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TOOL: Figma
ROLE: UX designer, designing the app from conception to delivery
DURATION: November 2021
-January 2022
Project Vision
Easy Polish News enables Polish language learners to improve their skills by reading real-life texts such as news articles. It aids the language learning process by offering easy in-app translations of unknown vocabulary as well as a notebook feature for saving and reviewing newly learned words.
Challenge
Create an application with a minimalistic UI and a cohesive interface that allows users to quickly and easily translate Polish news articles.
Kick-off
After asking myself some initial key questions such as:
"What is the product and who is it for?"
"Who do I see as our biggest competitors?"
"What do our primary users need the most?"
I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I am designing for and their needs. The primary user group identified through research was anyone who learns one language or is familiar with learning languages.
User Research: Pain Points
1
Time
Polish language learners find reading and translating Polish news from original sources time consuming and tedious.
2
Availability
Polish news stories are not widely publicised on global news platforms.
3
Lack of cultural understanding
The true meaning of news from Poland presented in a language other than Polish can be occasionally distorted.
Meet the users
Persona: Jimin Lee
Problem statement:
Jimin is a busy student who wants to find and translate Polish news herself because she has noticed that the context of Polish news presented in Korean media can be distorted, which hinders her studies.
Persona: Marie Nowak
Problem statement:
Marie is a young adult who wants an article translation tool because she finds reading Polish news from original sources time consuming and tedious.
User journey map
Mapping Marie’s user journey revealed how helpful it would be for users to have access to the Easy Polish News app.
Wireflow
While sketching out paper wireframes and thinking through the preliminary flow, I created multiple versions of each screen until I found a combination of features and elements that I thought matched the users needs and would be as intuitive as possible.
I then moved on to digital wireframes and based on them I created the low-fidelity prototype. The main user flow I connected was selecting an article and translating it, so the prototype could be used in a usability study.
Usability Study
Following the development of the low-fidelity prototype, I conducted an unmoderated usability study. The participants were asked to complete the aforementioned main user flow, and provide feedback on how they felt about the app in general. The data was then analysed and organised into themes. Keeping these in mind, I created a high-fidelity version of the app that included the following changes:
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Navigation changes
While dropdowns were a familiar interaction for most users, I discovered that selecting an article required too many clicks. I wanted the process of selecting articles to be as quick and simple as possible so I changed the category dropdowns to tabs.
Before
After
Tutorial addition
I discovered that some users who wanted to translate a word in an article struggled or were unsure how to do so. I added a tutorial to make the translation process as clear and simple as possible.
Before
After
Accessibility changes
Before
I found that some users who read the article found the text to be too small to read. In order to make the app accessible to everyone, I added font size and letter spacing size options.
After
Following tests and iterations, my final product met all of the objectives I had set for it, which included three core features - displaying articles, a translating tool, and a notebook - required for users to learn Polish quickly and easily.
After the project was completed, it was handed over to a developer. You can now download the application from the link provided below.
Style Guide
Takeways
While designing the Easy Polish News app, I learned that the first ideas for the app are only the beginning of the process. Usability studies and peer feedback influenced each iteration of the app’s designs.
Next steps: Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need.
Thank you for scrolling!
If you have any feedback, want to collaborate or just want to say hello, let’s get in touch!
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