Design Process
Taking the user at the heart of the design process, I followed these four main steps in designing the app.
Problem
To be able to integrate well in Metro Manila where locals predominantly speak Tagalog as their mother tongue, ex-pats and long-term foreigners need a language app that can help them build confidence when talking to their Filipino colleagues or locals in everyday situations.
Hypothesis
By creating a language app with features that enable users to record and compare accent and pronunciation with a native speaker, and recreate everyday dialogues, users can easily integrate into society without fear of being self-conscious when speaking Tagalog.
Competitor Analysis
To further understand my users and the language app market, I evaluated three existing language apps – Duolingo, Drops, and Memrise. The pros and cons method is based on the app’s usability features, components, and interface. This helped me detect potential problem areas and opportunities when I started designing my app.
Key Findings
Dividing language learning into different components can help users learn faster.
Examples are vocabulary, writing, pronunciation, and dialogue. Users can focus more on each component and this can lessen cognitive overload.
Gamification can build interest to users. It is also can build motivation through fun and play.
Reminders and Notification can help build habits. With users multi-tasking and using their mobile phone almost for everything, a nudge or a reminder can help users focus on integrating language learning into their schedule, building patterns over time.
User Interview
There are 5 people whom I interviewed. All of them have experienced living in a foreign country as for more than 12 months. Another common thing about these 5 participants is that they don’t speak the mother language in the country where they lived.
