What’s wrong with the UX of ‘Learn a language in 30 days’?
By: Ellina Morits
Tags: Design, UX, Education, Language Learning, Travel

What’s wrong with the UX of ‘Learn a language in 30 days’?

Or why do language app creators consider app UX but completely ignore the usability of the language skills they are teaching? Ellina Morits Mar 11, 2020·7 min read

Who of us wouldn’t want to be fluent in a few languages? There are lots of online courses and apps that promise you ‘fluent Spanish in 3 weeks’ or ‘learn Russian fast, just 10 minutes a day’. This sounds really enticing, doesn’t it? I am not going to debate whether it’s possible or not to learn a language that fast, it is a different topic. But how do you know that what you learn is going to be what you will actually use?

Often when promising to learn a language fast, apps refer to ‘proven scientific methods’ for memorising vocabulary more efficiently or learning the basic phrases.

True, most of the apps have some proven techniques behind them, with repetition, vocabulary cards, visual prompts, etc. However, they do not take into account the ‘why’ behind the person’s goal to learn a new language. They could be looking to pick up some basics for a sightseeing holiday, or they may have a work trip coming up — maybe even a relocation, or they might have a partner for a different country. The app should curate the vocabulary and exercises, ensuring that what they learn is most useful and appropriate for the user’s needs. Taking into account how much time they have on their hands daily and how long it is before they want to start speaking is also important to take into consideration.

As obvious as it might sound, we should UX the process of language learning, not just the app.

Firstly, what will you actually learn?

For the purpose of the article I am going to have a closer look at what phrases you will learn after taking the bait and signing up to a language app. I’m going to illustrate that by the example of learning Russian. Let’s take a hypothetical German, Karl. He wants to go on a trip to Russia next year, because he loves Russian literature and wants to see old churches, historic remote places and he wants to experience the real winter.

And then we have John, from UK, who is relocating for a three-month work project in Moscow in a couple months. Their goals are different — John will be in a big city, where more people speak English, with his work colleagues to help him out. Karl will be venturing out, taking local trains, staying in smaller towns where most signage will be in Russian. Therefore, the basic vocabulary and most helpful phrases will vary for both of them. And they have different timescales.

They google the best apps for learning Russian. They see a typical list which includes Babbel, Duolingo, Memrise; all the reviews are quite similar and not language-specific, which makes the choice purely intuitive and subjective.

So, John goes for Babbel while Karl goes for Duolingo, because he already has it downloaded from the time he went to France. He opens the first Russian lesson and is faced with a whole sentence. ‘What are those hieroglyphics?’ he thinks, ‘I haven’t even learned the alphabet and how to read’. After a few minutes he gives up, and downloads Memrise (while Duolingo loses a customer).

The second question you get on Duolingo. Too much if you don’t know how to read yet.

With the Russian language being very different from English, getting the basics of reading and pronunciation are key, and that’s where quite a few of the apps already fail. If you do get through the basics, what you learn afterwards does not follow a traceable logic, which consequently could lead to app abandonment.

Meanwhile Karl signs up for Memrise. During his first lesson he is taught how to read and pronounce the letters, starting with the ones that are similar to the English ones. ‘It’s not so bad, I can do this,’ he thinks. The app is quite good at making you memorise things by repeating them and it uses native Russian speakers for pronunciation. As the lessons go on, however, the phrases Karl learns seem to be random. He knows how to say ‘Shut up’, order a beer, and ask what’s this noise. He hasn’t got to the vocabulary he could use on his trip and he’s been studying for a few weeks. The good thing is he knows how to read, so if he is motivated enough he can get phrase books and learn vocabulary on his own.

Memrise introduces the alphabet and the basics of pronunciation within the first lesson, and allows a ‘Speed Review’ at any point after you move forward.

