The UX of Mobile App Onboarding: Rosetta Stone vs. Duolingo
By: Carl T. Rogers, Mfa, Storylosopher
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, UX, Mobile Apps, Mobile App Development

USER EXPERIENCE

The UX of Mobile App Onboarding: Rosetta Stone vs. Duolingo

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

Intro

I dig languages. I’m not fluent (yet!) in any besides English, but after learning some Hebrew as a teen and taking Spanish in undergrad, my desire to learn languages intensified. My wife and I recently decided to become fluent in Japanese for a variety of reasons, so I returned to the world of mobile language learning apps.

I decided to compare two of the top apps: Rosetta Stone and Duolingo. Unsurprisingly, I discovered that these apps are not created equal. However, what did surprise me as a UX Strategist was how much each app’s onboarding process affected its learning experience.

Let’s see why.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone likes to throw you into the deep end from the start. It feels more difficult and academic than Duolingo. As far as the UI goes, it leaves a lot to be desired. The onboarding especially is lackluster.

Screenshots of Rosetta Stone by the author.

Rosetta Stone could tell that I already had an account, but didn’t redirect me to sign in with that email; it just said, “No, you can’t use that.” Not the smartest logic system.

Then, Rosetta even asked me to use TouchID — twice! What’s the deal, y’all? Maybe it was user error, but I was definitely weirded out.

Screenshots of Rosetta Stone by the author.

The lessons are useful but confusing because of the whole “deep end” approach. Rosetta also saves your score for each lesson and remembers which questions you missed so you can review them. (Duolingo does this, too.)

Overall, I have learned some from it and even considered buying the whole program (so I can get all their languages at once). I didn’t like that you can’t learn much before you have to pay.

Still, there’s another reason the app never really hooked me: You have to sign up before you start learning. Remember that seemingly-small user flow decision; we’ll discuss it more in a bit. For now, let’s examine the competition.

Duolingo

After trying out Rosetta Stone, Duolingo is like a breath of fresh air. It’s fun, light, and wonderfully designed. According to Duolingo’s research, it’s better than years of study at the university level:

“Duolingo learners reach four semesters of language proficiency in half the time as U.S. university students.”

We’ll see if it gives me that much knowledge. For now, I’m having fun and learning at the same time. While the gamified approach might make it feel less “serious” an option for language learning, I’ve been enjoying the process. Here are some of the features that make it excellent for a beginner like me:

Learning the Japanese hiragana (kind of like an alphabet) also leads to learning simple words at the same time; each lesson builds on the previous ones.

Track your progress based on points, leagues, and crowns.

Compare your progress with other language learners. For example, my wife and I can see each other’s daily points.

The app’s home screen has a useful chart showing all the hiragana and katagana on one page.

If you already have proficiency in a language, you can take a placement test when you begin using the app.

The onboarding process is a breeze, too:

Screenshots of Duolingo by the author.

To contrast with Rosetta Stone, Duolingo lets you jump straight into learning your language without asking you for an email. That’s key; we’ll unpack why in a sec.

UX Analysis

So, what does it matter that one is stuffy and the other is gamified? Since Rosetta Stone has a fancy learning model called Dynamic Immersion, it would be easy to think that Rosetta is more useful in getting the user toward his or her end goal: language fluency. Despite that pedagogical mindset, the learning screen lives in a bland, outdated layout.

Screenshots of Rosetta Stone by the author.

Intentionally or not, Rosetta Stone gives of this kind of vibe: “If you want to have fun, go get the Duolingo. If you actually want to learn, then get our product” vibe. That’s what they want you to think. Their marketing even says so:

“Rosetta Stone is different because it works. If you’re tired of playing games and ready for real experiences, come learn with us.”

Why are fun and learning considered mutually exclusive? Duolingo might not have a trademarked framework for language learning, but it’s more effective at teaching languages simply because it engages the user. The gamification makes the learning experience seem achievable and users can track their progress. The game aspect makes Duolingo “sticky.”

Yeah, okay. That’s just user preference, right? Actually, there’s another reason why Duolingo has a better user experience than Rosetta Stone: its business model.

Business Model as User Experience: Rosetta Stone

You might remember the old days of Rosetta Stone when the product was CD-ROM based. You bought the whole program, sat down at your computer, and learned the language in long sittings like it was a virtual class. That may have worked well back in the day, but for a mobile device, that’s not how people learn.

Oddly, it’s still the way the Rosetta app looks all these years later. To the uninitiated, it seems as if Rosetta Stone took their old boxed product and stuffed it into a mobile screen. Plus, as I mentioned, there is only a small amount of free language content because Rosetta wants people to buy. It makes sense, too. Rosetta Stone only makes money if people buy their per-language subscription or access to the entire program for $299.

Is that a lot to learn a language? No, but it is a lot when you associate it with mobile apps, which are typically free or less than $5. This matters because Rosetta’s onboarding friction and lack of in-app engagement (stickiness) lead to fewer return users and thus fewer sales. Since the users aren’t engaged from the very beginning, they’re less likely to enjoy the learning experience, and therefore unwilling to pay. Their hobbled product makes the UX worse from the very first screen.

Business Model as User Experience: Duolingo

By contrast, Duolingo encourages learning over profit — and ostensibly gets more subscriptions because of it. The app is entirely free. Duolingo makes money with ads and offers a subscription to remove ads and get more features. This freemium model works because paying improves an already wonderful experience rather than merely unlocking the next step in a bleh experience.

This is obvious even in the onboarding processes that we compared earlier. Rosetta Stone makes you enter an email right after you pick a language. By contrast, Duolingo lets you learn a lot without ever asking you! When it finally does as you the “email” question, it’s positioned as a positive for the user rather than a friction point. It’s “helping you save your progress” rather than “setting up an account.”

Screenshots of Duolingo by the author.

Semantics? Perhaps, but it makes a huge difference to the emotional interaction the user has with each brand. Entering an email is free, but it’s still a type of transaction to the user. She is more likely to give that information once she’s invested time and effort into the experience.

Rosetta Stone might actually be a better tool to learn a language, but I don’t care since I have such a positive experience with Duolingo every time I used it. I actively avoid using Rosetta’s app, too. If I’m going to pay, I know I’d rather give money to the brand that cares about me learning more than making money.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Therefore, an app’s experience is more than the total of its screens. A product’s business model directly affects the user experience of that product.

Summary

If you want to learn a language in your spare time, chances are you’ll turn to a mobile app like my wife and me. There’s a ton of affordable options out there, but you may be tempted to go with Rosetta Stone due to its brand recognition and expanded learning options — but those come at a price, both monetarily and as a human user.

Duolingo is fun and free, but don’t let that fool you. Thanks to an excellent onboarding experience, you start learning without even knowing it. Because of that, Duolingo users are more likely to buy than Rosetta Stone users, proving that outstanding UX is more than just an easy-to-use screen; a product’s business model is intrinsic to its user experience.