Tilda
Transforming the way children learn languages through differentiated instruction and gamification
ROLE
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UX Researcher
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UX Designer
TOOLS
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AdobeXD
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Illustrator
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Google Forms
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Zoom
DURATION
4 day sprint
SKILLS
Exploratory Research, Competitive Analysis, Personas,
Ideation,Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Testing
OVERVIEW
Tilda is a learning app created for a design challenge over the course of four days. The app focuses on helping children in a wide range of age groups learn and practice a new language. Using proven learning techniques, Tilda was designed to help a larger audience by effectively grouping children into smaller age groups, thus developing age appropriate content to optimize language acquisition.
CHALLENGE
How might one design an app that helps children learn a new language?
Problem
Studies suggest that there's a disparity in language acquisition between children, adolescents and adults. Experts believe there's a critical period ranging between birth to 18 years old in which children can learn a new language. Most language learning platforms don't take critical age groups into account, and their approach to teaching a 5 year old is the same as teaching a 10 year old. While there are products that cater to infants, others that cater to adolescents, and so on, there is no platform that takes the age of the learner into account and grows along with them.
Solution
I wanted to create an app that would utilize age appropriate content and approaches, rather than just over simplifying lessons for younger audiences. Content is presented according to the user- a young child will learn implicitly through having conversations and mimicking real life behaviors and scenarios. As the child gets older structured, explicit learning mechanisms will be gradually introduced such as memorization tasks and traditional lessons like the ones we see on adult language apps.
RESEARCH
Linguistics 101
Before thinking about the target audience, I wanted to do some research on the intricacies of learning languages as babies, adults, and every age in between.
HOW DO WE DEVELOP LANGUAGE?:
Babies take in language naturally through interactions with adults or other children. We learn languages in stages. By the time a baby says their first word, they’ve already been playing around with sounds for a long time.
CRITICAL LEARNING PERIOD:
Experts believe that there is a critical period when learning languages. The ages vary, but the consensus seems to be that children remain skilled at learning a new language up to age 18, but it’s almost impossible for someone to become proficient at a native level in a language unless they began learning that language before age 10. This is because during puberty changes occur to the brain which make it much harder to learn a new language.
WHY IS IT EASIER FOR CHILDREN TO LEARN LANGUAGES?:
When acquiring a new language, children have the upper hand because
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They’re less afraid to make mistakes, which means they’re free to explore and speak freely.
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They also don’t need to master the complex levels of a language that an adult or older child would need to communicate. A child can communicate with one or two words, while adults have to form entire sentences.
INTERESTING FINDS:
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Some children learn a second language easily, but lose their native language in doing so. To maintain both languages, they need stimulation and value from both languages.
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In contrast to older children and adults, young children don’t have advanced problem solving strategies or a lot of life experience and therefore can’t explicitly learn language rules, make connections, and apply them.
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Although much of our early language learning depends on sounds, ASL speakers learn in the same stages as a baby who is learning English or German. They even babble with their hands.
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Creating an emotional bond makes people better at learning a language. Children who migrate to new countries learn the language much faster than their parents because they feel a sense of urgency to make friends and fit in.
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Although the skill to learn a new language begins to decline at about age 10, we can continue to get better at the languages we have over time. We don’t fully master our native language until we’re about 30 years old.
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Until the age of 12, language is vulnerable to change. Children can completely lose their native language if they’re removed from it. Older children and adults don’t have to worry too much about forgetting their native tongue, but once they begin learning a new language, the two are competing in their brain.
Competitive Analysis
I dug into some of the most popular language learning apps for children. The content involved videos, listening exercises, flashcards, quizzes, and in one instance, speech therapy exercises.
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A lot of the apps catered to a large age range, but the content didn’t reflect that.
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None of the apps except for Speech Blubs offered different lessons corresponding to the learners age.
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Most of the apps don’t offer helpful progress tracking for parents other than arbitrary levels and rewards.
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The apps that cater to children don’t do assessments. I believe this could be a problem for children who have more than a beginner's grasp on the language, because they won’t see value in beginning their journey if they’re being taught things they already know.
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All of the competitors allowed the user to switch back and forth between languages that were being learned.
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Most of the apps utilized some sort of reward system. Negative reinforcement was not detected in any of the competitors.
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There weren’t a lot of resources for caretakers that followed lessons. This could be a missed opportunity if the caregiver doesn’t speak the language that’s being learned.
MAIN FINDINGS
SURVEY
Due to my limited time frame, I didn’t have enough time to source participants for interviews. I sent out a survey to parenting groups on Facebook and Reddit. 19 caregivers participated in the survey.
KEY FINDINGS:
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Only 58% of participants are actively involved in their children's language learning. I figured that caregivers with more than 1 learner would be less likely to be involved since they’re tending to multiple children. It turns out that the number of children wasn’t a factor.
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There was no pattern between the number of languages being learned and involvement. Some participants were helping their children learn up to 3 languages, while others weren’t helping their children learn just 1.
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Conversing with native speakers was the most popular form of learning, even when the children were intentionally learning.
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Connecting with family and understanding culture was mentioned by almost all participants when asked why they felt it was necessary their children learn a second language.
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Some participants wanted their children to learn a second language in hopes that it would lead to better opportunities.
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Some of the difficulties children face while learning a new language are: forgetting phrases and words, getting bored, not having enough time, having a hard time forming sentences, and getting confused with their native language.
DEFINING
OUR USERS
The main users for the app would be a caregiver and their child. From our survey, I built out a parent persona representing the caregivers who aren’t actively assisting their children learn. Using insights from the survey and the preliminary research, I created a persona of a child who learns by observing and copying the people around her.
AMY
Amy speaks English and Spanish, but her dad wants her and her older siblings to learn Portuguese so they can communicate with grandma and grandpa. She gets frustrated when she can’t properly form sentences or remember certain words. She takes lessons on the family iPad but she usually feels bored and embarrassed at how different they are compared to the lessons her siblings get.
More than anything, she wants to have fun and fit in with her older siblings so they’ll hang out with her more often.
*It’s important to note that our child persona comes from the perspective of their caregivers, it is not backed by the insight of an actual child. Somethings I noticed about the research this is based on are:
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Children and adults have completely different thought processes.
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Caregivers might be biased and view their child's learning journey in an overly positive light.
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The motivations and goals that we expect to find from our users are usually complex and communicable. A child's motivations might be more simple-like having fun.
BILL
Bill is a busy dad who wants his 3 children to learn Portuguese. Since there's a big age gap between his kids, he wants something that’ll effectively teach all 3 kids while he isn’t around to help them. Bill wants the kids to learn Portuguese so they can communicate with his parents, and so they can have better job opportunities in the future.
THE PROBLEM
AMY
“I am a busy dad trying to make learning Portuguese fun for my kids, but I’m struggling to find a way to teach them Portuguese in a way that captures the attention of all three kids since they’re in different age groups and have fluctuating interests. This makes me feel defeated and like I’m not trying hard enough to help my kids.”
BILL
“I want to learn Portugese so that I don’t feel confused when we visit my dad's parents. Aside from being bored by Portugese lessons, I don’t understand the apps that my brother and sister use, and the app that dad downloaded for me is for babies. I feel embarrassed and like I’m letting dad down when I can’t follow along with my siblings."
IDEATION
6-8-5 Session
Onboarding
Onboarding possibilities for users who have multiple children. My idea was that caregivers could complete all profiles at once instead of having to repeat the onboarding process for each child
Focusing on the caregiver: Part of the onboarding would collect data about the adult in order to better help them help the child.
Differentiating Age Groups
A more traditional way of learning for older children
More engaging presentation of lessons for younger children, similar to a virtual world
How different profiles are presented in the adult home page
Lesson Presentation
Trying out different navigation options. A floating action menu could be beneficial for children who might accidentally tap away from the current screen
For younger children, fun and passive learning should be utilized. Creating a world within the app ties the lessons together, so they don't feel like a random assortment of games and puzzles. It also mimics real life.
Practicing
A live practice feature where children can have a conversation with other children. For example, Amy wants to practice her Spanish, she would speak to Ernesto, a native Spanish speaker who wants to learn English. Topics could be read out loud to guide conversation.
NAME
I looked at different language related words like "chitter," "chatter," and "idiom." None of them felt particularly youthful so I did a google search for talking animals.
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I came across an article about an orangutan named Tilda. She learned how to mimic human speech to communicate with her keepers. A quick google search taught me that children can usually make the sound for "t," "d," and "a," by the age of one. Being only two syllables, Tilda was the perfect name for a children's app.
WIREFRAMING PROCESS
CONCEPT
My initial idea for younger users was a world that they could move through and visit different lessons disguised as games. Once the user chooses what they want to do that day (ex: visit the food market-learn about fruits) they watch a video and play a game that reinforces the lesson. The user would also be able practice what they learned that day by having a guided conversation with a character.
ONBOARDING
During onboarding, care givers can create an account for more than one child. This way, they can save time and use one set of answers to help assess the other child.
Paper Wireframes
Mid Fidelity Prototype
DASHBOARD
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I wanted to keep the dashboard very simple and keep the children's account front and center
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Originally I had the main menu tucked away to the side since Tilda was designed for a tablet. I didn't want to go with a traditional bottom navigation, because I didn't want to carry bottom navigation over to the children's interface-where they might tap the wrong button by accident
Paper Wireframe
Mid Fidelity Wireframe
The dashboard had too much white space so tabs were replaced with a traditional bottom navigation layout
These are tabs that could be dragged out
LESSONS
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In this sprint, I didn't have enough time to develop different landing pages for different ages. I focused on the lesson presentation style for younger children (ages 3-6)
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Children would pick an activity like "food shopping," view a video lesson, and then play a game to reinforce the lesson.
Paper Wireframe
Mid Fidelity Wireframe
PRACTICE
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Since our research suggested that children learn new languages through conversations, I wanted to encourage conversations.
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However, having children video chat through an app is a big no-no. Instead, I created a character who has conversations with the user. The user records their voice and they get a short response. Using a mascot for practice could also create a more positive experience for users.
Paper Wireframe
Mid Fidelity Wireframe
OUTCOMES
THIS IS TILDA
It's still a work in progress, but you can click around the prototype yourself here
TAKEAWAYS
NEXT STEPS
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Obviously, it's a logistical challenge to interview children. For this tight deadline, I wasn't able to conduct user interviews or usability tests. My next step would be to schedule interviews with teachers, early childhood experts, caregivers, and children.
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My child persona only belongs to one age group. Upon doing more user research, I think I would uncover different archetypes of various ages.
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I chose Adobe XD for this project because it offers the ability to incorporate sound. With more time, I'd like to learn more about designing with audio to create a more immersive learning experience.
DIFFICULTIES
I had a hard time designing something with no content. A lot of the solutions I thought of felt more like I was developing content instead of an interface. Since that was a hurdle I couldn't get around, I decided to work through it, and designed some basic content like a game "which was a lot of fun!} and finally, I could visualize the UX around it. The navigation, presentation of lessons, and review element was only visible once I was able to see the mock content and understand what the user would be experiencing.
I LEARNED...
Everything you create is a chance to empathize with your user. Even when it didn't feel relevant at the time, creating mock content helped me put myself in the users shoes AND get my creativity juices flowing.
I used this opportunity to get more experience with creating wireframes and prototyping in Adobe XD.
