Watch and Learn — a UX case study
Novelitas: language learning mobile app.
The problem
Traditional English learning classes are not consistent, accessible options for working and stay-at-home non-English speaking parents. This is a problem for families because parents do not have the time or resources to learn English for assimilation and long-term upward mobility.
The goal
Novelitas is a mobile app aiming to help users with English learning through the intersection of entertainment and education.
Scope
6 weeks
My role
I was the sole designer in a team including two other individuals who specialized in areas of business and finance. Collectively, we were responsible for the entire research, concept and completion of the project.
Applied methods
- User Interviews
- Affinity Mapping
- User Personas
- Competitor Analysis
- Paper Prototyping
- Usability Testing
- User Flows
- Wireframing
- Prototyping
Process
Background
In a greater context, there is an English proficiency issue nationwide. Limited English Proficient describes individuals over the age of 5 years old who reported speaking English “not at all,” “not well,” or “well.” According to the Brookings Institution, LEP persons in the workforce typically earn 25–40% less than their English Proficient counterparts. Two-thirds of the US population of LEP persons (17 million) speak Spanish at home, and originate from Latin America (Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Colombia.)
My team partnered with the non-profit MEND, and interviewed LEP individuals who utilize some of MEND’s services.
Specifically in Pacoima, LEP have difficulties with navigating social services, finding employment opportunities, connecting with their children, and being involved in their children’s schools.
Defining the problem
Working and stay-at-home parents spend their day addressing immediate needs. It is difficult to attend English learning classes and utilize other educational services. This is a problem for families because parents do not have time to learn English and act upon long-term aspirations for upward mobility.
User interviews + creating personas
We interviewed MEND community members as well as individuals around Pacoima in community areas such as laundromats, parks, local stores, etc. to better understand our target users. We then created user personas for whom we would design for.
We also interviewed the instructors of the ESL classes provided by MEND, as well as other leaders in education. Here are a few summaries:
Andrea • Andrea has served as a volunteer teacher at MEND for the past three years. Adult ESL classes currently have 180 students ranging from ages 18 to 70. For many adults, the course is their first formal education environment. Morning classes tend to include retired or disabled community members, while evening classes have working adults. Students are often motivated to learn English to achieve personal and professional goals. She made the observation,
“Adults have pride. They don’t like feeling like a kid.”
Luis • As an ESL teacher at MEND, Luis has noticed a prevalent fear of making mistakes among students. He emphasizes the importance of in-person classes, so that he, as the instructor, can encourage students to speak up. He estimates that 40% of students are afraid to say something wrong. When they do make mistakes, he cheers them on an creates a safe space so they realize it is not the “end of the world” and they feel encouraged to try again.
According to Luis, students are primarily retirees, house wives, or community members improving their abilities for a job.
Krystal • After a career in the transportation industry, Krystal has returned to school and is currently studying psychology and child development at CSU Northridge. When it comes to learning patterns, she believes in the importance of multi-sensory learning — using both audio and visual experience to internalize a concept.
Professor Robert Fillback • Professor Fillback, associate professor of clinical education and co-chair of the Global Executive Doctor of Education (EdD) program at the USC Rossier School of Education, shared with us,
“Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.”
He described the 70/20/10 Model for Learning and Development:
- 10% formal learning
- 20% learning from others
- 70% learning by doing — challenging experiences
Indicating opportunities
From user interviews and observation, our team discovered two salient facts. When asking users what they enjoyed, there was a strong affinity for Latino pop culture through TV shows, movies, etc. This consumption of media presented another space for opportunity. Telenovelas, or dramatic television series or soap operas, allowed users to feel connected to their home countries and cultures. Some stories were an escape for them, even if only on the screen, and depicted instances of what economic mobility and success could look like for Latinos.
We also found that despite a significant portions of their day are simply spent waiting — waiting for the next bus stop, waiting for the nurse to call from the doctor’s lobby, waiting for clothes to dry. Could this surplus of time be utilized in some way?
The opportunity thus formed:
How might we use found time to provide English learning opportunities to ESL adults in the Pacoima community?
The Product
Mission
The mobile app, Novelitas, provides supplemental, accessible and engaging English learning opportunities to lower the barriers for upward mobility.
