About the Project
The Challenge
For certain goals in life, it is necessary to leave the comfort zone and acquire new skills. A common goal is learning new languages - whether it is to be able to communicate better on holiday, to have new perspectives at work or simply for the joy of learning something new. This is where the Vocabby app comes in.
The Process
In order to better understand what the real obstacles and challenges are in learning new languages, I have approached the project from different perspectives. I started by researching the topic and analysing various competing products. On this basis, I started with the first interviews with users, from which a lot of information could be derived for a later User Persona. After setting up the information architecture, I continued with the creation of the first wireframes and the resulting userbility tests.
The Goal
By focusing the learning process on planned events in the future and by supporting time planning, the aim is to ensure that Vocabby users stick to their goals until the planned event and do not lose focus and give up.
My Role
UX Designer - The project was part of my UX learning process at a CareerFoundry Course
Timeline
30 Days
Tools
Pen & Paper / Indesign / Illustrator
Competitor Analysis and Initial Findings
The following points have come up in the first comparisons of competitor products:
- It would be nice to be reminded of the breaks when you study for too long
- Instead of only offering fixed language targets, it might be useful to add a free category
- Feedback should be based mainly on positive experiences
- The navigation interface must be very easy to use
- A relaxed colour impression is important
- Learning should be taught in a playful way
The Interviews
To deepen these initial starting points, I conducted interviews with 4 people who wanted to learn a new language for different reasons. Among other things, I wanted to find out what methods are used for learning vocabulary, how much time is invested, what hurdles have to be taken when learning and whether there are any little tricks that might help the individuals to learn better.
Meet Benjamin - the User Persona
Demographics
- 27 years old - Lives in Hannover
- In a long-term relationship with no children
- Works as a software developer for a large company
- Has a bachelor degree in computer science
Behaviours
- Has a wide range of interests and enjoys trying out new trends
- Values a good work-life balance
- Uses his time constructively and fl exibly
"I can quickly get excited about certain topics. This leads to the fact that I am actually always busy and unfortunately I lose interest in some things very early."
Learn more about BenjaminWireframes and Testing
Based on the initial findings, I developed a prototype that was intended for a first test run with testers. Five people took part in this test, each of them had to solve two tasks. Some changes to the basic design have come to light:
Challanges
As my first UX-oriented project, the development of Vocabby was an exciting and challenging task for me. Especially when creating and conducting the interviews, I was able to build up a lot of new knowledge and gain valuable insights into a user-centred view. I also found the use of the simplest methods (such as the quick sketching of paper wireframes) particularly impressive, in order to reach the goal quickly and efficiently with quick tests. What I can also learn from this project is that new tasks were rather difficult for me to estimate in terms of time, which is why I have taken special care in future projects to keep an eye on the time in order to be able to derive an average value from it.
Further Steps
I would also like to develop the project further and have identified the following points for myself:
- Testing of the improved prototype
- Make adjustments
- Is the project still on target or do further adjustments need to be made?