Chatterbirds

A Native Flashcard App

Year
2022

Duration
2 weeks

Context
Study Project as part of my UX Design Course

My role
UX Designer, Student

How might an app support people to learn more efficiently on the go?

  • Longlife learning is getting the new normal. People of all ages and backgrounds take courses to challenge themselves, further their career, or purely for the enjoyment of learning. Transit or waiting hours are potential timeframes to learn small units of vocabulary. This App is all about Learning on the go. Students need a way to methodically categorize, reference, and study new vocabulary and concepts so they can move forward confidently in their field.

  • How might an application support people to learn more efficiently on the go?

  • We believe that by [creating a user-centered learning experience] for [our future users],
    we will achieve [that we increase the customer retention up to 80%].

Approach

Understand

Competitive Research

  • What is on the market? Taking a close look to the benchmark.

  • Discover solutions to similar problems.

  • Learning from the strenghts and weaknesses of existing products.

  • Examine the user experiences, and find opportunities for improvements.

1-1_competitive-analysis_220216.jpg
Competitive Research
1-1_competitive-analysis_2202163.jpg

Take Aways & Learnings from the competitors

  • Clear & Simple Navigation

  • Clear Wording

  • Global Search

  • Creating Cards Manually

  • Grouping Cards for Easy Organisation

Must - Haves

  • Set-up of Learning Goals

  • Statistics: Visualizing the Learning Efforts

  • Onboarding Screens

  • Progressive Onboarding for Teaching Novice Users

  • Community Feature: Joining Classes analog Real Life

  • Import Feature for preexisting Cards

  • Linked Archive

Nice - to - Haves

User Research

  • Competitive research is no guarantee that the insights will provide the maximum value to users. Existing products might not consider all user needs. This is why it´s crucial to conduct in-depth interviews.

  • Getting a better understanding of the user´s needs, goals, emotions, behaviors, fears, and limitations.

  • Moderated Remote Interviews. By asking direct questions to potential users, who are engaged with learning new vocabulary, it will be possible to gather real-life and relevant qualitative information.

User-Interviews_Chatterbirds.jpg
User-Interviews_Chatterbirds2.jpg
User-Interviews_Chatterbirds3.jpg

  • "Repetition is very important, when I try to remember newly learned skills."

    DOING

  • "I use different methods to memorize the concepts, either by taking notes, listening or reading."

    DOING

  • „Reminders and goals helped me to remember newly learned skills.“

    THINKING

  • „Having a good plan and being mindful of important dates, supports me to achieve the best learning results.“

    THINKING

  • "It can get tedious to be constantly flipping, if you‘re learning from the beginning."

    FEELING

  • "I feel more motivated to stay on track learning new skills, when I feel like I am getting closer to my goal."

    FEELING

Building an Empathy Map by categorizing it into Thinking - Doing - Feeling will help to recognize shared patterns and to derive the most valuable insights out of the gained research data.

  • Having a curated study plan is essential for success.

  • Repeating regularly is essential for success.

  • Using different learning methods supports the learning process.

  • Users don´t want to type all flashcards manually, as it is very time-consuming.

Key Insights

Point of View

For Whom Shall We Design?

The Proto Persona will summarize the Key Findings from the research phase. She will reflect main goals, needs, and pain points. It´s a solid point of view, which will act like a North Star for further product development.

Concept Phase

User Stories

User stories outline what the persona wants to accomplish. User Stories are about translating human needs into functional requests for features.

  • Memorize

    As [Luisa], I want [to get a reminder], so that [I achieve my learning objectives on time]

  • As [Luisa], I want [to use various learning methods], so that [I can memorize new vocabulary easier and better]

  • As [Luisa], I want [to have a curated study plan], so that [I can feel at ease to achieve my learning objectives]

  • As [Luisa], I want [to import existing card decks], so that [I save time on preparing the learning set-up]

  • As [Luisa], I want [to learn vocabulary on the go], so that [I use my time efficiently]

Problem 01

Limited Time

  • [Luisa] needs a way to [save time preparing her flashcards],
    because [she wants to spent more time on learning in her free time].


    We will know this to be true when we see [that Luisa spends more time with learning.]

  • [Luisa] doesn´t have so much time to study new languages. She wants to reduce the time she spents on preparing flashcards.

