Project overview
VOBU is a mobile application focused on learning new vocabulary. It allows users to learn in quick 5-10 minute study sessions anytime anywhere. The goal of the project is to understand how people learn vocabulary and find out what learning methods are beneficial in memorising.
Approach
User-centered design and design thinking
My role
1. Conducting competitive analysis, user interview.
2. Define the product strategy.
3. Create user persona, analyse task flow and create information architecture.
4. Create low to mid-fidelity interactive prototypes for user testing.
5. Conduct usability testing (planning, write test script and conduct testing)
6. Report analysis
Design Question
How might we design a mobile app that empowers people to learn new vocabulary for their pace of life? To stand out among competing apps, what values our app should provide that no other apps do?
Who are we designing for?
18-35-year-old individuals who want to learn a new language and memorise more vocabularies in their free time. They should be comfortable with using mobile applications.
Research
To find out the answers to the design questions, I chose to conduct competitors research and user interviews.
Competitor Analysis
I started with testing 3 vocabulary apps with strong active user-base: Drop, Memrise and Quizlet. My focus was on finding what they have in common and what are the pros and cons, to learn from the best and find out their shortcomings to turn them into the unique values that VOBO provides.
Conclusion - how can we design better?
1. Fast, simple and intuitive style.
2. Features guidance.
3. Customizable language level.
4. Habit memory and visual memory
5. Diverse learning methods.
6. Interaction with local speakers.
User research and interview
To understand how people memorise vocabulary in their daily life and find out whether the design hypothesises is right, I conducted 3 user interview.
Key takeaways from the interviews:
1. Learners are motivated if they learn the vocabularies for daily or professional usage.
2. Learning by repetition and writing down words helps with memorizing.
3. Dedication is crucial.
4. Watch books and movies in the original language, interaction with native speakers and putting words into a certain context help vocabulary learning and pronunciation.
View the user interview report »
Ideation
Because of the scale of the project and based on the research results, I created a user persona with two scenarios.
User flow and information architecture
According to the hypothesis statement, I focused on two user tasks:
Task 1: Add vocabulary to learning list.
Task 2: Take a quiz of an existed list.
WIREFRAMING & PROTOTYPING
After the user flow and the information architecture, I sketched my ideas and put them into wireframes.
USABILITY TESTING
The usability testing aims to assess the learnability and errors of the application. The purpose to observe the participants is to measure how successful can people complete the task flows with the key features. For measurement I used Jakob Nielsen's error severity rating scale.
Pain points and issues:
1. “Home” is packed with too much information.
2. Font size is too small.
3. Onboarding isn't detailed enough.
4. Too many steps to finish a task (e.g. take a quiz).
5. Lack of feedback (e.g. feedback to tell the user the word is saved).
IMPROVEMENT
Updated Wireframe
Onboarding
Add a new word
Save a vocabulary list
Take a quiz
TAKEAWAY
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” - Mark Twain
This project is my first personal project focused on user experience design. What I learned from the project:
1. User interview helps me to empathize with the users. Remember to be cautious about forming the questions.
2. Scale the tasks properly for information architecture.
3. Information architecture gives me a clear idea of the user flow.
4. Don't be addicted to perfectionism in wireframing. Focus on testing the ideas.
5. Watch and listen to people in usability test, don't tell them what to do. Take notes.
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