Design Diary

The evaluation: Duolingo’s design takes user characteristics into account in that it considers both novice and expert users and considers the individual contributions that users can make to each other’s language learning process. A placement test takes steps to prevent negative results of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is the tendency of people to overestimate their abilities. When users begin learning a language on the site or join Duolingo, they are invited to either begin at the lowest level or take a placement test, which is intended to place users in the correct level so that they do not struggle with lessons that are far above their skill level. Users are also given control in the form of an option to test out of a lesson module if their knowledge of the material is sufficient. This gives control to expert users while keeping novice users from moving to a level that is too advanced. Additionally, when users answer a question incorrectly, they are given the option to read a discussion board of questions and comments about that question, allowing people who have more background knowledge of the language to give their input about the correct answer. This collection of comments and answers from a variety of Duolingo users  is an example of crowd intelligence and may at times be more helpful or accurate than the single answer to a test question provided by Duolingo. In my own experience, Duolingo has marked correct answers as incorrect on more than one occasion.

The design of Duolingo also follows organizational and visual aspects of good design. The interface uses Fitts’ Law to reduce the time and effort it takes users to select options by using the top of the screen as a constraint and placing the menu bar at the top of the screen. Rather than forcing users to recall a series of desired commands or actions, the website uses the principle of recognition over recall to minimize errors and the time it takes users to make a decision. The website uses intuitive icons and clearly labeled buttons and menus to represent possible commands, so the user merely has to recognize the command that they want to make. Another way the design limits user error is through confirmation- when “quit” is selected during a session, a message pops up that asks the user if they intended to quit and lets them know that their progress in the session will be lost if they exit the session. Furthermore, each overarching lesson category consists of several sub-lessons, which each use chunking by grouping vocabulary within lessons together as an organizational method as well as a way to facilitate recall. Finally, the interface uses the picture superiority effect to promote better recall of language content. In each lesson, new words in the target language are paired with a picture representing the word. Since pictures are remembered more easily than words, users will be able to recall the correct answer to a multiple choice question more easily when presented with a picture than text alone.

Duolingo’s green owl mascot, Duo, is an example of a supernormal stimulus. Rather than looking like a real owl, Duo’s features are exaggerated, making it appear cuter and friendlier than its wild, predatory relatives. This serves to make Duo appear more interesting and favorable to users.  Duo also speaks to the user with speech bubbles and gives helpful or relevant information. I would argue that this is done successfully. Because Duo has human characteristics and represents Duolingo as a whole, users will feel an emotional tie to Duolingo. And because Duo appears in moderation and at predictable times, it avoids becoming a modern Clippy. Also, Duolingo is not presented as a sentient computer or actual human; rather, Duo is a representation or mascot of the system and gives instruction sparingly. If the Duolingo interface were more content-based, it might be advisable to avoid having a cartoon mascot, but because the interface is highly gamified and presented as fun, Duo seems appropriate.

The largest problem with Duolingo’s design is that it does not adhere to the back-of-the-dresser principle, which states that every part of a design should be of high quality- part of a design should not be left behind simply because it is less visible. In the case of Duolingo, the aesthetic design is of very high quality, while the standards for actual language content and answer-checking mechanisms seem to be lower.