nihonGO! is a Japanese language learning app that focuses on teaching its users the three Japanese alphabets of hiragana, katakana, and kanji.
Many language learners undertake the challenge of learning a second language in pursuit of travel. Through nihonGO! I wanted to use the motivation of travel and exploration to promote user's learning progress. I sought to gamify the Japanese learning experience inspired by Animal Crossing New Horizons where users were rewarded for completing lessons with "traveling" to different parts of Japan and the chance to customize their game character.
Japanese has three phonetic alphabets (hiragana, katakana, and kanji) and can be difficult to learn for beginners who are unfamiliar with the characters, sounds, and differentiations. How can we distill how to read, write, and pronounce the three separate alphabets in a manner that is easily understood by varying levels of language comprehension among users?
I redesigned the website with the main objective of bringing the three main call-to-actions of adoption, donation, and volunteering to the forefront.
User Researcher, UI & UX Designer
Figma, Photoshop, After Effects
2 weeks
I began by conducting a competitive analysis to assess which features are available on other language learning apps. Through comparing five apps, I found Duolingo to be the most comprehensive single app that teaches users all three alphabets. It uses gamification features with rewards such as XP, gems, streaks, and achievements that motivate the user to return and progress through their language study.
In order to understand target users, I surveyed six people who had studied Japanese for varied amounts of time from 1 week to 2 years, in regards to how they used apps to supplement their Japanese learning, and what methods they used outside of app usage. I found that most people surveyed used Duolingo everyday or almost everyday, as well as used mnemonic devices to assist in memorizing the alphabets. Additionally, users stressed that grammar, reading, and writing, were the three most important aspects for them in learning Japanese. Considering users’ main motivations for learning Japanese and the apps that are popularly used, I discovered some major pain points:
I wanted to ensure the app could be used by learners in all stages of their Japanese whether they were completely new to the concept of hiragana or were well read and wanted a way to review kanjis. Therefore, I distilled the user information from the survey and created two personas that would embody both the beginner and experienced Japanese learner.
Keeping both types of users in mind, I created a user flow that focused on customizing the language learning experience through character choices and a proficiency quiz. I also wanted to prioritize creating a comprehensive onboarding process for users who were unfamiliar with the fundamentals of the Japanese writing system through introducing the kana and kanji charts.
I created the following wireframes to test the user flow and ensure the onboarding process for beginner users was comprehensive.
I was heavily influenced by Animal Crossing’s world building and wanted to incorporate similar ideas of exploration and landscapes to immerse users into the nihonGO! experience. Open skies were also an important theme that I wanted to adhere to as the background of the app to enhance the travel imagery.
I chose shades of blue as the primary colors to represent a sense of exploration and paired it with earthy tones of green and orange to evoke a sense of nature and activity.
Stroke order in Japanese matters and is a critical part of learning the written language. I created this animation using Photoshop to mimic how the user traces the character with numerical prompts.
After testing the high-fidelity prototype on beginner users, feedback showed that there was still iterations that had to be made to create a smoother onboarding process.
Though this project, I was able to get a better understanding of how to establish a cohesive visual design system that evoked playfulness and travel. At the same time, it served as an important reminder to design with a diverse set of users in mind.
As a next step, I would love to delve deeper into the intricacies of incorporating game mechanics to the user experience and further developing the incentive system within the app.