My favorite app - Duolingo
Due to my love for Spanish culture.
After English and Hindi (my mother tongue), the language I encounter the most is Spanish. This is due to the western content I have been exposed to. From La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) to Despacito (which needs no introduction), the Spanish language is quite prevalent.
After cursory attempts at learning French and German during school and college, I had a visceral feeling that I would perhaps stick with Spanish for longer. This was due to the presence of avenues to use the language- to watch Spanish movies/tv-series, to sing Spanish songs, and mainly to communicate with people when I travel across continents someday.
Spanish is spoken by 534 million speakers worldwide, the third most spoken language after English and Mandarin.
Finding the right tutor
Around the last week of January this year, I started exploring different courses and apps to learn Spanish online as finding a foreign-language tutor offline is difficult. After surfing the web for a while, I stumbled upon Duolingo. It stood out with flair mainly due to its unique user experience and free-forever model for teaching languages. Also, the number of positive reviews for Duolingo was quite convincing.
I started using Duolingo mobile app for 15 minutes every day. And I have to admit, the gamification of learning implemented by Duolingo is commendable. In no time I was obsessed with the app. I only realized the nuances of getting users glued to an app while reading Hooked, the international bestseller by Nir Eyal. Duolingo has done a great job engaging and retaining users and thereby demonstrating each concept mentioned in Hooked. I have maintained a 240+ day streak so far thanks to the reminders by Duo and a little bit of internal motivation to make productive use of my time.
From an (aspiring) Product Manager’s lens
Right from the onboarding to conversion and retention Duolingo’s team has nailed most steps in the user journey. With features like leaderboard, gamified lessons, UX personalization, and an active community of language learners, it is the go-to platform for people willing to learn a language at any level of proficiency.
Although I am a fan of Duolingo, I think the app could be improved in some aspects:
To begin with, the app should emphasize more on learning via speaking. As I feel the speaking lessons are quite less in comparison to lessons on reading, writing and listening. And usually, the primary goal behind learning a new language is to communicate in that language. Hence, I feel that the Duolingo team can put in more effort to improve the speaking experience. Although Duolingo has scheduled group events hosted every week (only available on their web app), it is not the most effective solution. The team can tap into the potential of thousands of native learners available online and perhaps pair people to speak at any time at their own pace. I have tried to suggest a comprehensive solution for this problem here.
Furthermore, I am often overwhelmed by the plethora of concepts covered when I open the app. There is hardly any guidance in selecting a particular lesson out of more than a dozen options. Hence, the Duolingo team should reduce the decision-making effort for the user and guide them subtly. A solution for this is thoughtfully explained at growth.design (one of the best resources to understand user experience in various apps.)
The man behind Duolingo
I recently stumbled on a podcast by Guy Raz which covered the story of Duolingo and its founder. Luis von Ahn (the founder) talks about the origin of Captcha (yes that ubiquitous verification process on the web) and the vision behind Duolingo. The conversation was inspirational and this podcast was a big nudge to keep learning with Duolingo every day.
Closing thoughts
From Classical guitar to Flamenco art, Spanish culture is simply beautiful! If you are a polyglot or xenophile, Spanish is worth exploring and Duolingo is the perfect companion for it.
Thank you for reading.
I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback! Feel free to connect with me.
Cheers,
Yashraj Shrivastava
Photo source: Google Images
