Voco

Talk to the world

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Through this course project, the primary objective was to gain an understanding of the fundamental principles that lay the groundwork for the intriguing world of UX design. The project aimed to cover a range of critical aspects such as essential terminologies, tools, and innovative techniques that are intrinsic to the field of UX design. To achieve this goal, extensive research was conducted, and a vocabulary-learning app was designed, which proved to be a fascinating and valuable experience in learning about the design process.

Project scope

Mobile App

My Role

UX/UI Designer

Tools

Figma, Balsamiq, Marvel, Google Form.

Duration

April 25, 2022 - June 6, 2022

Challenges

Developing a vocabulary learning app poses challenges such as defining the target audience, creating an engaging and intuitive design, generating comprehensive content, personalizing learning paths, and ensuring technical feasibility.

The result

Voco is an engaging vocabulary learning tool where a user can actively learn a language.

THE PROCESS

01

EMPATHIZE

Competitive Analysis

User Interviews

02

DEFINE

User Persona

User Flow

03

IDEATE

Wireframes

Prototype

04

TESTING AND REFINE

Usability Testing

Refine

competitive analysis

1/3

USER INTERVIEWS

I was able to build a foundation to further my understanding of my target users based on the information obtained from the market's existing vocabulary-learning apps. I performed three user interviews, each with six questions and a duration of 15 to 20 minutes per participant, to gather firsthand knowledge of their experiences and how they learn new words and phrases.

INTERVIEW RESEARCH GOALS

Recognize the participants' current learning strategies.
Recognize the features users utilize to pick up new words.
Recognize the factors that encourage users to continue learning new words.
What similar apps are people using, and what do they like and hate about them?

IN SUMMARY

Flexibility

Short lessons so that they can stay consistent and practice daily anywhere, anytime.

Retention

Repeatedly learn the challenging terms for easy memory.

Communication

Audiovisuals with human voice to understand and remember words easily so that they can better communicate with native speakers

Engagement

well-designed user interface to stay motivated to use it regularly and don’t get bored.

After conducting a competitive analysis and user interviews, several key insights were uncovered. Firstly, users prefer short lessons that allow them to maintain consistency and practice daily, regardless of their location or schedule. Additionally, users desire to repeatedly learn challenging terms in order to enhance their memorization capabilities. To aid in this process, users seek audiovisual aids that feature a human voice, as this helps them better understand and retain new vocabulary, thereby improving their ability to communicate with native speakers. Lastly, users prioritize a well-designed user interface that motivates them to use the platform regularly and prevents boredom.

USER PERSONA

After gathering information from the interviews, I utilized the data to develop a user persona. This approach helped me narrow down the specific type of individual I was designing for, allowing me to create more relatable design decisions. A user persona is a hypothetical but realistic representation of the target user.

Let’s meet Louis. Louis is a student who has recently moved from China to Germany for his higher studies. Besides his studies, he is also doing a part-time job. Overall, He lives a very busy life with a hectic schedule.

Hypothesis Statement

We believe that by building a simple yet enjoyable playful app for Louis with bite-sized lessons that are organized thematically and also contain real-life audiovisuals of native speakers, we will help him to achieve confident communication, better socializing, and performance gain in his job.

USER FLOW

In order to better understand and empathize with my user persona, Louis, I have developed two user flows that detail the decisions and tasks that the user might undertake to complete their desired goal. Specifically, one of these user flows outlines the process of registering and practicing the first deck from the pre-made flashcard decks. The steps involved in this user flow are outlined below:

REGISTER AND LEARN WORDS FROM THE DECK

WIREFRAMES & PROTOTYPE

Sign up

Study Plan

Homepage

Add new vocabulary

Quiz

USABILITY TESTING

Usability Test Plan

A Usability Test Plan was created to test a low-fidelity prototype design for a mobile application.

Usability Test Script

A usability test script was developed to brief participants before conducting the usability tests. The script presented participants with four scenarios and tasks to test and explained the study's objectives

Test

Three 10-15 minute usability tests were conducted to assess the learnability of the main functions of the mobile application. Results from the tests were analyzed to identify usability issues and inform design decisions.

USABILITY SCRIPT & TESTS

Firstly, I devised a plan outlining my goals and the metrics I would use to evaluate success. Subsequently, I drafted a usability test script to inform participants before administering the tests.

Next, I executed three usability tests, each lasting approximately 10-15 minutes, in which I presented four distinct scenarios and tasks for users to evaluate.

Scenario 1: You are traveling to a new country, and you want to learn the language of that country. Open up the app, go through the onboarding process, and create an account.

Task 1: Open the app and create a new account.

Scenario 2: You have learned a new word, and want to practice it later. Add the new word to your flashcard set.

Task 2: Add a new card to your flashcard set.

Scenario 3: You've practiced some flashcards before and made some mistakes. Now you want to practice them again. Open the list of words that needs to be overviewed and take a quiz.

Task 3:Practice with the native speakers.

Scenario 4: You want to practice your language skill with native speakers. Navigate to the community and practice with the native speakers by describing images.

Task 4:Practice a pre-made card set.

USABILITY TEST REPORT

REVISIONS

Before

Skippable ‘Record audio’ and ‘Add image/video’ pages

After

Before

After

Added two new fields for synonym & antonym.Only two fields are mandatory and represented it with asterisk.

Customizable flashcard set and name the theme on his/her own or can choose from the existing one.

Before

Made the list of difficult words easily findable

After

Word practicing games are added.

NEXT STEPS

Create a chat feature to chat with friends.

Add some motivational quotes after every success of the user.

Reduce the adding vocabulary steps and make it more concise and compact.

Design a user interface to represent the existing UX structure with more incredible intuitiveness and better usability.

Do more usability testing, and after reviews, improve the high-fidelity prototype to a production-ready version.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In conclusion, my first UX Design project was a valuable experience that taught me the power of design thinking and the importance of data-driven decision-making in UX design. Despite the challenges I faced, I found the process enjoyable and ultimately gained a deeper understanding of the UX design process, which I can apply to future projects.