Background
Foreign language learners often feel stuck after seeing an initial rapid improvement
After speaking with several intermediate to advanced speakers of a foreign language, it’s clear that they have lost the motivation to continue learning the language and feel stuck.
Most of these people currently live in a country speaking a different language from their mother tongue.
After seeing initial rapid improvement when they first started learning, they hit plateaus and struggle to keep improving.
User Research
How might we help foreign language learners stay motivated throughout their journeys?
In-depth interviews (30 - 50 minutes each) were conducted on 11 participants of advanced language learners of various backgrounds and target learning languages.
Research Insights
Learners need a way to better identify concrete goals and gauge their learning progress
After many fruitful conversations with my research participants, I discovered why they relied on videos to learn, what they typically did while watching a video, and what they did afterwards. These users can be separated into two groups: Non-note takers and avid note takers.
What bothered them about video learning ranged from not being able to interact with the instructor / fellow students, having a hard time finding the right videos, to having to rewatch videos to find what they needed.
Main pain points
1. Users were greatly annoyed by having to rewatch a video to find what they need.
2. Manual copying down the transcript while they take notes was too time consuming.
3. Video titles were misleading sometimes—they wished they could know the content beforehand.
4. Users wanted to share or see others’ notes to see a different perspective or what they have missed.
Competitive Analysis
Current offerings of existing products focused only on time-stamped note taking
I dived back into researching 6 existing products that help users take notes while watching a video, this time analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and unique value propositions. They were mostly browser extensions so I installed each to test them out.
One way I thought could alleviate some of my user pain points was utilizing transcript, and it seemed like none of these products' current offerings involved transcript. Most of them offer time-stamped note-taking and screenshots as the main features.
Feature Prioritization
Prioritizing ideas that users need most but can't currently find a product for.
Lo-fi Wireframes
Hi-fidelity Design
