Bhasa

A UX Case Study

Inspired by the word "Bhāṣā" or in orginal form भाषा in Sanskrit, which means "speech" or "spoken language"

The last vocabulary learning app you will ever download

Project Overview

Problem to Solve

Learning a new language can be challenging, especially when it comes to remembering vocabulary and knowing how to use words naturally in real-life conversations.

Objective

Bhasa aims to offer an intuitive way to manage vocabulary while also providing contextual conversations that show how each word can be used in real-life situations.

Project Details

My Role: UX Designer

Duration: 5 weeks

Tools: Figma

Process

Persona

01

02

Problem Statement

03

Solution - Wireframes

04

Usability Tests

05

Learnings

06

Next Steps

01 Persona

Meet

  • 34 years old, English-German

  • Living in Lisbon; Learning Portuguese

  • 2 cats and a dog; Working remote

MADALENA

““Being able to learn at my own time and pace would be critical for my learnning””
— Madalena Wise - ML Engineer

Goals & Motivations

PASSIVE LEARNING

Prefers not to do immersion courses due to short attention span

REAL LIFE SCENARIO

Not just want to learn the meaning of words, but how to use them in real, everyday life

MEMORY & REPEITION

Has issue remembering words she sees many times, so need to repeat a lot

Madalena needs a way to learn her Portuguese vocabularies faster, and learn how to use them in real life scenarios because she wants to integrate better into her new life in Portugal.

02 Problem Statement

03 Solution

First, initial sketches were made in order to quickly explore ideas, stay focused on structure, and work through concepts before committing to details.

Once I was happy with the sketches, I turned them into low-fidelity prototypes.

04 Usability Tests

I began planning the test details before recruiting the candidates.

Usability Test Plan

Scope

Test low-fidelity prototype of a vocabulary learning app called Bhasa

Schedule

22-23 June 2024

Some of the participants will be via google meet, and some will be in person.

Session

20-25 minutes session with 3 participants

Equipment

In person, the participants will be shown designs on the laptop screen.

Whereas via google meet, the participants will need his laptop to call in, and will be recorded using Otter.ai if permitted.

Test Scenario

What to Test

Why

Create a new account and go through the onboarding steps

1

To understand if the sign up steps are intuitive enough, and if the onboarding screens are useful

To understand if user could relate to the concept of set and vocabularies, and if the steps are straightforward

2

Create a new vocabulary set to learn

Add a new vocabulary to the new set that was created earlier

3

To understand if user could easily create new words and understand that it relates to a set / sets

Create a new account and go through the onboarding steps

4

To understand if user know where to go to start learning through conversation mode

Test Results & Improvements

  • Improved placeholder designs

  • Added labels

  • Clearer button texts

  • Improved translation components

Interactive Prototype

Interactive Prototype

Last but not least, the interactive prototype.

05 Learnings

Learnings

  • It is important to focus on the persona and the specific problem statement. Otherwise one could try to fit in too many features especially in the beginning.

  • Recruiting the right profile for the usability test is also important. For example, in this case, it would be difficult to get any useful feedback from someone who has never learnt a foreign language before.

  • In the usability test, it is important to encourage the user to think out loud and try not to interfere too much with the interaction.

Challenges

  • Users don't always understand that these are very rough prototypes and they could fixate on tiny details rather than the general idea.

  • Even though in-person interviews and usability tests seem more personal and interactive, in reality the online ones are easier to collect learnings because of the ability to record the meeting and even use AI assistant to transcript.

  • It might be tricky to reflect on these interviews if a few days have passed. Obviously it is better to take notes and iterate immediately after but it could be tricky to find time right away.

06 Next Steps

  • Another round of usability testing to test out whether the critical fixes will enable users to use the app more effectively

  • After that, at least another iteration of improvements to the prototype

  • Re-design the onboarding screens to include more useful information about important concepts ie. the relationship between the sets and the words

  • Include the "offline" functionality in the app, as it is a big issue for the persona but not yet made obvious in the prototype

  • Better connectivity of the screens, as well as navigation of the app. Users were a bit confused where they are in the app, as it was not always obvious and back button was not always available on the screen.