Glot Mobile App
Sole UX/UI Designer
Sole UX/UI Designer
Sole UX/UI Designer
Role
Sole UX/UI Designer
Timeline
Nov 2020
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe XD
Glot is an app that connects avid language learners around the world. Users are matched that partners are native speakers of each other's target languages. In this setting, everyone is both a student and a teacher — a cross-beneficial process that promotes language-learning in a real-life applicable and engaging way.
As the sole UX/UI designer, I took initiative to define the problem, conduct user research, define goals, ideate the necessary features, develop wireframes, and design interactive interfaces. I utilized UX research methods such as user interviews, user personas and a sitemap to map out how my design could lead to user success. My design process below.
Role Overview
The Problem
I conducted user interviews with 7 individuals in order to understand the key necessary components of my app design. Upon gathering insight, I was able to answer my fundamental question:
How is achieving foreign language fluency in class
often ineffective?
The top 3 answers were —
Challenge
Create a proficiency-focused app experience that facilitates language learning friendships for avid linguists to learn the most useful phrases, vocabulary, and slang from native speakers through mutually beneficial interactions.
In order to better empathize with the language learner, I created two user personas to guide my user-focused thinking for future design decisions.
+ Profile and (Casual) Chat Channels
Match with a partner and start chatting
+ Popular Discussion Threads in Target Lang.
Reference as casual conversation starters
+ Calendar and Reminders for Consistency
Set up chat sessions across time zones
+ Optional Grammar Correction Tool
Correct mistakes if necessary
+ Partner Finding Filters
Ensure safety measures & suitable matches
The interviews confirmed my suspicions about the challenges of linguistic fluency, so I came up with several key features to alleviate the pain points and mapped out the user flow.
Sitemap
& Features
The journey to achieving fluency in a foreign a language is neither seamless nor direct. Language-learners face numerous challenges, including unfamiliarity with native slang, lack of real-life applicable vocabulary and phrases, and difficulty recognizing the fast or abbreviated speech of native speakers.
Many language-learning apps teach vocabulary and phrases by category – not frequency of use – leading to frustration when users aren't able to effectively communicate in their target languages after memorizing vocabulary lists with unpopular words such as "elbow" and "parrot".
User Personas
User Research
Wireframes
Next, I created a series of mid-fidelity wireframes to map out the user flow and test out the user flow and feature functionality before jumping into UI design.
Next Steps are Coming Soon!