Problem Statement

Many college students don't have classes in school that would satisfy their need to learn a foreign language, and it can be painful and overwhelming to continue the tedium of learning extra content outside of school hours. Students need an app that makes learning a foreign language fun and motivating!

HMW Statement: How do we help college students who don't have a foreign language program at school to persist in learning a language outside of class?

Target Audiences & The Core User Needs

My target audiences are obviously college students who need to learn a foreign language. I interviewed five students of different ages and majors and summarized five things they need from a foreign language learning app:

• Culture integration - Students need the app to add some local cultural content that they are interested in into the learning content as learning motivation to make learning not boring.
• Personalized learning path - Each user is at a different stage of language mastery and has different requirements for language learning. They need the app to provide choices to ensure that the content is in line with their current learning stage.
• Study companion - For some purposes, such as practicing spoken pronunciation, asking questions they don’t understand, etc., some students hope to study with a teacher or a partner who is interested in the same language.
• Integration with real life situation - Users' learning purposes are usually very different. After learning the language, they all have different places they hope to use it. Everyone's language needs are different, so the app needs to provide different teaching content based on the situations that each user wants to use in life.
• Effective learning resources - Users' learning purposes are usually very different. After learning the language, they all have different places they hope to use it. Everyone's language needs are different, so the app needs to provide different teaching content based on the situations that each user wants to use in life.

Solutions

The solution I came out with is a karaoke-style learning app that allows students to learn basic vocabulary while enjoying fun content in a gamified way that makes it easier to stick with. In addition, I added an attractive reward system and an update system to encourage users to learn.

Sketches

My first 3 ideas of the foreign language learning app

Classic self-study app with schedule and alarm:

Online tutoring: