Learning Spanish with Smart People, Inc
The following brief is for a fictional company called Smart People, Inc as part of the curriculum at Ironhack.
Smart People, Inc is a language education company that’s best known for their yearly educational summer camp. They wish to go digital and expand their services to help a wider range of people learn English or Spanish. The problem is that many users give up on language learning programs. I sought out to learn why, in order to design a product that users would continue using on a long-term basis.
My first step was compiling a list of digital language-learning programs, then reading reviews on them. This revealed that users appreciate positive feedback, and dislike impractical content as well as the inability to correct mistakes. One app store review for Duolingo wrote, “making mistakes is essential in language learning, we shouldn’t be punished for it.” Other reviews complained about the slow pace.
Next, I created a feature comparison chart to determine what features would be necessary to compete in the market. I also devised a market positioning chart to identify a blue ocean in the market.
My next step was conducting an interview with one user who has tried various language-learning apps. This helped me gain insight on pain points. She shared that she felt hopeless when trying to learn, and that she found it difficult. Motivators for learning included traveling and the ability to build rapport with people from other countries. This interview helped me draft effective survey questions.
Next, I created a survey aimed at discovering motivators for language-learning, as well as demographics, learning habits, and pain points. After creating the survey, I conducted two more interviews. These revealed that online language learning lessons were excessively repetitive (“it was ridiculous”), and that speaking with native speakers is “good practice but stressful”. One person said that they were barely able to communicate when traveling despite having made progress on Duolingo. I also posted a thread on a language-learning subreddit asking for reasons why people may have given up on a particular language-learning method. The resounding answers were due to it becoming too “boring” or “tedious” (specifically, flash card-making).
I then started analyzing results from the survey. It yielded 106 responses, and I analyzed responses from those who stated they have tried to learn a new language at least once, aside from mandatory school learning that took place strictly in-class. 72% of users cited enjoyment as one of their reasons for having tried learning a new language. Travel reasons were the second most commonly chosen reason for having tried learning a new language. 30% of respondents stated one of the reasons they stopped a particular method was because they were forgetting what they had learned. 27% attributed loss of motivation as a factor in their decision to stop learning. Mobile apps were the most commonly chosen favorite method to learn languages. Interacting with native speakers was the second favorite learning-method. Survey respondents value learning about culture when language-learning a 7.89 out of 10, and value feedback on their progress an 8.38 out of 10. The most commonly used language-learning method was Duolingo.
Using the data from the survey, from interviews, from insights on reading reviews, and from the reddit thread, I created an affinity map. This allowed me to visualize findings from many sources in one place, as well as to see patterns in the data.
The affinity map facilitated creation of the user persona, a representation of the target user based on the data. The user persona highlighted needs and frustrations common to the users, and enabled designing solutions that better solve the target user’s pain points.
My next step was creating a user journey map that highlights the user’s pain points when learning a new language. The top the pain points supported by the data were excessive repetition, forgetting what they’d learned, and loss of motivation. The red exclamation point icons indicate these pains and thus opportunities for design.
Next, I conducted research on evidence-based learning methods. Spaced repetition is an effective learning technique. The material is reviewed at gradually increasing intervals. This method is used in the digital flashcard software “anki,” in which users review content they find easy less frequently than content that is difficult to them. I also investigated efficacy of recall vs recognition as testing methodology. Recall (used to answer free-response or fill-in-the-blank questions) requires more mental effort than recognition (used to answer multiple-choice questions), but is a better indicator of learning. I also researched motivation in regards to learning. Extrinsic motivation is easy to implement, but is not long-lasting. Examples of extrinsic motivators are points or grades. Intrinsic motivation is harder to instill in learners, but leads to continued learning. Examples of intrinsic motivators are passion for the subject and genuine interest. This Vanderbilt article has great information on motivators for learning.
With this knowledge and my research findings, I devised “how might we?” statements for the 3 main user pain points (excessive repetition, forgetting what was learned, and loss of motivation). I then ideated solutions that would solve each of the pain points. Solutions included spaced repetition based on user-reported difficulty level of each lesson, wherein users review easy material less often than difficult material in order to minimize unnecessary repetition. Another solution was less multiple choice questions compared to other programs, in order to establish longer-lasting learning and to prevent a false sense of progress and future disappointment when trying to engage in real-life conversation.
I next selected the most impactful solutions to place in an impact vs effort chart. I also utilized the MoSCoW method to determine which features would form the minimum viable product.
The minimum viable product is a language-learning mobile app for people interested in learning Spanish, that allows users to rate lesson & review-session difficulty, that has limited multiple-choice options, and that suggests music to complement lessons. I hypothesize that creating this app will enable users to obtain longer-lasting knowledge, avoid frustrating & excessive repetition, and inspire motivation to continue language-learning.
Then, I created an app map (essentially a site map) to determine what content should be present, and under what category it should fall. I also formed the user flow, which guided what screens I created lo-fi wireframes for.
I sketched a variety of lo-fi wireframes for each needed screen, then selected which ones to prototype and conduct usability testing for.
I prototyped the screens in Marvel then conducted 7 usability tests to determine where there was room for improvement and what changes were necessary. The task was to complete a lesson and sign up for an account. I received feedback from testers stating that they would prefer a numerical scale to rate lesson difficulty, rather than simply choosing “easy” “medium” or “difficult.” I also learned that being given a suggested list of music after each lesson could interrupt the flow of learning and ultimately result in less lessons being completed. Average task duration was 108.5 seconds with a 14.3% mis-click rate.
I used the usability feedback to create a mid-fidelity prototype with the necessary improvements. I implemented a numerical rating scale to gauge difficulty level, and required clicking on a “curated playlist” button to access recommended music. This eliminates users from being shown music before they are ready.
In the future, I would explore the possibility of adding Spanish TV shows and movies to the recommended media section, in order to further cement learning as well as to inspire cultural appreciation and thus intrinsic motivation to continue learning. Success and failure metrics that would be used to determine product performance include amount of weekly active users, proportion of users accessing the curated playlist, rating on the app store, and churn rate.
