Cultivate
A personalized and imaginative language learning experience
Overview
Take your language learning journey into your own hands with Cultivate!
With Cultivate, you become the gardener. Cultivate is a digital garden for language learning that keeps track of knowledge drawn from a variety of language learning methods.
Cultivate was awarded the most strategic web-based solution at the UX Laurier Designathon.
Team: Gordon Wu, Alex Hernandez, Maureen Luo, Victoria Lim
Role: UX Designer
Software: Figma
Duration: March 2023
Problem
Using traditional language learning methods such as Duolingo, associated textbooks, and immersion follows the systematic approach when learning a new language. However, this makes the user rely on multiple learning methods which is less efficient and results in forgetting the content learned over time.
At the UX Laurier Designathon, our challenge was to design an experience that sparks curiosity, self-reflection, and experimentation to enhance learning and discovery. We were given 24 hours to complete our project.
Process
When taking on the challenge of learning a new language, it's typically difficult for users due to the overwhelming amount of information and lack of organization in current learning methods. This application needs to cater to the user's learning pace, provide a way to track learning progression, and provide a space for recording idioms, grammar concepts, and slang.
With Cultivate, every new piece of information a user adds becomes a seed in their digital garden, representing a category or connecting to existing ones. These seeds grow into trees as concepts become more familiar through practice, creating a flourishing garden of similar interconnected ideas and notes.
Cultivate also features an AI-powered chatbot for realistic oral practice and a flashcard system for active recall and memorization.
Prototyping
Due to time constraints, we bypassed intermediate steps and went directly from low-fidelity prototypes to high-fidelity mockups. However, the thoroughness of our initial sketches played a pivotal role in streamlining our process.
Outcomes
Adding seeds
Every concept is symbolized as a plant, allowing users to input the knowledge they've acquired regarding that concept. This includes providing the word or name of the concept, its definition, and personal examples that reinforce comprehension.
Learning method - Active Recall
Flashcards employ active recall as a learning method to practice specific terminology and phrases in the language learning web app. This approach engages users in actively retrieving and practicing specific terminology and phrases, leading to better retention and increased confidence in real-world communication.
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Learning method - Conversation
Users can engage in conversation with an AI chatbot that creates real-life situations, enabling them to practice and become acquainted with diverse and unusual discussion subjects. Should users encounter any difficulties, a set of suggested responses is available to assist them in maintaining the conversation flow.
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Recommendations system
A recommendation engine is integrated to facilitate the exploration of new vocabulary. Each plant/node presents three related words that have not yet been added to your garden, enabling you to expand your vocabulary repertoire.
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AI-powered clustering
Cultivate employs AI-powered clustering to manage the growing number of plants in your language garden. This feature organizes the plants into interconnected ecosystems, creating a dynamic and living document that expands alongside your language skills.
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Reflection
Cultivate was a great success, winning the most strategic web-based solution at the UX Laurier Designathon.
Despite working in a short time constraint and dealing with the obstacles that came along with our challenging design prompt, this project was truly a blast to work on. Moving forward, I would improve this app by adding a series of onboarding screens to gauge the user's level of expertise and flesh out the existing features on the home page by adding a navigation bar. I would also run a few rounds of usability tests before finalizing the design and then connect with developers to discuss feasibility.