- Founder
- Visual Designer
Year
2020
My Role
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- UX Designer
Disciplines
- UX strategy
- UI
- Interaction design
Enhancing Playability and Engagement in an Existing Learning App
The language learning app market is crowded with leaders like Duolingo, Babbel, and Memrise. Our product already offered a unique value proposition — teaching languages through music — but it struggled to convert early curiosity into sustained engagement.
The challenge wasn’t to redesign the app from scratch, but to refine and expand the existing user experience — making the learning journey more rewarding, more playful, and more intuitive.
Auditing the current gamification systems to identify gaps in the player
Early analytics and user feedback showed:
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Users enjoyed the concept but didn’t feel clear progress or reward after lessons.
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Gamified elements like points and badges existed but lacked meaningful context.
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The hierarchy of interaction (learning → hint → mastery → reward) was unclear.
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Social features were underused, and monetisation prompts interrupted flow.
Our goal: enhance playability by giving users a stronger sense of control, feedback, and achievement — while keeping the learning process fun and intuitive.
Gamification Audit & Flow Refinement
I mapped the app’s existing flows to identify friction points — moments where users lost momentum or motivation. Using the concept of a game loop, I clarified how each learning activity connects to the next reward. Redesigned the streak mechanic to make daily learning visible and motivating — adding a simple “missed day” recovery feature to reduce drop-off
League Tables: Refined the leaderboard structure to feel more like a friendly competition rather than pure ranking.
Karaoke Mode: Expanded an existing feature to function like a puzzle challenge — learners could sing along to lyrics, matching rhythm and pronunciation accuracy for score multipliers.
Co-play & Sharing: Designed lightweight prompts for users to share progress or invite friends after key milestones.
Balancing Free and Premium Experiences
Rather than pushing monetisation early, I repositioned premium features as natural extensions of mastery:
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Free users unlock essential clues and songs.
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Premium users access bonus hints, exclusive tracks, and deeper analytics on pronunciation.
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Upgrades are offered after moments of success, not interruption — reinforcing a sense of earned reward.
Outcomes
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Improved retention as learners better understood their progress and rewards.
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Increased daily active use due to clearer streak tracking and touch feedback loops.
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Enhanced social engagement through shareable progress and leaderboard visibility.
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Created a more cohesive, playful user experience without overhauling the existing design system.
Reflection
Working on an existing product required subtlety — improving what already worked while adding motivation and clarity. By refining the app’s functional hierarchy (clues, hints, mastery) and building rewarding gamified loops, I helped transform learning from a linear tutorial into an interactive, puzzle-like experience.
This project strengthened my ability to enhance touch feedback, engagement systems, and premium balance — key elements in any gamified product experience.