Communico: A Language learning mobile app UX case study.
Introduction
In today’s world of technology, being connected with people of one country is easy but when it comes to getting connected with the rest of the world, the major barrier is language. So, how might we design an app that helps people learn a new language easily? Communico is the name of my mobile app and the purpose of this product is to empower people to learn the language of their choice.
This case study shows my journey as to how I fumbled my way through surveys, interviews, analysis, user flows, wireframing, prototyping and much more.
Problem Statement
There are plenty of language learning approaches and products developed and used by users. However, users need a way to learn their target language by communicating with others and reinforce what they have learnt and enhanced both their writing and speaking skills.
Solution
The best way to meet the user’s needs is to develop a product that gives the user a platform to communicate to native or locals of their target language, is visually appealing and improves their writing skills. Also, users should be engaged while learning and enjoy the process of learning.
Communico provides users with two ways of learning their target language. Either they choose to learn by communicating in real-time with a native speaker who knows a common language and the target language or users can choose to learn with the premium video courses provided. Courses will be structured in a way that can ease the process of learning. For improving their writing skills, users can chat their connections or they practice with our friendly chatbot that even helps to build confidence.
Design Thinking Process
Competitive analysis
I conducted a competitive analysis of three popular language learning apps: Duolingo, Hello Talk and Rosetta Stone.
The competitive analysis helped me evaluate weakness and strength in user experience. It also helped to understand the core features of the app.
Surveys and User Interviews
I conducted surveys and interviews to learn more about users, their behaviour, their needs and wants to more empathize with them. For Surveys, I have used Google Forms. I gathered some useful information such as the age of learners, how they prefer to learn things either by video courses or with communicating with someone, and what their pain points often were.
Interviews
Interviews followed my survey with three-person remotely. All these three people had some experience of learning a secondary language. The interviews revealed some core features that potential users need.
- Why did you decide to learn a new language? What’s your motivation to learn it?
- Which app/tool do you use to learn a new language? Do these tools helpful in your learning process? Please explain.
- What techniques you find most effective in learning a new language and how do you believe it is going to help others too?
- Tell me about your frustrations in learning vocabulary and language. If any and how do you overcome these frustrations?
Personas
In order to identify the target users, I came up with a user persona by organising the data collected from our empathize phase. The persona helped me to analyze users requirements and frustrations so that I can prioritize the most crucial challenge in this mobile app design and shorten down the core features.
Information Architecture
I have used Task Analysis and User flow. There are mainly two entry points from which users can choose to enter and decide the flow of the product.
Wireframes and Prototyping
The wireframing process was where things began to fall into place and become more tangible. I have used Balsamiq for wireframing and prototyping. My goals are designing simple and intuitive navigation, figuring out the main features that I extracted from previous user research and information architecture and empowering users to learn their target language.
Usability Testing
Usability testing is suitable for a range of digital products, including websites and apps. It’s not only useful for testing finished products, but also for testing products in the development stage. Through usability testing, I was able to establish user frustrations and figure out features that would make the user journey easier and quicker. I went nearby my house and selected people to perform guerilla usability testing. I sampled people to test and verified that they have at least tried learning a new language prior to beginning the test. I ended up testing four users. I have test mid-fidelity level prototype.
Each user was asked to perform these tasks:
- Complete the onboarding process and signup to connect others.
- Imagine you need to customize your profile and verify your email in order to connect.
- Imagine scheduling a call with a native speaker of the target language and confirm the scheduled call.
UI Design
I have chosen a vibrant and solid colour to bring user pleasant and immersive feeling when they are interacting with the app. Colour palette consists of bright yellow, orange, black and green.
What I’ve learnt throughout the process?
While going through all these processes, I understand why these processes are important and I learned a great deal about why it’s good to test your design. As a designer, one can easily put his ideas and thought process in their designs but when the user test design whether it’s a mid-fidelity or high fidelity, it provides some valuable feedback. Through this project, I understand the basic fact that in UX design users plays an important role at every level. They provide valuable information that helps us to design a useful product. I am still learning, practising and improving day by day.
This is my first time writing a UX case study. So thank you for reading and giving your valuable time.
