Learning a New Language with Lingualive
Project Timeline: 2 Weeks
Have you wondered what it’s like to pick up a new language? I believe many of us have a second language that we are familiar of, but what makes us excel in a new language we are trying to learn? Rico, Jen and I were assigned as User Experience Consultants to our client, Lingualive, as part of P5, our last UX project at General Assembly. We were tasked to test out their existing prototype, and deliver an external facing website as well as solutions to their prototype.
Although a prototype was ready for us by our client to test, we wanted to start with research by first exploring the language landscape of competitors.There was a big space of research that we had to first understand before coming up with a strategy to problem solve. We realize that many language platforms have made it available on app stores and websites, spanning across different types of curriculums from more traditional off the shelf to personalized curriculums with teachers. Apps like mango and Drops really pushed the gamification aspect, with a lot of emphasis on interactive animated personified symbols that added a layer of fun and spontaneity to learning new words. In order to keep track of what made each phone app successful, we broke it down onto a list on the specific type of features offered.
We then decided to do more quantitative research by interviewing 5 language teachers and tutors, how they approached teaching a language, their challenges faced, and the types of classes they teach in. One of the main takeaways that we heard as a reoccurring theme was the need for repetition as well as immediate feedback. This type of learning was often practiced through role playing within their immediate environment with available resources that they could get their hands on.
In schools, there were usually textbooks set in place, but for teachers that traveled to foreign countries or worked as freelancers, often had to find ways to make shift a conducive learning experience for their students. Some of these stories were so personal that it brought me down memory lane, like the use of YouTube to search for popular English lessons and songs to sing to, use of video chat for personalized conversations.
“What about the students?” , you might wonder. To map out an effective experience that had an effective curriculum, we interviewed 5 students, who speak English as a second language living in a foreign country.
The spectrum of research allowed the team to have a comprehensive understand of curating an effective curriculum, which led us to design a strategy around the problem space.
People keen on learning a new language benefit most with personalized curriculum and immediate feedback from a tutor. Olivia is moving to Russia for job relocation and needs a way to converse in Russian confidently.
How might we engage Olivia to be confident conversing in Russian?
When we tested out Lingualive’s existing prototype, it became clear why students were not picking up the language, and expressed frustration when trying to learn Russian.
As our clients had intentions for Lingualive to have user generated content, users were mainly confused on why they were given the option of editing content. This feature made them reconsider the validity of the contents, as well as the pronunciations that were made available, assuming the user, a beginner learning Russian, can add in his own pronunciation.
We decided to remove student generated content for the new iteration, and focused our efforts of design studios on 2 main features, role playing as well as flashcards, which were emphasized as key touch points that users interacted with to learn a new language in our research.
During our design studio brainstorming ideas of flashcards, we tied it back to our first usability testing, considering the essential factors on how to get into the state of immersive learning.
In addition to considering these factors, we had to bear in mind that we needed users to hear it, see it and say it in order for students to fully internalize new alphabets and words.
Proceeding to our 2nd design studio, we wanted to build on the idea of role playing with native speakers, while considering the following factors, interesting as we realized that before users even get to role play with actual native speakers, how do we build their fundamentals effectively for beginners before meeting native speakers that might build up frustration for both parties. In addition, during our first round of usability testing, majority of users wanted to play with a bot, feeling pressured as a beginner to meet other real players.
Essentially, we had to pivot. Before a beginner receives a personalized curriculum from a tutor, the fundamental building blocks is similar for all students, so we decided to begin starting role playing with bots and focus on repetition to build up the foundation for a more rigorous syllabus.
Interactive Flash Cards
Considerations:
●Phonetics
●Ability to Save
●Gamification
●Alphabets and words
●Accent Engine
●Point of Reference Flashcard
Role Playing
Considerations:
●Multiple Scenarios based
● Immersion
● Instant Feedback
● Repetition
● Native Speaker
After the 2 rounds of usability testing, these gifs showcase the summary of the users going through 2 tasks, their 1st day of flashcards and role playing. Among the new users that we got to test with, they were filled with glee while trying to learn Russian, expressing that it was very engaging and felt like they were guided through patiently at every step of the way.
As our time was limited to a 2 week sprint, we were not able to work out the following steps, but would like to redirect the attention towards connecting users with native speakers after building up their fundamentals, as well as the gamification aspect, on exploring how the points system can fuel back into conversational time with native speakers, making the currency of the app that Natives can charge by while providing an opportunity to introduce students to speak to a Native through the points earned.
Thanks for reading this, you can also see the full process at https://www.richiechendesign.com/lingualive-case-study-speaking-a-new-language/
