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Linnet Chinese Educational App

Uncover opportunities for product iteration and brand identity development to enhance user growth and retention

Product

Chinese Learning App

Time

August 2021 - Feburary 2022

Role

UX Research Intern

Team

Founder, Marketing, UX Designer, Visual Designer, Engineer, Subject Matter Experts

Methods

Competitive Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation, Usability Testing, User Interviews

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*I can only share limited information and focus on my work process because of the NDA agreement.

Context

Challenges

Linnet Chinese is an Ed-tech startup that leverages AI in Chinese learning courses. To secure funding and investment, our team rapidly launched the product with only 3 foundational courses as a means to generate user data. However, the growth of users remained stagnant and users' engagement was very low. It was imperative that we gain user insights on the product and attract more potential users.

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  1. Our product was designed for children, but the team decided to redirect the user scope to all ages.

  2. SMEs and engineers needed time to develop additional courses but we needed to attract and maintain users asap.

  3. We had limited time and the cause of our problem was not well-defined.​

Research Process

Competitive Analysis

Heuristic Evaluation

Usability

Study

User

Interview

How is our app compared to other products? - Competitive Analysis

All stakeholders came together to define the project goal, task priority, and timeline. My team was expected to investigate the product and marketing strategy of our competitors to gain a better understanding of the market trend.

 

We conducted a competitive analysis of 10+ companies and synthesized our results to offer actionable insights on the pricing strategy, customer acquisition method, and product design, to the marketing director, UX designer, and engineer. ​​We also facilitated product development by creating low fidelity prototypes for new in-app features.

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Is our app well-developed and supports learning? - Heuristic Evaluation

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After gaining a clear picture of the industry practice with competitive analysis, I supported the UX designer and engineering team in evaluating and improving our educational app.

 

I conducted a heuristic evaluation, using Jacob Neilson's 10 general principles for user interfaces. In addition, I took advantage of my background in learning sciences and technologies to apply learning theories such as Motivation, Scaffolding, and other design principles of learning environments. 

What roadblocks exist in our product and what do adult users think about our app? - Usability Study and In-depth Interview

To test the usability of our product and gain actionable insights, I recruited 3 adult participants who are interested in learning Chinese to download and try our app.

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Usability Study Insights

My in-depth interview, followed by the usability study, showed that all adult users think the user interfaces (originally designed for children) are appropriate and engaging. This finding helped alleviate our company's major concern of meeting the demands of all ages with the current UI. I combined these insights with my heuristic evaluation to provide a list of functional, instructional, and visual recommendations for our UX designer and Engineers. We held a full-group meeting to discuss the priority of each task and brainstorm solutions.

What are the needs and behaviors of our users? - User Interview

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The previous research revealed the problem of our app and generates insights for improvement. To address the goal of retaining current users, I remotely interviewed 5 participants from our user community.

 

My research questions included: 

  1. Why do users want to learn Chinese?

  2. How do they learn?

  3. Where and how do they find learning resources?

  4. What features do they expect to see in such apps/platforms?

Affinity Map of User Interview

Solutions

Linnenture: Enhancing user retention by providing daily Chinese quizzes

We incorporated the technology and capacity of the engineering and UI team with our research insights to develop this in-app feature.

​

Research Insights:

  • Users like to take the mini-quizzes embedded in the learning courses

  • Users appreciate simple and fast learning opportunities

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Product features:

  • Daily Chinese vocabulary challenge

  • Automatic Speech recognition

Instagram Campaign: establishing brand identity and attracting new users

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I initiated an Instagram campaign with the goal to attract Chinese learners browsing social media and provide an additional venue for current user interaction. 

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Research Insights:

  • Users frequently use social media for Chinese learning resources

  • Users like Chinese culture

  • Users want fun and engaging content

​

Features: 

  • Four series of educational content

    • Chinese buzzwords

    • Reversible Chinese words

    • Four ways to say

    • Chinese culture and holiday

​

App Store Optimization: Increasing the visibility and attractiveness of our product

To increase the visibility and attractiveness of our product, I exerted a series of app store optimization strategies. 

Research Insights:

  • Our app has a low app ranking and is hard to find

  • Users search for Chinese learning resources on App store

Actions:

  • Created mock-up illustrations with UXD

  • Strategize app description, keywords, title, and sub-titles.

  • Create the "Invitation to review" feature in our app

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Impact

  1. Enhance daily active users (DAU) by 217% in a week

  2. Increase ​Instagram content exposure by 1124% and fan base by 22.4% in a month

  3. App store rank for major keywords such as "Learn Chinese" increased from #128 to #7

  4. Save the team from redesigning the User interface, which is based on our team's subjective interpretation

Self-Reflection

  • Users' impression of and experience with our app extends beyond the actual use, but starts with the moment they find it, whether on social media, the app store, or search engines

  • Never assume that we understand the user and always conduct real research

  • Communication with stakeholders and an understanding of the company's resources and capacity are crucial keys to transferring research insights into effecitve impacts

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