From the user flows, I chose two task flows.
I wanted to keep things simple and straightforward so I chose writing a letter and responding to a letter.
For the full task flows, click here.
Low-Fidelity Sketches
I sketched my solution in a way that matched the UI and visual feel that currently exists on Duolino.
I wanted use some of the Duolingo characters since they were very popular with users in the user interviews.
Here is a link so you can get a closer look.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
I started creating the mid-fidelity wireframes, closely modeling them on my sketches.
I found it particularly challenging to adhere to their UI, especially when it came to their desktop layout. However, it was still very interesting and I found their UI to be quite creative compared to many other apps.
High-fidelity Wireframes
I put everything together in the high-fidelity wireframes. For the Duofriends feature, I kept their blue and green hues so that the feature fit in seemlessly with the rest of the app. The flow would be done from the perspective of an English-speaking user learning Spanish.
4. Testing and Iterations
Process and Key Findings
User testing was done with five users.
All users were able to complete the task very easily.
Many users remarked at how similar the prototype looked in the app.
Users thought the feature was a very good addition.
Proposed Changes
Adding a filter so users can search for the Duofriends they want.
Adding a new feature tooltip on the homepage.
Users want to see their profile so a profile page should be made.
The profile options for Duofriends should be changed to better reflect the current Duolingo UI.
First prototype.
Iteration with chan
5. Final Thoughts
As a licensed language teacher, it was fun to use my skills in a design context. I am sure I would be able to do the same for your organization.
It was good to try and work within an existing design system too, something I did not do in my other projects.
This was a passion project. Although, if anyone from Duolingo is reading this, you should contact me so we can make it happen!