DuoDuo
How can Duolingo leverage community and social interaction to help language learners master fluency?
Role
UX Designer + Project Manager
Timeframe
3 weeks
Duolingo is a popular language-learning platform that offers personalized lessons in countless languages where users can play games and practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening with Chat bots. Unfortunately, due to limitations with chat bots, Duolingo users lack conversational practice and plateau in their learning. Our team was charged with developing design solutions that leverage social interactions and community to help users improve oral proficiency. We created user-centered designs that allow users to connect with each other and practice relevant language lessons during scheduled audio calls.
To understand how community & social interactions can help people become fluent, I interviewed 3 of our 7 interviewees, who were all adults practicing languages that they do not already consider themselves fluent in. Our interviewees had useful insight about feeling lost or left hanging in their learning, yet their motivation to learn inspired us.
Lost in Translation
Understanding User Research
Mapping out the data in an affinity map in Figjam, I found that learners want to practice languages in community with others and find comfort in conversing with people at the same learning level as them. Hungry language learners want ways to simulate fully immersive learning experiences, yet from the comfort of their daily life. It’s not practical or possible for everyone to pick up their life and move to a new country to master the language. We created a competitive and comparative analysis and feature analysis to assess where Duolingo may be lacking in utilizing social features. We discovered how other platforms use profile photos, voice and text messaging, and lesson booking as solutions for connecting the platform’s community.
Language learners want immersive experiences… from the couch.
Understanding User Potential
Personas & Journey Maps
Our persona Sam was molded by the interview synthesis. Sam is a social butterfly, is fluent in English and trying to become conversational in Vietnamese. Sam is ambitious, a fast learner, and wants to quench her interest in communicating with others through learning more languages.
The Problem:
Sam is plateauing in her language learning and needs social engagement in order to build proficiency in the language she is learning.
In our Journey Map, Sam is not able to have a spontaneous real life conversation in Vietnamese. Her existing language skills are not enough to reach her goal of speaking Vietnamese only on a coffee date with a friend. We iterated on user flows to help her reach her goal, while highlighting ways to tap into the existing Duolingo community.
How might we use a social element in Duolingo to supplement Sam’s Vietnamese skills?
Now We’re Talkin’!
DuoDuo, a New Social Feature
Our solution, called DuoDuo, is a social feature that allows users to schedule live audio phone calls to practice guided lessons together and work towards conversational fluency. Users can filter and select preferred learning buddies who are at similar proficiency levels and have similar interests. Lesson content is catered to user’s everyday lives and their language learning goals. Sam can now dive into safe and focused calls with a preferred buddy to reach her fluency goals. Our usability test results show that 66.6% of users would intend to use the feature in a final product.
Read Between the Lines
A Service Design Blueprint to Better Serve the Community
I created this Service Design Blueprint to reimagine touch-points for Duolingo and articulate where users could better benefit from its products and services. The blueprint explores solutions from targeted advertising on social media, to the new DuoDuo live lesson call feature, and closes with a live in-person event experience to reinforce real-world language practice. This plan supports Duolingo’s mission to bring language learners together through leveraging the platform’s existing community, while improving user retention and avoiding user abandonment.
The Next Chapter
Reflections on Optimizing UX Strategy
Duolingo’s famous green color with white text does not pass accessibility standards, and this is a major frustration for many users especially considering they’re practicing lessons for 15 minutes to an hour each day. It’s important to me and my team to create accessible designs for all users to be able to use comfortably. In the future we would redesign Duolingo’s style guide, exploring higher contrast color combinations while still retaining the brand and a sense of playfulness. Our team created these design alternatives featuring higher contrast choices, which score higher on an accessibility test.