Vocabulary app / UX Fundamentals

Create the design of the Vocabulary app from research all the way through prototyping and testing.

This is a mobile application to be used on-the-go for quick 5 –10 min. study sessions focused on learning new vocabulary. Users need a way to efficiently memorize new vocabulary at their career field.

Vockapp Cover Image

Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis image

I have conducted a Competitor Analysis from three mobile Android apps, like the Vocabulary Builder, Dictionary, Words Words Words, that have a similar subject with my product. The scope through this analysis is to research methods to better inform about my design practice.

With the competitor analysis I have learned how:

  • To solve usability problems
  • To communicate the design process
  • To learn the strengths and weaknesses of my competitors
  • To understand the strategic marketing my competitors follow

Steps I followed for this analysis:

  • Categorize my competitors
  • Analyze the competitor’s website & customer experience
  • Take screenshots from my navigation throught their mobile app
  • Examine the competitor’s Pros & Cons
  • Review the analysis findings and suggest better design solutions

Information Architecture

" Through this practice I have learned how to organize the content of the app so that users would easily adjust to the functionality of the product and could find everything they need. "

I have created two Task Analysis that helped me to understand:

  • The user’s navigation of how to achieve their goals
  • The user’s motivations
  • The user’s experiences (social or personal) who bring to the task

User Flow:1

Entry point: User opens the App
Successful criteria: Account created

User flow 1

User Flow:2

Entry point: Home screen
Successful criteria: User start learning Vocabulary

User flow 2

User Persona

Vocapp persona image

User Personas are fictional customers of my product that helps me to understand :

  • Observe behaviors of my product target audience
  • User characteristic
  • User needs & Goals
  • User Journeys

Efstathios

  • 29 / Greek / Single
  • Mechanical Engineer
  • MSc Wind Energy
  • Copenhagen Denmark
" Words are the core of the language and a key to how professional and educational a person is. Updating my English vocabulary on a regular basis is likely to climb my career ladder faster than others."

Problem Brief

  • Efstathios is easily forgetting words, he needs a methodology and guidance to improve his brain activity
  • He needs feedback about his daily progress
  • He is losing easily his motivation for learning languages and he is waiting for some motivation

Problem Statement

  • By introducing more interactive and creating vocabulary app(illustrations, images, graphics), Efstathios can visualize and quicker memorize new words
  • By presenting users with the same or similar profession, Efstathios will be more engaged with the product
  • By providing at the end of each session a dialogue or a game with all the new vocabulary, we will achieve higher engagement

Vockapp Storyboard

Vocapp Storyboard

Low Fidelity Prototypes

" At this low risk research phase I test the product's design ideas by interacting with real users "

First Vocapp Prototype
Second Vocapp Prototype

Usability Test

Usability test section

This plan is to test a low fidelity prototypes for a vocabulary application called, learn on the go. I recruited 4 participants in-person who were all from the target audience of vocabulary learners. The Prottapp is the collaboration tool I have used for this Test. This tool helped me to rapid interact my prototypes with the users through the test sessions. I have learned how to conduct the Usability Test with real users as well as how to evaluate its usefullness.

Direct Tasks

Articulate main goals for your persona using 4 Direct Tasks.

  1. User registration (Login,Sign up, Create account)
  2. User start the lesson for vocabulary learning
  3. User explore the Header navigation of the app
  4. User add a definition

Low Fidelity Prototypes / Test Results

Usability Test Results
  • Users were not sure if they had successfully registered with the app
  • Users couldn’t understand the icons of the Menu bar tool.Help button is Required
  • Users are familiar with different navigation menu
  • During the settings process, users could not go back to Homescreen
  • Users didn’t know how to save the unknown word to the favorite symbol

Early Prototypes / Improvements

Early prototypes/Improvements
  • Add screen Sign in or Sign up before the registration screen
  • Add notification message for successful registration
  • This action will improve value between user and app
Early prototypes/Improvements
  • Change the icon Bookmark that allows the user to save words or phrases and keep notes for future usage
  • Add Toolbar to the settings screen, so the user can navigate easily at the app
  • This action will improve value between user and app

Next Steps

Vockapp future steps

Learnings

  • Evaluating competitors is a powerful tool to deeper understand what the user needs improvement
  • User research, center on understanding user needs and motivations through task analysis
  • A User Persona is an imaginary Customer, based on user needs, behaviors, goals, and needs
  • Information Architecture, is essentially the system of organization and structure content in digital screens
  • Low Fidelity Prototypes are incomplete representations of ideas that help us to validate them early in the design process
  • Usability testing is a technique to evaluate Prototypes by testing it on users