In the meantime John has also been learning how to read and pronounce things in Russian on Babbel. But it’s not easy and requires setting up a routine to memorise things. He only has a couple months before he goes and he wants to be able to get around with public transport, feel comfortable at a restaurant or supermarket. So far he has only learned how to say ‘Hello’ and ask what everyone’s names are, and he was promised that 5 minutes a day will get him to a decent conversational level.

Babbel, like Memrise, uses native speakers for pronunciation. However, Memrise offers not just audio, but video illustrations, which is helpful for getting a grasp on some Russian sounds.

In the meantime Karl decides to go back to Duolingo, now that he knows the basics. He is hoping to get to the ‘travel essentials’. However, he notices that some words are pronounced differently — Duolingo uses a computer-generated voice to read out the words, and more often than not the stress is off, which is confusing for the familiar words. The bad thing is that for new words Karl has no way of knowing if that’s the right way of pronouncing them. The phrases he learns range from the basics like ‘This is my mother’ to ‘Is this coffee or borsch’? which seems like a very unusable example.

So what is the aftermath of a few weeks of using the apps? In both examples, the guys can read and say some stuff, but it won’t cover them for their trips. Sure, if they want to use other tools, phrasebooks, etc, they will easily get by. However, it would have been more convenient if there was flexibility around the purpose for learning the language and the timescale in the first place.

Duolingo is well known for their successful use of gamification, and it could be very good for people with elementary level; I am only using the example of learning a language from scratch. The app just launches into sentences, without teaching you to read, which makes learning a new language seem even more challenging. Fair enough, you can pick up the basics elsewhere, learn the alphabet and pronunciation and get into the learning process. This does not get better — as a native speaker I was amused (read: appalled) to hear robotic recordings with the stress in completely wrong places. Moreover, the words and sentences you learn are quite random and if you are learning just out of curiosity or maybe as a support while travelling, the phrases won’t be of much use.

Memrise, an app which helps to memorise as many new words and phrases as possible, is definitely better for the basics, but then the phrases you learn range from something useful like getting a taxi, to words like ‘Shut up’ or “what’s that noise’ which are hardly among the more frequent phrases. Memrise, with its speed-based rounds and animations of plants growing as you progress, uses a form of gamification too, but it is more subtle than Duolingo’s and might not be as strong of a habit builder.

Babbel seems to be quite good for novices, but this might be because other apps are not doing an incredible job. A thing to mention about Babbel is that it’s subscription-based. They normally have deals for new customers, and spending money might be an additional motivation to learn. However, making the app as useful as possible is even more key, so the people stay after the offer ends. It does not use gamification and feels like a more ‘serious’ app. They are the only app of those three to include dialogues as part of learning — a good conversational practice for novices.

So what can be done to improve language-learning experiences?

If you are working within the education sector, always think about the ‘why’ behind people’s actions. For designers it’s not a new rule to follow. However, focusing on the wider picture is key, since sometimes the experience within the app is amazing, but does not match the user’s goal. I have been learning foreign languages since I was a kid, and I have had various experiences with apps, online courses, books, so I am speaking from my personal experience. here are a few basic rules of thumb to follow when curating an educational app.

Get phrases from the most frequently used word list, so everyone has the basics covered. At the same time address real needs for the person studying the language (e.g. for travelling, for moving, for work).

Keep what works, for example:

Repetition

Native speakers saying words out loud

Gamification

Visual prompts

All of these are things that are currently working, so it’s important to keep them and maximise their impact.

Review Section in Bubbel. A good prompt to revise vocabulary, however, it could be more curated.

And, finally, let people be flexible around how to learn new words — everyone has an inclination to learn differently, so adapting to various learning styles will be a competitive advantage for any app. This is also useful when people cannot access audio or video content, so versatility can help keeping them on the app and not going on Twitter or Instagram.

The market has lots of opportunity for language apps to step up and woo the users. Hopefully, this will be helpful for those working in education and those who are learning a new language, as you can optimise your personal process.

What are your experiences with language apps?