Fluent: Expand Your Vocabulary
My first project, which I completed during my Introduction to UX at Career Foundry, is Fluent, a vocabulary app that aims to help international students and foreigners moving to English-speaking countries build their vocabulary one word at a time.
Project Overview:
Project Objective: “Empower people to learn new vocabulary.”
Process: Competitor Research, User Research, Personas, User Flows & Task Analysis, Wireframing & Prototyping, Usability Testing, Iteration
Method: Primary Data, Qualitative, Structured Interviews
Approach: Mobile First Design
Software Used: N/A (Hand Sketches)
Competitor Research & User Research
Competitor Research
Through research, I identified three vocabulary building apps which I analysed extensively in order to understand how they work and how user friendly they are.
Method
For this part of the study I used secondary data available through the AppStore (user reviews) to understand how the identified apps meet the user requirements. I also downloaded and used all three apps to further understand their interface.
Findings
1. Majority of the apps had a simple design
2. Fun and interactive but overwhelming at times.
3. Personalisation features.
4. Too many notifications while not on the app.
5. Not up to date.
6. Easy and intuitive navigation.
7. Use of too many bold colours.
8. Great onboarding that helps users understand the app better.
9. Too many notification screens/call to action in app.
10. Some of the apps did not deliver on their promise to make learning fun and interactive.
11. Icons used in one of the apps were not clear/no labels.
12. Majority of the apps has additional features like widgets and customised notifications.
User Research
A call for participants was shared through my social media channels where I aimed to recruit five participants to interview. This call was directed to students studying abroad or people living abroad at an English-speaking country that wanted to improve their vocabulary.
Method
The method used for this part of the research was structured interviews, where the five participants where asked seven questions relating to their past experiences using vocabulary building apps. The interviews allowed me to identify things the participants like Doing, how they are Feeling, and what the are Thinking in relation to learning new vocabulary.
Findings
Doing:
Learn visually.
Are busy individuals.
Spend time daily on their phone.
Want to have ownership of their learning.
Feeling:
Scared & struggle to express themselves freely.
Feel frustrated as sometimes vocabulary apps can be repetitive.
Thinking:
Will be better at expressing themselves & their ideas.
Want convenience.
Think that reading & research are powerful tools.
Can learn the most through music movies & social interactions.
Believe learning should be fun and interactive.
Meet Stefan Weber
User Persona
Age: 22
Occupation: Student / Works in Hospitality
Education: BA Media & Communication
Location: London, UK
Place of Birth: Frankfurt, Germany
Family Status: Single, No Children
Disability: Dyslexia
“I have a busy schedule due to working alongside my studies and I find that usually studying takes up a lot of my free time due to being dyslexic. I always come across new words that I find difficult to remember. Being able to minimise the time I take on researching new vocabulary will give me more free time to go to the movies and do sports.”
- Stefan
Behaviours:
Gymgoer.
Enjoys home cooked meals.
Likes to socialise & go out.
Likes to go to the cinema.
Likes reading but finds it hard to concentrate.
Prefers learning through visual media.
Enjoys outdoors activities & sports.
Has a busy lifestyle due to work alongside studying.
Studying takes up most of his free time.
Needs & Goals:
Being able to express himself better in English.
Improve his grades.
Due to dyslexia he sometimes struggles to learn new vocabulary and a more practise base & creative approach would be more effective.
Spend less time on assignments/homework and have more free time.
Not feel discriminated due to his learning abilities and be able to express himself effectively.
User Stories:
As a student with a learning difficulty, I want an app that will help me learn new words to use both in social and professional settings in as little as 10 minutes per day.
As a foreigner, I find it hard sometimes to understand words in English, so having an app that can translate for me is important.
As a visual learner, being able to complete fun activities or engage with visual content while learning would be ideal.
Problem Statement:
Stefan needs to find a way to learn new vocabulary to minimise studying time while improving his grades, as he wants to have more free time to do things he loves. We will know this is true when we see Stefan being able to express himself even better in English, and see his grades improve whilst having a balanced work/school and social life.
Hypothesis Statement:
We believe that by creating a fun and interactive app that allows Stefan to learn through practise or by using visual and audio content to complete lessons no longer than 5 minutes a day, will minimise his study time allowing him to achieve a better work/school and life balance. A translation function will enable him to easily translate words to German so he can better understand them and learn to use them in the right context when needed both in social and professional settings.
User Flows & Wireframes
User Flow: Onboarding
Low-Fi Onboarding Wireframes
User Flow: Word of the Day
Low-Fi Word of the Day Wireframes
Usability Testing & Results
Usability Test Report
Revised Prototypes
Notification Settings:
Test Results:
Home Screen:
Chat:
Reflections:
This was my first ever experience of the UX Design process and I really enjoyed it. Coming from an academic background, I really felt confident during the research and testing phases of the process as I could apply skills I was familiar with. In addition, coming from an art and design background the processed allowed me to use all sorts of different skills at different stages of the process. Revising the prototypes after the usability tests felt very rewarding.
Things I learned:
Be open to feedback as it is very valuable at every stage of the project.
Pay greater attention to detail when it comes to wireframing & prototyping (back & exist options, etc.).
Be ready to see things from a different perspective.
Understanding competitors is important to minimise “errors”.