Design for Learning Apps — UX Research and Case Study on Duolingo
What is Duolingo?
Duolingo is a language learning application that allows you to learn not only English, but also Chinese, Korean, and many other languages. There are two versions: a smartphone version and a web (browser) version. It is the world’s most used language learning app, allowing users to learn a language in a few minutes a day at a fast pace.
Duolingo was started in 2011 as a research project by Luis von Ahn, professor at Carnegie Mellon University and founder of ReCAPTCHA, and his graduate student, Severin Hacker.
As an app created by researchers, there is a sense that it is implemented based on behavioral psychology, scientific study, app features, icons, and product design, all of which are well-founded.
There is also a language learning app called Lingvist, which was also developed by a particle physicist.
Business Model Canvas of Duolingo
Cab drivers and Uber are partners.
Uber Brazil, a private cab company, apparently used Duolingo when hiring a large number of English-speaking drivers to serve the rapidly increasing number of foreign tourists that will be coming to Rio for the Rio Olympics.
The test can be taken easily on a smartphone, and those who pass the test are given the title of “English-speaking driver,” and the program was also used to match users who wanted an English-speaking driver.
A brief summary of Duolingo’s key points
I will briefly summarize at the beginning of this section the evaluations and secondary information provided by users, as well as my own impressions of the service.
1. Duolingo offers quizzes with a level of detail that reminds users who already know the basics of the language to start from the basics.
2. the flow of the app is unidirectional, and users do not choose their own categories to learn, other than language selection. This reduces user stress.
3. Duolingo should not be used as a stand-alone resource; using Duolingo to support learning through reference books, videos, classroom learning, etc. is very beneficial.
Overall, I have the impression that the founder is a researcher, and that the business side and the development team each have a deep understanding of the product and its users, which has led to the creation of a sophisticated product. I think the team is extremely talented.
Duolingo’s Insight
Duolingo seems like a simple language learning app, but its insight is: “People who want to be able to handle English but don’t want to learn English.
In other words, what users find valuable is that they can learn a foreign language while zoning out.
While most learning services are like reference books that aim to improve skills and knowledge in depth, Duolingo’s service targets a mass market of people who are interested in learning a second language but do not have the time or money to attend a formal language course or study hard using reference books. The service is targeted at the mass market.
It also serves users who do not prefer traditional learning methods and prefer a more casual learning experience.
Many people learn a new language for school, for official use, or as a hobby out of interest in other cultures. However, people are lazy and procrastinate, so their motivation to learn does not last.
Duolingo is designed to motivate people to do things that are difficult, time-consuming, and mentally taxing, while convincing them to do it again tomorrow.
Duolingo’s approach is a very limited one, learning only the basics.
Some users actually use other apps, such as Mosalingua, to learn more practical language skills, but such apps can be very complex and cumbersome for the masses.
As stated officially, if the goal is “to become a serious English speaker,” it is recommended to use English conversation or other reference books in combination.
Duolingo’s value proposition is to create opportunities for casual exposure to English, not to improve language skills.
It would be more appropriate to call it a language habituation app rather than a language learning app.
Or a “language learning habituation app.
Learning a few words or phrases is not really useful.
People learn from their surroundings. We need to “live” the language, not just “memorize” fancy words.
However, Duolingo’s interface and ease of use are specialized to make users use the app more often.
While “being able to learn a language” may seem to be the real appeal of Duolingo’s service, the essence of the service is that users “can experience language learning on a daily basis in their spare time” and “get a sense of mastery.
In fact, it would be a pain for users to learn a full-fledged language on a smartphone or PC. There are apps for more serious language learning, such as the aforementioned Mosalingua, but they tend to have more complex interfaces.
For users who are highly motivated to learn, classroom lectures, reference books, and videos are easier to learn and actually increase the rate of learning, rather than complicated content that is presented in an app.
In other words, it is possible to think that “pop-oriented apps that do not give the feeling of studying” are suitable for light users, while “books, videos, and classroom learning” are suitable for heavy users.
Users prefer choices that are easy to select and satisfying
The concept of satisficing, developed by Herbert Simon, refers to the process of accepting, from among the available (recallable) choices, those that are not necessarily ideal but may be satisfactory in terms of making a decision on the spot using limited cognitive resources.
First, most clients only want to continue doing what they are doing now, only easier than before.
The human brain is always looking for ease.
People don’t want to think anyway.
When it is a learning app, it is best for the brain to reduce the number of options offered to the user.
It is important in a learning app to create an “I get it” state as quickly as possible.
The brain should be given as little stress as possible so that it does not have to think further.
The app’s specifications make it difficult to use and sustain complex things, so it may be inevitable that the price of simplicity and dependability is a loss of deep mastery.
Reduce the number of choices and do not place a cognitive load on the user
When people have many choices, they tend to become anxious that they may not be able to make the best choice, and they tend not to make decisions themselves. This is a common example of this tendency. Moving, changing jobs, etc. are familiar examples.
A well-known example is the jam experiment conducted in a supermarket.
Professor Sheena Iyengar of Columbia University, author of “The Science of Choice,” conducted an experiment in which she compared sales when 24 different types of jam were tasted and sold with those when 6 types were sold.
You might think that more variety is better for the user, but the results showed that sales of six types of jam were clearly higher.
The brain also has an upper limit to the amount of information it can process at one time.
If you put a cognitive load on it, such as too many choices, not knowing where to pay attention, or having little contrast and difficulty finding it, it may postpone a decision, or even not make it in the first place.
Duolingo is designed very much based on human behavioral psychology, brain science, and cognitive science, including the fact that it does not make you choose a course.
Friendly Design for All
What I found Duolingo to be sophisticated is the way it combines the fundamentals of each of product design, app uix, and game design into a learning app.
- The ease is largely dependent on subjective factors. The key is not whether or not the actual action is difficult, but whether or not it feels easy.
- Structure information as much as possible.
- Do not use words such as “you have to do. Use positive words such as easy, quickly, simple, etc.
- When requesting a complex action, divide the task into smaller pieces and show the progress of the task.
Feelings are paramount over facts.
There seem to be two factors that make it feel easy.
- Objective factors: e.g., few fields to fill out or questions to ask on the inquiry form
- Subjective factors: e.g., how you feel when you see the inquiry form
In particular, people seem to be more influenced by subjective factors, which means that even if something is obviously simple, it is greatly influenced by how the person perceives it.
I think this area comes from the sense of being able to do something and affordance, but it is necessary to take into consideration how the brain subjectively perceives and perceives the design.
Consistent, one-way learning experience
Unlike other services, Duolingo does not have a step to select a category to learn, other than language selection.
Humans want to be consistent in their actions and words, so once they have a declaration for something, they tend to try to achieve it!
Habit support services use this effect by letting users decide in advance when to do it, where to do it, and how much to do what.
Duolingo is more than a language learning app, it is a language learning habit application.
As I will mention later, the fact that the courses are displayed vertically on the top screen rather than on the category selection screen makes it worthwhile to provide a consistent, one-way learning experience.
Differences between competitors and Duolingo
Duolingo’s competitors include Memrise, Babble, Mosalingua, and Bussu.
There are two basic types of language learning apps.
- Those that are very user-friendly and easy to use, but fall a bit short of actually making a dramatic change in the user’s language skills, such as Bussu, Memrise, and Duolingo.
- Those, like Mosalingua, that assist in the language learning procedure at a “serious” level.
Most of the popular apps use a similar interface and task flow. Memrise and Duolingo in particular are very similar aesthetically.
One noticeable difference between Duolingo and other competing apps is the ability to choose what you want to learn, a feature that competing apps have, but Duolingo does not.
When creating a learning application, it is natural to think of implementing a function that allows users to choose what they want to learn, but in that case, the selection screen comes to the top screen, and the top screen becomes a mere hub for transitioning to each page. I think it is a waste and an anti-pattern to make the topscreen just a hub to get to the core of the service.
The core of the service should be brought directly to the TOP page.
Duolingo was originally designed to display many of the above options, but changes have been made.
As stated officially, users learn the same category continuously, so I think it is right to bring the learning page with the PATH displayed on the home page.
It may also seem that users want to select categories, when in fact, they may want the app to provide them with one-way lessons.
Duolingo already has a world like Mario’s stage selection screen from the Top page, so users can start learning right away. And while there is a language switch, there is no step to select a category to learn, so there is not one second to lead the user astray.
This is a good UX for a smartphone or PC-based learning application.
Another difference from competing apps is that competing apps do not have learning follow-up and progress lessons.
Iconography and Infographics — Duolingo Icons
The Duoligo icon is a close-up of a cartoon bird with bright green feathers. This app looks like a fun, even addictive, mobile game, doesn’t it? This pattern seems to work because of the cute and endearing pattern of the service characters. It makes you want to tap along.
Icons may seem trivial, but it is important to Duolingo’s business model that users use Duolingo as regularly and as often as possible.
This starts with icon design that is playful, fun, and clickable, rather than time-wasting apps like Facebook and Twitter.
It would be fun to develop characters that are designed to be icons.
Illustrations are also sophisticated.
Apps also play a role in creating fun and motivation.
Recently, UI design has been required to be entertaining as well as functional.
Duolingo’s illustrations are very sophisticated.
Smooth screen transitions
Duolingo maintains the app’s fun, video game guise.
Many apps usually have multiple screens for users to swipe through for tutorials and explanations, but Duolingo has a single screen opening. This is my personal favorite part.
What the Duolingo app does to encourage continuous use is smooth screen transitions. When you launch the app, the first thing you see is the words “Enjoy learning languages for free. You can tell at a glance what kind of app it is.
The design of the initial screen follows the flat design trend and incorporates Google’s Material Design.
Interaction-based, providing an immediate user experience
As those who actually use Dulingo will know, Duolingo features very few steps from DLing the app to getting started.
Duolingo allows you to choose your learning goals, but there are a few things worth noting.
- Reducing user effort by not creating an account at startup and preventing drop-outs during the registration process.
- Smooth language selection leads to a better UX.
- Set goals early to encourage people to focus on learning.
Then, on the next screen, you can choose your level of proficiency. If you choose “beginner,” the lesson will begin immediately.
It is a very smooth process to start a lesson with just a few clicks after opening the application for the first time.
There is no account creation or typing on the keyboard at all up to this point.
Duolingo makes sure that the core of the product is experienced by users as quickly as possible. In this way, we are making sure that users experience “language learning” as quickly as possible, and that they continue to use the product.
The “interaction type” is often discussed as the textbook for onboarding and activation.
By simply following the instructions, you will be able to understand the value of the service before you know it, and Duolingo is sophisticated in this respect.
Just answer the questions and move on, and before you know it, you are provided with the most suitable course for you.
However, I got the impression that this is very difficult to design — the development side has thought a lot about it — it’s amazing …….
Account Creation UX
After the first lesson, you will be offered to create an account, but you can skip it.
In fact, you can play without creating an account until the first level is complete.
The nice thing about Duolingo is that they do not force you to create an account until you have fully experienced the product.
Creating an account is also very smooth and is done in a matter of seconds, requiring only your age, name, email address, and password.
Many users will leave at the point of account creation, so I think it would be effective for a learning application to let users experience the value of the service first.
Message Design
If you don’t continue learning, “Haven’t you learned yet…?” and other messages with an aggravating tone will fly from the character.
It looks like a message received from a friend and is not offensive.
The variety of notifications and the fact that the BOT feeling is mitigated also feels like careful attention is being paid to it. Attachment to the service is heightened.
There are many situations in the application where the characters appear, and I even get the feeling that my relationship with the characters deepens as I progress through the application in succession.
In fact, there is no problem without it, but I think it would be interesting to have a “degree of affection” for the characters, so I would like you to give it a try.
Create a production that encourages user empathy.
Emotions have a habit of interacting with each other.
This habit can be used to prompt users themselves to the emotions you want them to feel as they interact with your service/product.
Chameleon Effect.
Refers to the human habit of imitating or empathizing with the emotions and behaviors of others, including animals and animation.
The messages and facial expressions from Duolingo’s characters effectively use the characters’ facial expressions to encourage users to continue using the site.
This is a performance that is made possible by the sophisticated infographics.
Duolingo’s Game Design — Gamification
One thing Duolingo does particularly well is to make learning a game-like experience.
Based on behavioral psychology, it is designed to make users more engaged.
In Duolingo, lessons proceed in the same way, teaching the grammar and vocabulary of the language being learned explicitly and implicitly.
Upon completion of the first lesson, the user is presented with a “Lesson Completed” screen. True to its gamification strategy, users earn “XP” points after each lesson, and a visual gauge of how far they have come in meeting their daily learning goal.
Users can see their learning progress and results quantified, and can feel that they are making progress in their understanding of the language. Whether or not the numbers displayed are correct, they will be excellent statistical data to give users. It works well as a design to keep users using Duolingo.
Then, after actually completing the lesson, the user is asked to create a profile.
I think Duolingo’s “play first, then create a profile” UX strategy is one of the smartest elements of Duolingo.
It is intuitive because users understand why they need to create a profile, and then they can move on to creating a profile.
Within minutes, users can experience completing a lesson, earning XP, and achieving a few percent learning achievement. This experience is so well designed that it would be rare for a user not to create a profile after this experience.
Shortening the time of a single chapter provides motivation.
Duolingo divides one curriculum into skills, which are then divided into levels, which are then further divided into smaller chapters. By doing so, each chapter is only a few minutes long.
I had tried other learning quiz services before that had about 15 questions per chapter, but they were very tedious and I wanted to quit halfway through.
Compared to this, I felt that the number of quizzes offered by Duolingo was appropriately adjusted.
Although there is an element of gamification, the quizzes are divided into smaller chapters, so that instead of suddenly trying to complete 100 word quizzes, the user first has to solve 5 questions, which makes the user feel “oh, I can do that, and it won’t take too long”.
Also, in order to unlock the next chapter, the user must reach level 1 in that chapter. Because users focus on each and every chapter, even if the entire curriculum is long, it does not bother them.
In addition, each chapter employs a progress bar. This allows the user to visually see how much time is left to complete the chapter.
Stay motivated with “loss aversion
When you complete a lesson on Duolingo, you will receive Gems or Ringots. Ringots are like money that you can spend in the app.
Once you complete your first goal, you will be offered a “Double or Nothing” 7-day challenge. This means that if you learn every day for 7 days, you get 100 ringots, and if you make a mistake for even one day, you lose 50 ringots.
This design plays on loss aversion (the psychological bias that people are more saddened by losing something than they are happy by gaining something) to encourage users to use it every day.
Visualization of Learning History
Overlapping with the aforementioned “loss aversion,” this design is also applied to the learning history.
While the emotion of “what a waste” can sometimes lead to poor decisions, it also works effectively as a motivator to keep things going.
Visualizing the user’s action history as badges or login bonuses can encourage continued use.
Law of Reference: Concorde Effect
The psychological tendency to choose to continue, out of a desire not to waste previous efforts.
Rewards Keep Users Engaged
This is also based on behavioral psychology and is designed to keep users in the app by using different types of rewards.
For example, when you finish a chapter, you can open one of three boxes to get Ringots. The number of Ringots is different each time, and watching an advertising video can double that amount.
People feel pleasure in “getting things done. People feel satisfied with the experience of accomplishing something, no matter how small.
A familiar example of this is the effect of changing the size of your plate, which makes you feel satisfied that you have finished eating and allows you to continue your diet without strain.
In the case of Duolingo, after achieving daily goals, you are immediately rewarded with items that can be used within the app. This also encourages a sense of accomplishment.
Endowment Progress Effect
An effect in which people strive to become more motivated toward a goal when they feel a sense of progress or advancement toward the goal.
Wide range of free lesson
Duolingo has both free and paid versions. As for what’s in it, there are no more ads, and you can keep answering forever, even if you make a mistake.
In short, you can have a lot of fun with free without having to pay, since that’s all there is to it, on the contrary.
There are many services in the world that display “Paid members’ contents are available from here,” just when you are getting motivated, and users have no choice but to pay. Frankly, I don’t like it. ……
Design is something that is close to the user and is communication. The design of the billing section also shows how Duolingo is conscious of user-conscious design, as it is not designed to force users to do anything, but to be in line with the psychology of behavior.
Incidentally, Duolingo did not initially intend to offer either advertising or subscriptions.
The Design of Compliments
You don’t have to be a child to enjoy receiving praise for every little thing you do. It is more pragmatic to motivate adults who can pay bills at their own discretion if they so desire.
By introducing a character with a specific trait, the service is personified, making the act of being praised or cheered on feel more real.
In Duolingo, the characters praise you when you learn or answer correctly. By having the user correctly recognize what is being praised, rather than just praising, the action can be more reproducible.
This kind of “praise design” also contributes to user motivation.
Smartly Suggests Means of Recovery When Running Out of Life
In Duolingo, one exercise drains one life, but when the life runs out, it will suggest a means of recovery.
It is similar to the appeal to buy necessities such as the heart bowl in The Legend of Zelda, the Maximum Tomato in Smash Bros. and the potion in FF.
Record every day & visualize the achievement of today’s goals
Users want to know how much they have learned and how much they have grown.
Having the amount of learning clearly visible on the top menu bar tab is a great motivator. It is similar to a weight-loss record in a diet, but if you don’t experience success, you won’t be able to continue.
By expressing the period of time you have been able to continue in numbers, you will realize the cost you have spent on the service, and this will fuel your motivation to continue.
Making people want to share
Creating a presentation that makes people want to screenshot and share also enhances the user experience, which in itself leads to word of mouth about the service.
We feel that the centralization of the process from learning to sharing on social networking sites is also an excellent design.
The design satisfies the need for approval, which makes users want to share their accomplishments on social networking sites and brag to others about what they are learning, and when they have finished learning, the you will see a screen that says something like, “Good job!” and you will want to scoff.
Duality of Purpose
Here is a campaign developed by FIAT called Taxi WiFi to increase seatbelt use.
It is a simple system that allows WiFi to be used when the seatbelt is fastened in the cab.
The cab side wants to safely transport customers by making them fasten their seatbelts. For the customer, being forced to fasten the seatbelt is stressful. On the other hand, customers want to use WiFi in the cab.
This campaign achieves both goals by using the seatbelt as a kickoff.
The “duality of purpose” is used here. What is important is the order of thinking.
How do we get people to wear seat belts?” Not “What do passengers want to do in the taxi?
“What do passengers want to do in the cab?” What do passengers want to do in the taxi?
Another similar and different example was designed by First Aid Co, an organization that maps every AED in the world.
At that time, more than 200,000 Americans had a cardiac arrest or were brain dead within five minutes each year.
It is a painstaking task to list the locations of AEDs located throughout the U.S. on a map app.
That’s why we implemented gamification to involve the general public.
The public is given a mission to take a photo of a special “secret object” using their smartphone, tag the photo with their current GPS location, and upload it to a database.
This secret object is an AED.
Tom, one of the users, found the AED in an elevator hall at Poland State University. He is a PhD student there and was unaware of the AED’s existence until then.
Although there is no reward for uploading the location of the AED to the map app, if the AED is used, the user who uploaded the location of the AED will receive a message that says something like, “Thanks to you, one life was saved.
This design is an example of an Alternative Reality Game that successfully incorporates people’s desire to contribute to society.
Subscription-type business models are very popular, but it is important to consider a billing system that is user-friendly, rather than simply introducing it from a business perspective.
SUMMARY
One of the most common failures is to expand the services offered.
Especially when stakeholders on the business side have little understanding of the product, we often see the mistake of trying to add features to anything and everything, resulting in a complicated service that is difficult to use.
The problem is that they become convinced that their idea will be successful. In particular, they think their idea is valuable, but end up adding features that only a few people will use.
In fact, according to a study published by the Standish Group in its historic Chaos Report, 64~75% of features are rarely or never used.
In comparison, Duolingo’s UX is consistent and perfectly in line with their educational strategy of gamification, with only the Store feature feeling a bit of an afterthought: ……
From the logo to the actual course screen, Duolingo is full of fun and playful design. The product should be made aware at the time of the app’s logo design. The “all business” aspects, such as profile creation, should be kept to a minimum and not emphasized to the extreme.
On the other hand, some may think that the design elements are so simple that they are tasteless and unimaginative.
Overall, however, I think Duolingo’s UX is an example of a consistently well-executed design strategy that is intuitive, user-friendly for everyone.
