I would like to explore how I might help people who are willing to practice languages with native speakers remotely.
UX researcher and UX/UI designer.
I am using the design thinking process to first learn about the problem; define the user needs following Human-centered thinking; brainstorm and create possible solutions and then test it; iterate and then test it multiple times if needed.
5 Month, 2021
“I can listen, read, write, but I can’t talk…”
How I learned Mandarin
when I was one year old, I learned to listen. From 2 - 5 years old, I learned how to mimic, talk, and started having conversations. At elementary school, I then started to read and write.
The way I learned English
When I was 5, I learned the English alphabet and phonetic symbols. From 5 - 18, I learned grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing, and how to pass tests, from non-native speakers. When I was 20, when airport customs asked me questions in English, I knew what they were saying, but I just didn’t know how to respond, so I said nothing. I was sad and embarrassed, it felt like 20 years of English learning was a waste of time and money.
Secondary Research
The online learning market will likely grow by $21.57 Billion USD during 2020 - 2024. And the year-over-year growth rate is estimated at 25%. The biggest market will be in APAC as parents would encourage their kids, which are the future foreign students, to come to the developed countries to be able to get a high quality of education.
Competitive Research
There are three main competitors:
HelloTalk: A free resource sharing app where users find language partners to chat and teach each other.
iTalki: Users could find their matched teachers to practice languages. Every teacher can charge differently.
Duolingo: A Gamified language learning App uses AI to humanize virtual language lessons.
Screener Survey
I sent out a research survey in the Springboard student Slack channel and got 24 Responses. Here is the result I got:
66.6% speaks more than 3 languages
66.7% People learn languages from Apps
70.8% wants to know different culture & tradition
37.5% wants to make friends
79.2% Prefers video content
50% loves video chat
45.8% like meetup events
Challenge: 75% says no one to practice with
User Interviews
I asked those 24 lovely people above in my survey and 83.3% of them said yes. So I picked 6 people and did a user interview with them.
I asked them questions like:
How did you learn [languages]?
Where did you learn it?
What makes you want to learn this language?
Have you used any learning app before? If yes, what features do you love/hate?
Do you have any challenges when using a learning app in general?
How much time would you like to spend on a learning app?
How much are you willing to pay for a learning app?
Affinity Map
I used Miro to put users’ insights into sticky notes, and then organize them by putting the similar concepts together.
To take a closer look, please click on the image.
.jpg)
Empathy Map
Two Types of User. Students and Mentors.
.jpg)
Persona
How might we provide practice opportunities from native speakers for the students while they are learning a new language?
How might we make the interactions between teachers and students more natural and less awkward?
How might we make students feel the language they learned is useful?
Brainstorm
Interactions:
Message students and mentors
Posted videos and watch videos
Schedule to meet
Search and Find
Subscribe
Usefulness:
Practice with students and mentors in Video Chat
Create job opportunities + Volunteer
Translation Document + Books
Excitedness:
Emojis
Interesting Content
Discussion and Comment
Scroll down to discover videos from other students and mentors
Colorful UI
Choosing MVPs (minimal viable products)
Sketching
Red Route
Guerilla Usability Testing
1. One of the users didn’t know how to watch the next content, so I listed two videos or images on one page.
2. One of the users asked if I could add a bookmark feature so that they can save the content and share it to others.
3. Three Users don’t know what “schedule” button is for, and the difference between “scheduled” and “schedule”. And some users don’t know how to edit the scheduled meetings. So I changed their names to “Schedule new meetings” and “start meetings now”.
Wireframe
UI Design
Part 1. MoodBoard
This app should be professional and fun at the same time. So I mixed up some colorful but simple pictures to make this.
Part 2. StyleGuide
Dark purple looks very professional and reliable, and the action color I chose is butter yellow, to make users feel more comfortable and willing to communicate with others. Since the color really stands out in this app, the typography doesn’t need to be too fancy, so I use a neutral font - SF Pro family to make the content easy to read and professional.
Prototyping
Iterate
I did two rounds of user testing, the main issues I discovered are the schedule & meet button and the check button.
1. The Schedule Button Iterate
Users don’t click on schedule buttons at first because they don’t know what will happen after clicking the schedule button. After I changed it to “Schedule new meetings”, users tend to click it
2. The Meeting Button Iterate
Users don’t know what the meeting button is for, so I changed it to “meet now” because zoom is using it and so users would feel familiar.
3. Title check button Iterations
It seems like check button is not visible for the users, so I put them outside and added a circle around it. However, I didn’t notice that users don’t like to click on the check button at all after typing, so I deleted it. Users could continue filling out other information right after typing.
Based on the secondary research result, Asia has the highest demand in the online learning market. So instead of sending surveys and doing the user interview for people from all over the world, I should have only focused on one specific area, Asia.
