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Duolingo Math - Duo The Duel, Multiplayer Update
Mobile• Tablet • Watch • UX Research • Wireframes • Prototyping
Project Overview
Duolingo Inc. is a renowned edtech company specializing in language learning and cognitive skill development. This project is inspired by the company’s prompt for the 2023 D&AD Design Awards.
The primary objective of this project was to lead comprehensive research on children's behavior to gain insights into their learning patterns and preferences. Leveraging the findings, we identified specific challenges within Duolingo Math's single-player mode, aiming to provide a more engaging and effective learning experience.
Role & Contribution
Working with another UX designer, I took the lead on the UX research into children’s behavior study and expanded upon Duolingo Math’s gamified solo equation-solving user experience. While proposing and designing the split-screen game mode.
The Challenge
Learning mathematics has been a boring process and many suffer from mathematical anxiety. Is there a way we can help get children more comfortable with learning mathematics?
How to innovate and create new math habits with Duolingo Math?
UX Research: Understanding the Target User
Before we began drafting any designs, we understood the necessity of knowing the user or target audience we were designing for. Upon highlighting and noting down key requirements of the provided prompt, we were able to identify our target user group, which is elementary/primary school students above the age of 8. Based on the prompt, we began by illustrating a user persona.
With our target user in mind, we brainstormed a series of possible entry points to how we can innovate the way that kids use Duolingo Math’s platform to learn. We eventually started researching articles and papers published regarding learning-related problems and issues of children, and were much inspired by Dr. Marcy Willard’s article titled “Learning Problems in Childhood.” Within. the article, Dr. Willard claimed that children engaging in solo learning can face various challenges, which can impact their educational and social development. These challenges include learning disabilities, attention problems, social isolation, emotional concerns, and low self-esteem. Below are some of our takeaways from the article:
Proposing a Solution
Since Duolingo is already known for its gamified learning experiences, why not take it further? Our solution is to integrate a multiplayer feature into Duolingo Math’s existing user experience, in order to encourage groups of friends to hop on board and actively learn together. Focusing on partnership and user interactions, we gradually decided on 2 key areas that we would love to implement: compete and collab.
Collab: Divide & Solve Together
One of of our key design features is the collaboration mode which allows two users to solve one extended math equations together. Upon starting, the system will show both user the complete equation before splitting it up for each user to solve.
There will be multiple steps to solving the entire equation, while each step requires both users to calculate their own responding answer in order to proceed into merging the final answer together.
Compete: Split Screen Mode
As game enthusiasts ourselves, we know how influential and fun offline collab modes can be. Thus, inspired by titles such as “It Takes Two,” we prioritized a local single-device split screen math compete mode which is dedicated to encouraging two users to share a single device.
Design Process: Wireframes
The best way to test out our ideas is wireframes which always us to sketch out basic concepts for each feature and test them out it see if they work or not. We are able to identify areas that needs improvement and make design iterations.
Design Process: User Flow
Expanding upon Duolingo Math’s current user experience, we’ve divided our designs into two groups. Group 1 focuses on the social aspect and reward mechanism of the app with newly added features such as a friend system and a gift shop which users can redeem physical rewards as incentives to keep using the app. Group 2 is gameplay-oriented with 3 game modes: Collab, Duel, and Split Screen. Both Collab and Duel are online features allowing the user to either randomly match with another player or invite one of their added friends. Users may also add friends upon the completion of a level. On the other hand, the Split Screen mode is a local mini-game that allows two users to compete on their speed of solving mathematical problems on a single device.
Design Process: Iterations
There were a couple UX based issues we located upon completing the low fidelity prototypes, primarily surrounding our key feature, the Collab game mode. Our low-fidelity prototypes indicate that one user may be stuck while trying to solve their part of the equation while the other can only wait until the wrong answer has been corrected. In order to increase interactivity between both users while using Collab mode, we’ve adjusted the user experience so that users are now able to identify and help out their partner’s mistakes by inputting the correct answer and sending hints to the user in need.
Design Process: High Fidelity Prototype
The final prototyping of the product focuses on different sections of the product and their connectivity, involving the homepage, friends list, collab mode, duel mode, and split-screen mode. Additionally, we are also staying within Duolingo Math’s Design System, using their iconic UI components to structure our solution.
Design for Tablet Breakpoint
Going beyond just mobile, we challenged ourselves to extend our designs to other breakpoints or devices that our target users may be more inclined or convenient to use. Following mobile, tablet would be our second breakpoint as our target users may not have access to mobile devices of their own, plus a larger screen size is more easy on the eye for extended focus periods.
Design for Smart Watch Breakpoint
The team is also highly intrigued by the idea of designing for wearable devices. As a further expansion of our concepts, we’ve designed a new set of smart watch UI and tailored our user experiences more tangible on a smaller-sized screen. Features such as the split screen mode were removed, instead, we implemented a new watch-friendly method for adding friends nearby called DUO Link.
Interactive UI Components
Putting attention to details, the team created a series of interactive UI components for the prototype to come to life through color-changing response and a fully functioning split screen component which is fully playable and will automatically determine the winner.
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UX Research: Heuristic Evaluations + User Interviews
Based on our research, we were curious about Duolingo Math’s current user experience and wondered about possible solutions dedicated to solving the above problems relating to solo learning. After consideration, we decided to conduct interviews with children within the target age range. We were able to interview 8 kids during their after-school soccer practices on their thoughts on solo learning while also handing them the Duolingo Math app to conduct heuristic evaluations. Below are three selected responses that the team found inspiring.
UX Research Findings
Through analyzing Duolingo Math’s current user experience, the team identified its reliance on its language learning user flows which resulted in a dull solo-learning experience that prioritizes graphics and motion as a reward to users when they complete a series of questions correctly.
The team then identified the potential of integrating a multiplayer system or expanding upon the existing friend system to create a more socializing experience to make the learning process more engaging and interactive.
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