Duolingo | Proposed Cultural Lessons Feature FULL CASE STUDY
MY ROLE: Product Designer
TOOLS: Figma, ChatGPT
DURATION: 8 weeks
Deeper handcrafted non-AI learning feature
Our UX design/research team designed a new Duolingo product native language learning feature via the IterateUX challenge.
Problem
Duolingo uses AI to create exercises to teach grammar, nouns, and action. It does not provide real life knowledge for language learners.
Role
I was one of the two co-lead UX designers on the challenge. We managed 2 junior UX researcher/UI designers for the first sprint and a junior UX researcher/UI designers the second sprint. We lead weekly AGILE scrums and led UX research/UX design/UI design systems while delegating production work to the junior designers.
User Research – Sprint I
Secondary Research
Duolingo Previous Features
In the past Duolingo has tried to expand content via various features like classrooms (voice group chat), live lessons (online meetup), and other attempts.
Competitor Learning Analysis
Competitors like Babbel and Rosetta Stone use more traditional curated non-AI content as the base of their learning curriculum, but still use some AI generated exercises.
ChatGPT was used to analyze paid feature plans for deeper learnings on product identity.
User Survey & Interviews
We asked 50+ individuals via survey what difficulties users had using the language outside of Duolingo, and how effective they were.
55% of users reported the language cultural context is important.
What frustrations do you have in the learning process?
Why do users use Duolingo to learn a language?
How would you like Duolingo to integrate cultural context into lessons?
Interviewees felt the current Duolingo AI curriculum does not fully support the user’s needs and needed relevant language lesson content they could apply in real life.
(5 user survey participants via zoom online interviews)
I would love to see more human curated learning content vs repetitive AI content that doesn’t help talk with real foreigners.
Empathy & Affinity Map
The affinity map based on interview findings in general indicated difficulties in using AI-model lesson content and a lack of real content to help users learn the language.
Ideation
Native organic content to complement the key AI product
The feedback given was that the existing AI lessons plans taught the users grammar & sentence structure – more difficult lessons just increased grammar/vocabulary but not actual conversation. User needs real practical content from native-driven cultural lessons to grow on their path to be a natural native speaker.
MVP Product
In addition to normal AI lessons for basics, we propose human-created cultural lessons for the user to use the language in real life.
Existing UX product
Proposed UX change – add cultural lessons to the user’s UX learning journey
Mid Fidelity Design
We chose to use the existing UI/UX flow and embed a simple change in the flow. The user is asked what kind of (cultural) custom lesson they wanted and place that native language lesson as the next lesson in their learning path in lieu of the next AI lesson. Overall, the change is seamless for the user in terms of their user experience.
Query user for custom lesson
Cultural lesson in learning path
Custom lesson question adjusted
Mid Fidelity Testing
We asked the users to complete the tasks below via unmoderated testing over Zoom capturing their screens during the process. Most users succeeded and we identified the follow issues via user feedback/observation.
- ✅ Users were able to select cultural lessons
- ✅ Users were able to finish cultural lessons seamlessly
(5 user survey participants via zoom online interviews)
User Research – Sprint II
We wanted to confirm that the cultural lessons were placed in the right UX location before finalizing the UI design. A card sort was sent out to a new pool of users to ask where UX actions should be location-wise within the app. Research showed via AI in competitor apps, links to the feature were in multiple locations for best conversion.
(20 user survey participants via online testing tool)
Where should cultural lessons be? Within the learning path, as we designed.
ChatGPT was used to analyze location of this feature on competitor apps.
Existing UX product
Proposed UX change: add cultural lessons as a additional training
High Fidelity Testing
We put the cultural training UI/UX path in the secondary locations as indicated in the card sorting and ran anther round of the same usability testing.
Training Path – Cultural Lessons
We asked the users to complete the tasks below via unmoderated testing over Zoom capturing their screens during the process. Most users succeeded and we identified the follow issues via user feedback/observation.
- ✅ Users were able to select cultural lessons
- ✅ Users were able to finish cultural lessons seamlessly
(5 user survey participants via zoom online interviews)
We ultimately decided to put a UX path to cultural lessons from both the learning and training paths.
High Fidelity Designs
Opt into Cultural Lessons
Learning path – cultural lessons
Training path – cultural lessons
Lessons Learned & Next Steps
1. As a UX designer, we initial overcomplicated the UX problem, but later through through research found a easy to plug-and-play UX/UI solution.
2. I was one of two co-leaders as a lead UX/UI designer alongside my colleague James. We had 2 junior UX researcher/UI designers for the first sprint and a junior UX researcher/UI designers for the second sprint. We had to transition knowledge to this new member and establish a new team paradigm.
3. From our research the Duolingo team has tried various ways to approach this, but we think this method to be very simple and be an an excellent complementary knowledge product to the AI product while keeping the core business product intact. Duolingo is known for easy learning and the AI product does this well but with organic native language lessons the user can keep learning to stay engaged with the product.