Duo’s Cage I: Duolingo’s New Learning Path
Duolingo released a new update in early November. This update included changes to the main screen and many features in terms of design and user experience. However, the changes also brought some problems with them.
Here you can view the details of the update.
Not everyone was happy with this change, so Tobi Fondse, a 50-year-old living in the Netherlands, created a Twitter account called “Duo is sad” to draw the company’s attention and bring together people who are not satisfied with the update. A petition has even been started on Change.org.
Although the redesigned main screen may seem new, it integrates a structure that has been used in the mobile game world for a long time into the user experience.
I will explain the reasons for the negative opinions using behavioral science and provide suggestions for improving the experience. My next article will be about explaining why Duolingo designed such an experience.
Let’s talk about why people are sad/angry/disappointed.
Behavioral Science tells us that:
💡 Even if the alternatives are better, we tend to stick to our previous choices/habits. 💡
Tobi Fondse, who has been using the app for 449 days, was disappointed because he thought the options were limited after the update.
A 449-day streak means a 449-day recurring habit. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
⚠️ People are sad/angry/disappointed because their long-standing habits were asked to be changed quickly. ⚠️
💡 If we feel that our freedoms are limited, we become aggressively motivated to regain them.💡
Let’s remember Fondse’s disappointment after this significant change;
He created a Twitter account called “Duo is sad” to draw the company’s attention and bring together people unsatisfied with the update. A petition had even started on Change.org.
⚠️ People are sad/angry/disappointed because their intense effort for language learning allows them to own what they do. The uncertainty brought by irreversible changes like this creates aggression/anxiety in people. ⚠️
If we look at the experience more closely, on the old screen, the user could choose the language subject they wanted and easily access other more exciting content when bored. In the new experience, this feature has been replaced by a structure that progresses step by step, is rule-based, and does not leave any choice to the user.
🎯 Choice = Autonomy = Certainty = Low Anxiety 🎯
⚠️ People are unhappy because a one-dimensional learning style, reminiscent of traditional language learning, has replaced the creative learning style. ⚠️
As it is understood, Duolingo has made this new experience permanent, thinking it will benefit the user’s language learning in the long run. And this will be a disappointment. However, there are ways to reduce/break the resistance caused by the above change.
Even if the alternatives are better, we tend to stick to our previous choices/habits.
Duolingo’s streak-based recall mechanism creates a habit by guiding the user to use the app daily, creating a tendency to stay in the designed structure.
One way to break this is to talk about the benefits of the alternative option offered to the old habit or to emphasize what the old habit has cost us.
Another method is to use social influence to indicate the number of people using the alternative option offered or to emphasize people’s learning progress/gains using the provided option.
We need to be able to make our own choices and implement them according to our own free will. If we feel that our freedoms are limited, we become aggressively motivated to regain them.
Reversing the lack of choice created by the new experience, it is necessary to allow users to try this change. By defining the new option as the default until the final date of the change and allowing the user to return to the old option if desired, hedonic adaptation is created in the user, making them less sensitive to change.
To sum up, the new update will be a complete cage for Duolingo’s old users. In my next article, I will discuss the reasons for the imposed experience on the users.
