The first project done as part of CareerFoundry's UX Design course.
How might we design a mobile app that empowers people to learn new vocabulary?
A mobile app that focuses on learning new vocabulary through conversations and flashcards.
Research
Prototyping
Usability testing
Figma
InVision
2020
Hypothetical, as part of
the CareerFoundry course
2 vocabulary learning apps were analyzed.
After conducting interviews with current and potential users of vocabulary apps, 3 types of user behavior appeared:
The information gathered during user interviews helped shape a user persona, Kate.
The usability testing revealed several shortcomings of the app:
Some participants couldn’t find an appropriate language proficiency level. The “Your level?” question was not clear.
+ 2 language proficiency levels
+ “What’s your current level?” instead of “Your level?”
There was a difficulty in understanding how the app’s learning mode works. The “Play” icon seemed to be misleading for the participant, he saw it as a “volume control” symbol.
+ More detailed instructions
+ Change “Play” icon
Some participants wished to see a supportive message in case of an incorrect answer.
+ Encouraging and motivational messages
Uploading not only the images but video and audio files should also be possible. It wasn’t clear that some fields are optional to fill in in the “Add new word” screen.
+ "Upload file" instead of "Upload image"
+ Mark the "Comments" and "Upload file" fields as “Optional”.
Give participants scenario tasks rather than direct ones. Let a participant decide how to execute tasks.
Use a mobile phone when testing a mobile app (if possible). User behavior might differ depending on the device.
Avoid using generic titles for the app's categories and situations. Genericity causes questions about the context from the participants, requiring more input from the moderator and possibly less valuable feedback from the participant.
When I was brainstorming ideas for the app’s UI, I had a concept of a vocabulary shooter where people need to match words with their translations.
Arcade game aesthetics came to my mind.
Here are a couple more wireframes inspired by arcade games:
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