Improving Duolingo

Fergus Xavier

Hello, I’d like to talk about one of my favorite product which is Duolingo!

Duolingo is a mobile app/ web app that helps people learning a new language by expanding their vocabulary in a gamification kind of exercises.

I completed all the Duolingo sessions for the English language so I’d like to focus on the group of users that are at the end of the journey.
People like me were highly motivated to complete all three of Duolingo that I finished it so quickly. The app keeps giving you the same contents and after a while is boring for us and the only reason we’re still on the platform is for vanity (the app shows a public badge of for how long you’re practicing on it non-stop). I feel this is not enough and in this way, the app is going to lose some true fans that they want to look for something more advanced.

This user group has still more juice to squeeze and their LTV can still be pushed a little bit far with the improvements listed below:

-Physical Award: Youtube, Github, Product Hunt, and many more platforms award the best users, like me there are many people willing to pay to receive an “official award”. It will be great to have an assessment test and receive a physical trophy. Duolingo can do that every year to keep their users engaged and have a spot in their life with something nice to look at and maybe the reason to start a conversation.

-Interactive Stories: today we see many examples of volunteers willing to help for a cause in online communities (check Facebook groups). By creating an ecosystem that is self-sustained, Duolingo can create a kind of graphic tool like Canva+Google Presentation to create animated stories, the users with a certain amount of experience can contribute by creating a new story and new users can play/read them.

Another big problem I saw in this app which is related to a specific user group (minor people <18)

-Private profile: I was reading Duolingo’s forum and some concerned mum was worried for the son’s privacy, she was asking if there’s a way to report a fake profile that is using the son’s image and name. This is a huge pain point, by being more vigilant on the platform is not enough, the best way to block this problem could be a private profile with an anonymous name for people under 18. I believe a nickname is not enough to protect users’ identity because most people use the same nickname on many websites/games and similar. By making a minor anonymous we solve this problem from the root.

Luis Neilson

Hello, this is my first question post, thank you in advance for any feedback!

QUESTION: How would you improve Duolingo?

Mission / Product

To make education free, fun, and accessible to all

Business Goal (Revenue, Active Users, New Users, Engagement, Retention)

To design a feature that will increase engagement.

Doubt	Clarification (Assumption)
Shall I focus on just Duolingo, not the newer offerings?	Yes

Users	Personas	Use Cases
User taking a language course		Student needs additional help in their language class, so they seek out duolingo
User planning to study abroad		Student is planning on studying abroad for several months and so wants to nail down some basic conversational skills
User planning to travel		Adult is looking to travel internationally and hopes to navigate with little to no help, would also like to pick up conversational skills
User wanting to learn a new skill		Adult is just looking to stimulate their mind, might be fond of a specific language for some reason.
Users who have completed all modules for a given language		They were incredibly driven and might still be hungry for more

User Journey Painpoints

User feels that they don’t need all of Duolingo, just the parts that they are struggling to understand
User actively needs more help in class and that is why they are seeking help
User feels overwhelmed with the amount of content that Doulingo offers and is unsure of how much they need to learn to get the basics down
User feels they are only learning about the language and nothing else about the country
User that is only interested in picking up a new skill, may still not know which language to start learning
User feels that they may get better practice if they could talk to someone, as opposed to the recording voices
User lacks motivation to continue learning
User wants more ways to learn and practice

User Needs

User needs a way to focus on specific subjects that they are struggling in
User needs a way to help pace their learning
User needs a way to to understand the countries customs as well as the language
User needs a way to help pick which language to start learning
User needs a way to practice with real person instead of recordings
User needs a way to keep them energized about learning
User needs a way to keep practicing their language after they have completed the course

User Solutions

Allow user to select which module they want to dive deeper into and provide further learning content
Add a timer feature and let the user input their time frame, then the app can show the user how much learning they need to complete each day to reach their goals
On the news feed and based upon the users language, show articles about the countries culture to help them become more familiar with the culture and help mitigate culture shock
When the user selects a new course, show a pop up that offers help in deciding if they so choose. This popup can display stats such as languages that are most popular, easiest to learn, how prevalent various languages are across the world
Offer a penpal feature, where users can connect and message within the app, there can be an algorithm to pair users up based on the native language and learning language
Offer tutors through Duolingo, this can be a premium feature or 2nd level premium feature, where they can start a video call through the app and go over lessons together. These tutors can be those that have completed a language course and passed a final exam for certification.
In the app, maybe in the news feed, show images and articles of the country of origin, show how beautiful it is, excite the user to go visit and that will encourage them want to keep learning
Pair with hotels and tourist activities, Duolingo can then show this as ads in the app, which will generate revenue for them, and encourage users to actually travel to that country or countries, and will help tourism in those places

BUC Method = (Business benefits + User benefits) – Cost

User Needs (2-5 Scale)	Business Benefits (B)	User Benefits (C)	Resource Cost (Time + effort + cost) (D)	Priority (B+C) – D
1	4	5	5	4
2	5	5	3	7
3	4	4	3	5
4	4	5	2	7
5	5	5	5	5
6	4	5	5	4
7	4	4	3	5
8	5	4	5	4

Success Metrics

2) Adoption, how long their timers, repeating users

4) Does the user base of the most popular/easiest to learn languages increase, are people using this help feature

Risk / Trade-Offs

2) I don’t see a risk here

4) Less popular languages are never selected, monopolizes the more popular languages

Summarize

I believe I can improve the Duolingo product by implementing features 2 and 4 from my solutions list.

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