  • [Chatterbirds] offers Luisa to import ready made flashcard decks from her peers and external sources.

Problem 02

Achieving Learning Goals

  • As [Luisa] needs a way to [achieve her learning objectives on time], because she wants to be sure to pass her exams.

    We will know this to be true when we see [that Luisa regularly uses the app each day.]

  • [Luisa] can’t overlook the total scope of learning. To estimate and plan the study time is impossible.

  • [Chatterbirds] offers Luisa a study plan on a daily base, which splits the total scope into smaller parts, which are doable on a daily basis and will help to achieve the learning goals on time.

Information Architecture

„Information architecture (IA) focuses on organizing, structuring, and labeling content effectively and sustainably. The goal is to help users find information and complete tasks. To do this, you need to understand how the pieces fit together to create the larger picture, how items relate to each other within the system.“
usability.gov

This is the reason why I was outlining two journeys through the app from the proto personas’ point of view. Breaking down the journeys into single action steps, helped me understand what kind of decisions the user has to take on his way to accomplish his task.

  • Import an existing card deck from your school


    Entry Point     Dashboard
    Success Criteria Confirmation File Import was successful

  • Start your daily learning session


    Entry Point     Notification
    Success Criteria Congratulation Screen

Iteration Phase of Creation - Testing - Refinement

Wireframing & Prototyping

Initial research and ideas come to life in the form of tangible wireframes and interactive prototypes.

Due to limited time, I started to sketch some wireframes with paper and pen. A visual brainstorming method to check quickly various ideas. Which are good enough to get tested with some fellow students.

  • Sign-Up
    1. Splash Screen

  • Sign-Up
    2. Intro Screen

  • Sign-Up
    3. Sign-Up Input Fields

  • Upload Data
    1. Bottom Sheet

  • Upload Data
    2. Input Fields for Specification

  • Review
    1. Dashboard

  • Review
    2. Study Plan Overview

  • Review
    3. Set-Up Study Mode

Usability Testing

Usability Tests are a perfect method to observe how people are interacting with the product. Check if the product is easy to use, intuitive, and also effective. With this method, I will be able to discover 80% of the most severe errors.

To get valuable and comparable feedback, the participants need to be guided by predefined tasks, they have to accomplish during the testing session:

  1. Creating an Account and Sign-Up
    Scenario: A friend recommended the app Chatterbird to learn easily new terms in different languages. Create a new account to try out the app yourself.

  2. Access and Set-Up a Study Session
    Scenario: You need to learn new terms for your new UX Design course. Check out how it works and

    which settings you may choose.

  3. Creating a Card Deck
    Scenario: Your school offers card decks, which students are ready for import to the chatterbird app.

The testing sessions uncovered some product flaws and weak points. With the participant’s feedback, I was able to refine and improve the wireframes.

  • Issue 1

    Mid Severity

    Problem Participants were irritated by the labels “Front” and “Back”, they just did not know what it meant, and what would happen, if they clicked the icon button.

    Suggestion Clearly label what this feature is about with a title like the above for the Study Mode.

  • Issue 2

    Low Severtity

    Problem Participants asked for a log-in opportunity on the intro screens.
    Participants were frustrated by the wording “Start now” which leads to a sign-up page.

    Suggestion Place a smaller login below the primary Button. Rename and label clearly the large button to avoid frustration.

  • Issue 3

    Low Severity

    Problem Participants asked for fewer clicks if they wanted to log in via mail and they did not want to repeat this login process every time.

    Solution Directly show the input fields and offer the user the option to remember his log-in data for the next time.

Conclusion

Although this project was a short student project, I carried out a relatively extensive research phase. Indeed, this part gave me particular pleasure.

I learned a lot by looking at the competitors, how they dealt with the challenges, and how they solved them. During my user interviews, I was able to take away different user perspectives on the problem space. The mental models varied: By myself, I would not have been able to overcome my personal bias. Research even if it is done quickly builds a solid foundation. Here, the results allowed me to quickly conceptualize and design my outcomes. I do believe, that the invested time will pay off in the long run.

Special cheers to all, who participated during my interview and testing sessions.
Without the contribution from all of you this project would not have become reality!

All images © Unsplash.com, free to use under the Unsplash License
2022 - Idea - Concept - Design © Christiane Hornemann

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