Contrary to our preliminary expectations, many of the low-income community members we interviewed owned smartphones, namely iPhones. Computer access at home was not commonplace. Smartphones were relied upon to communicate and connect to the web, instead of using landlines for communication or having home internet access. The reality was that a phone wasn’t a luxury; it was a lifeline to finding employment, training, contact with family, and access to other resources. Thus, the mobile phone was a viable medium for users to access educational tools, especially during idle time away from home.
The user needed an engaging mobile application with the following target criteria:
- Helping people learn English in an audio/visual manner that is culturally relevant
- Helping incorporate learning in a busy lifestyle where immediate, daily needs take priority
- Helping challenge user so they can become more proficient in English
However, the app also had to:
- Have cultural and practical relevance: users would become disinterested if content is not enjoyable to them
- Stay simple: complex systems would confuse and alienate learners
- Allow for personalization: users should be have adaptive/adjustable levels of difficulty according to their level of English
- Feature a digestible dashboard: users need to be able to know where to go when they need to in order to progress in their learning
After considering the criteria and requirements for the app, we conceived a video streaming platform on which users can watch their favorite telenovelas and movies, but with the power of translation. Translated subtitles are usually featured on most video platforms, but Novelitas presents both languages in juxtaposition and allows the user to manipulate the speed and repetition of the video clips to their liking.
Creating a flow
Through research of existing video streaming apps, I created user flows to map out navigation. I aimed to make the navigation through the screens as clear and concise as possible. Existing streaming apps such as Netflix and Youtube prioritize the volume of content a user watches. Conversely, Novelitas prioritizes finding and returning to content that you enjoyed or have watched so that the user can focus on learning and reviewing. Because we imagined this product’s usage to be during found time, users must be able to quickly resume where they have left off.
After the onboarding process, users are brought to their personalized dashboard, where they are presented with thumbnails of their last watched videos, videos that they’ve watched in the past, and new releases that cater to their preferences.
The navigation bar includes four main sections:
- Search: Users are able to type keywords to discover content. This includes title names, genres, actor/actress names, etc.
- Downloads: Users may download videos to their phone so they can access them at any time or place. This is particularly useful when internet connection or WiFi is unavailable or too slow for streaming content.
- Bookmarks: Users are able to return to specific timestamps in the telenovelas they have watched and/or are watching for the purpose of repetition and review.
- Profile: Users are able to view their video history, their progress, as well as other information to inform them of their usage. This will enable the user to monitor their learning.
The video module provides the user with extensive control over speed and time — they control their pace. Below the video displays the translated captions in a larger font, where as the native language is placed below. The juxtaposition of the two helps the user build quick connections between words as well as provides context within a narrative. The audio may be interchanged from English to Spanish or vice versa.
Below the captions is a slider for dialogue speed. This enables the user to slow down the video for better comprehension of difficult concepts and vocabulary. Additionally, we included five-second increment buttons for users to move forward or backward. The user may be able to repeat phrases that were not initially understood.
Users are encourage to watch, repeat, bookmark, and rewatch these telenovelas in order to understand English in context of exciting and beloved telenovelas.
Takeaways
Problems and successes
We found that downloading the app and on boarding was a barrier to use; there was difficulty in comprehending the difference between Novelitas and existing video streaming apps such as YouTube or Facebook video content. Internet connection was another problem to overcome, although we learned that many users take advantage of Wi-Fi in public spaces such as eateries, libraries, malls, etc. to download content. From this insight, our team included space in the app for temporarily downloaded videos in the event that internet connection was unavailable.
Potential
With appropriate resources, the Novelitas platform could be expanded to other languages to supplement English learning, or vice versa. Expanding the selection of shows would require investment toward TV show and movie licensing. In addition, with this expansion, translations for certain languages may be deficient. Several options could be explored to solve this, including crowdsourcing transcripts and translations in exchange for perks, access to certain content, etc. Further, partnerships with educational institutions could allow for Novelitas to be implemented into the classroom as a tool for supplementary learning.
The Social Innovation Design Lab, led by Abby Fifer Mandell, provided an introduction to design thinking as applied to innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as hands-on opportunities to apply these principles in real time. We learned the fundamentals of design thinking, applied deep user empathy to social innovation, engaged in productive collaboration with teammates from multiple disciplines, and produced a prototype of a product that solves a specific social problem faced by an under-resourced community.
