Smart People: The Importance of Motivation in Language Learning
SmartPeople Inc. is preparing to launch an online version of their summer camp in 2018. They are seeking to transform the in-person classroom experience into a 100% digital experience that can be accessed by students at a lower cost.
THE CHALLENGE:
Create a language learning platform for a 9-week summer language learning course called Smart People. The target audience? 12–18 year olds struggling to learn English or Spanish.
A.J. and I worked together on sending out surveys and conducting interviews with target users. We learned that people tend to prefer a combination of learning styles (visual, auditory, tactile) and enjoy learning both alone and with friends. We also gained insight into the anxieties that stop language learners from becoming fully fluent in their target language. When asked why they wanted to learn a second language, most cited extrinsic factors such as wanting to please their parents rather than wanting to do so for their own enrichment. From our research, we developed two personas: Alison and Elijah.
But the information we were looking for went beyond trying to determine how people learned, especially since we weren’t the ones designing the core curriculum. Rather, we needed to find out how to keep users interested. How can we motivate users to continue learning a language?
It’s not surprising that researchers have found that intrinsic motivation is more successful in language learning than extrinsic factors. But how would we motivate our users intrinsically?
Here’s where gamification enters as a possible solution. It’s a technique that relies on both intrinsic motivators (like enjoyment and the feeling of a higher purpose) and extrinsic (like badges, points, and levels) to keep users interested and engaged with their content. I know this approach has fallen out of favor because of the tendency of companies to try and gamify everything, but it’s hard to ignore how successful Duolingo’s adoption of this technique has been.
The mobile games with the highest user retention rates are Pokemon Go, Clash of Clans, Words With Friends, and Candy Crush. Why are people connecting with these apps more than other mobile games?
After conducting some more interviews with active users of these apps, we received responses mainly related to: the social element to the game, the ability to collect things, a way to see your friend’s progress relative to yours, and most importantly: a captivating storyline.
Duolingo has most of these features, but where can this model be improved upon? If we can learn anything from Pokemon Go, it’s the importance of having an emotional connection with users. Pokemon Go drew from the nostalgia of its user base who grew up in the 1990s with the stories of Ash Ketchum traveling with his best buddies to catch ’em all.
If we look back to Duolingo, there’s not really a plot or higher purpose that drives the storyline. Users are awarded trophies and gems, but if they have no real use or end goal within the game, they may not provide the same rewarding feeling that they’re meant to.
We decided to frame our platform with a storyline:
You are an astronaut that has travelled outside of your solar system, only to crash land on a far away planet. In order to return home, you need to recruit the help of the aliens that live there and on the surrounding planets.
Except there’s a catch: for some reason, they only speak Spanish (or whatever your target language). If you want to find your way back, you better start studying.
We concluded that our platform needed to be:
IDEATION + TESTING
Next, A.J. and I went our separate ways for the ideation process. It doubled our ideas and we ended up coming together and realizing that we had a similar vision for our platform. We both connected with the idea of having a science fiction or space travel theme. Franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek are popular for a reason and they’re relatable to people from all ages and walks of life.
A.J. and I collaborated really well as a team. We were on the same wave length pretty often, especially when it came to iteration and creative brainstorming.
We began to worry that our tendency to agree with each other on virtually everything could be a bad thing, so we moved onto user testing before making any more major steps towards our final prototype. Needless to say, things had to be changed.
I learned the most from this step. Leaving our wireframes purposely vague and unfinished left a lot of room for confusion on the user’s end. Since this was one of the earlier steps in the design process it helped us re-group and brainstorm new ways to organize our information. It also helped us get a better idea of the mental models users associate with learning platforms.
VISUAL DESIGN + FINAL PROTOTYPE
We drew inspiration from existing apps with beautiful game interfaces like Monument Valley, as well as the visual imagery associated with 1960s and 70s visions of space travel.
Check out our prototype below:
