Study Duos - Real Conversations, Real People.
Combining Duolingo’s superb language acquisition technology and the number one method for learning a new language – immersive conversations with real people.
Introduction
The problem.
Language learning apps are incredibly popular. Duolingo in particular is a massively successful business, with the company gaining a 55% yearly increase in revenue over the last two years. While Duolingo already has several features aimed at keeping users engaged, maintaining active learners can be a struggle, even for an industry leader.
The most effective method of learning a language is through immersion; having conversations with native speakers, and adjusting to what a real person who speaks that language might sound like. For all of Duolingo’s incredible education tactics, most lessons involve listening to robotic voices with careful inflections, rather than a realistic example of how a person might sound. And while Duolingo does have social features in the form of leaderboards and Friends Quests, there is no existing way to truly converse with your peers, much less maintain a rapport. If a feature designed to maintain active bonds between users were to be added, it could go a long way towards boosting user outcomes, as well as Duolingo’s long-term user retention.
The goal.
The goal of this project was to explore ways to maintain long-term user engagement through an inviting and accessible social feature. Duolingo’s existing products excel at drawing users in and promising a casual, fun atmosphere in which to learn – a successful addition to their product space would be one that could expand on these strengths, and shift focus from obtaining user interest to retaining active users. My deliverables for this project included:
Duolingo audit
Competitive analysis
Feature scorecard
Persona
User journeys
Brand analysis
Component library
Mockups of various fidelities
Exploration and Research
Duolingo audit.
The first step in this project was to make sure I thoroughly understood Duolingo’s primary successes and weak points.
Duolingo had 37 million monthly active users in 2021, a slight decrease on the 42 million users it had in 2020.
Duolingo’s daily active users increased by 3% in 2021, from 8.8 million to 9.1 million.
Duolingo reached 500 million total downloads in 2020, and received an additional 75 million downloads in 2021.
While Duolingo has explored several social features, including competitive leaderboards and Duolingo Classes (a paid service where users can be tutored via video call by vetted instructors), there was a lack of interpersonal learning in the curriculum itself. A common critique of Duolingo as a language-learning platform is an unnatural, classroom-like atmosphere, which can be detrimental to achieving fluency.
Competitive analysis.
I studied two language-learning applications – Babbel and Memrise. These apps, along with Duolingo, are the market leaders for this product space. I began to assess what made them so successful, and found that Memrise in particular had a unique value proposition: users were able to listen to native speakers say popular phrases on prerecorded video, which helped greatly in acquisition of everyday speech patterns, and added a feeling of interactivity.
Although not language-learning apps, social media applications TikTok and Reddit were also investigated. After assessing the success of these products, I was particularly intrigued by TikTok LIVE, a live video feature that has been incredibly successful in promoting engagement. According to Ipsos, 62% of all TikTok users who watch TikTok LIVEs do so every day. With features like Instagram Live and Twitter Spaces also coming to the forefront, real-time connections with other users (especially using video) are more essential than ever.
A competitive analysis of competitors in the language-learning space, as well as social media platforms that have successfully fostered a sense of community among their members.
Feature scorecard. From early on, I centered the potential features around forming a sustained relationship with another Duolingo user.
Persona.
The persona I created for this feature is named Lucy – a twenty-six year old woman who is trying to learn Spanish in order to better connect with her bilingual friends. She’s a very enthusiastic learner, but has struggled with language-learning apps in the past due to their isolating and textbook nature. She wishes there was a more social way to learn, and would particularly love to have a study partner who she could really talk to.
Designing the Solution
Product features.
Study Duos is a feature designed to bring immersive learning into Duolingo’s existing framework. Users will be able to form long-lasting bonds with study partners, as they learn each others’ native languages. (For example, a native Spanish speaker attempting to learn English will be paired with a native English speaker trying to learn Spanish.)
To enroll in Study Duos, an existing Duolingo user will apply by taking a short and casual quiz which will measure their learning style and engagement preferences. Over the next 48 hours, the user will be matched with their partner, and will officially be a part of a Study Duo. Once paired, partners will be able to see each others’ progress in the form of lessons completed and words learned.
The main feature of Study Duos is a video call, which can be scheduled at any time based on the preferences and time zones of each partner. On the video call, users will have the option to converse organically, or review common mistakes made in either users’ weekly lessons.
Ideation.
Brand identity.
The Duolingo brand is incredibly well-established, even if its UI components aren’t publicly available. Using the external brand guidelines, I was able to recreate many of the necessary components to build this feature. For components that needed to be designed from scratch, like the in-app video call interface or the weekly statistics menu, I used existing precedents to design solutions that were unique, but still very much in-line with the recognizable Duolingo brand.
Task flows.
I paid special attention when designing the meeting scheduling flow. I felt it important that the user be able to easily schedule, reschedule, or cancel video calls, and minimize stress while doing so. By using the meeting set-up page at the top of the Study Duos homescreen, users can intuitively adjust their meeting preferences, including what times they’re available, and whether or not the user’s device will accept calls when not active within the app. This level of user-friendly customization is crucial when building a product like video call scheduling, as many users can feel stressed and overwhelmed by the prospect of a video call. Keeping the feature as casual and fun as possible helps Study Duos integrate seamlessly into the existing Duolingo product experience.
User feedback.
Almost all of the user feedback I received of the Study Duos prototype involved UI or component changes. Users found the overall organization of information to be clear and user-friendly, but certain changes were requested in order to make tasks and features a little clearer.
Many of these concerns involved the video call screen. Users noted that in the version presented to them, there were some issues: there was no indication of how long the call had been going on, some buttons (particularly the chat button) were unclear in their function, and there was no clear way to navigate back to the main screen without hanging up the call. All of these concerns were addressed in my final interface. A call timer and backwards navigation were added, the chat button was recolored and moved in order to be simultaneously more visible and less obstructive, and the conversation starter card was replaced with a more relevant lesson review.
Another piece of feedback regarded the user statistics comparison card. Users remarked that this interface, while somewhat helpful, was a little too surface level, and not incredibly relevant to what the partners might speak about amongst each other. In response, I decided that this card would be better suited to the app homepage, and more detailed information about partner progress should be shown in its place.
Final Product
The Study Duos tab within the Duolingo app is shown in the mockup above. A brief summary of your partner’s profile is listed at the top of the screen, focusing on the information most pertinent to the user (partner name, time zone, how many calls have been completed, scheduling features, etc.) Calls can also be made directly from this screen without prior scheduling if both partners are online at the same time!
Below, your partner’s weekly statistics are listed. These include lessons completed, with reviews available, and words mastered. Giving these insights to the user helps facilitate conversations while on calls. The user will be able to steer the conversation towards words and topics their partner is familiar with, or keep things more challenging by using phrases that haven’t been covered yet.
On the video call screen, I added commonplace features like speaker, mute, and camera toggle buttons. A chat button was also added, so users can type instead of speak if needed. This will be especially helpful for users who are more confident typing as opposed to speaking, have difficulty understanding their partner's accent, or simply have poor internet connection. A lesson review button is also present. This will pull up relevant statistics from lessons completed by the user or their partner. Users can minimize the video call screen without ending the call, so they can explore the app, or even complete new lessons in real time!
Integration.
Study Duos is a feature that would nest easily into the existing product framework Duolingo possesses. Some integrations that could be explored include:
Duolingo Classes
Vetted mentors could be booked by Study Duos to help facilitate sessions, or create new lesson plans for the users.
Super Duolingo
If one user has a Super Duolingo subscription, the other member in the Study Duo automatically gains those perks.
Duolingo Stories
Custom stories could be designed, available only to Study Duos.
Users could edit existing stories, or create their own.
Lessons learned.
It's important to design with intention. In my personal experience as a designer, I've often found myself leaning more towards style over substance. I have a passion for branding, so working with an established style guide like I did in this project was a treat, especially since I hold such high regard for Duolingo's visual identity. That meant I sometimes found myself designing assets just for the fun of it, or because I thought they would look nice. It's important to not make design decisions based on vanity; keep your product goals in mind!
Consider which elements are most important. Even when you've narrowed down which features you're going to implement in your final design, the hierarchy of those features still needs to be considered. In an app you generally have the luxury of having an infinite scroll, but even then, a designer should think carefully about what the user needs to have up front and center. This project in particular was difficult in that regard. I knew that the scheduling/calling feature should be at the very top of the page, but designating which information within that interface should go where tripped me up for a long time.
Don't get bogged down, and keep sight of your goal. There were a million features I thought about adding, and some of them made it fairly far in my design process before being sidelined. Keeping your mind open and exploring new possibilities in your designs is always important, but if you lean too far into every new and exciting idea you come up with, you can find yourself drifting away from the original brief. Striking a balance is essential!