CONTENT DESIGN & LEADERSHIP

Duolingo: Manageable, meaningful milestones

 
 

A section overview screen

PROBLEM

  • The recently redesigned learning path was too long, which was overwhelming to users

  • The app offered some milestones, but they felt arbitrary (e.g. “Unit 99”) and disconnected from users’ learning goals 

SOLUTION

  • Divide the “path” into more manageable “sections”

  • Provide high-level context to make those sections meaningful to users

MY ROLE

Design lead

WHAT I DID

  • Led discussions to define problems and align on scope and design direction

  • Cleared up ambiguity and helped unblock designers

  • Wrote all UX content

  • Worked with:

    • PM and eng lead to hone scope and track milestones

    • Engineers to define implementation logic

    • Learning scientists to align on curriculum descriptions

    • Product designer to refine UX

    • Illustrators to refine art concepts

    • Localization to ensure scalability

    • UX researcher to test solutions

    • C-level leadership to align on overall strategy

OUTCOMES

  • The feature shipped with stronger engagement: +2.1% (+1M min/day) time spent learning, +2.93% (300K events/day) path lessons, and +3.66% (100K value/day) path progress

  • In user testing, users noted the easier navigation

  • In the months following the release of the feature, in UX research we’ve seen that users have already adopted “sections” as a mental model for their progress