Lego | Kyle Welch

OVERVIEW

Lego invests millions of dollars each year to hire top global talent. Employee retention at Lego HQ in Denmark is much higher when the employees learn Danish. Lego needed a solution to help their employees master the Danish language as quickly and efficiently as possible.

PROJECT

Danish language learning web app for Lego

GOAL

Help each user learn Danish as quickly and efficiently as possible

TARGET USERS

Lego team members who relocate to Lego HQ in Denmark

ROLE

Lead UX designer, Assistant curriculum designer, Front-end developer

SIMPLICITY

TARGET USERS

We gathered a pool of target users and conducted in-depth interviews, focus groups, and onsite observations with each of them. We drafted personas and analyzed the central goals, frustrations, and needs of the target users. A brief summary of needs is outlined below.

PROTOTYPING

Prototype 1

lo-fidelity

Goals:

Test the inital curriculum, navigation, and content of a demo lesson

Test Results:

Very positive feedback on curriculum & content, but it was clear the lesson needed more scaffolding and automated feedback

Prototype 2

lo-fidelity

Goals:

Introduce and test a new lesson menu, introduce a dojo-inspired stylistic approach, provide better scaffolding and in-lesson feedback

Test Results:

Positive feedback on new menu and in-lesson feedback; users expressed a desire for higher quantity & variety of assessments

Prototype 3

mid-fidelity

Goals:

Introduce a new layer of personalization: user choice in types of skills and specific vocabulary to learn, and a greater variety of assessment types

Test Results:

The tests highlighted a deeper need for a combination of computer-graded & self-graded assessments as well as a greater emphasis on grammar instruction

Prototype 4

mid-fidelity

Goals:

Introduce new layers of personalization, tested a sensei mascot, added additional assessment types, audio recording features, and additional grammar lessons

Test Results:

Strong positive feedback on computer-graded assessments and personalization; discovered a need for better pronunciation practice & assessments

Prototype 5

hi-fidelity

Goals:

Introduce chatbots, new pronunciation guides, human-graded assessments

Test Results:

Very positive feedback for all new features; the central need was to introduce more content

CHATBOTS FROM SCRATCH

I began writing and testing algorithms using regular expressions in JavaScript to define the personalities, scope, and conversation patterns of Danish chatbots. The central goal of our chatbots was to let users practice Danish with more of the spontaneity and complexity of real-life interactions.

HUMAN TOUCH

DANISH EXPERTS FOR EVERY LEARNER

We decided to hire Danish coaches to greatly enhance the learning experience. We designed a tutoring model that was dramatically cheaper than the typical language tutoring pricing model. The Danish tutors offered three key components to our solution:

A go-to expert for Danish questions

Most target users constantly had new Danish questions and hated bugging their neighbors and coworkers to ask for language help. Now they have a safe outlet to ask all the questions they want.

Personalized feedback

Users can submit a recording of any of their practice sessions with a chat bot and get personalized feedback on their performance.

Motivation to keep learning

Many users felt that learning Danish was like going to the gym: they felt a desire and a need to do it, but found it easy to put off. When brainstorming ideas for how to help motivate our learners, we thought of the difference in motivation between receiving push notifications from a mobile app (pretty weak) and having a personal trainer to hold you accountable for reaching your goals (much better). This became a key function of the Danish coaches. (We decided to integrate Drift as we piloted the messaging functionality.)

Hey there, partner! I reckon this page works best if you flip yer contraption on its side

OVERVIEW

PROJECT

GOAL

TARGET USERS

ROLE

MY ROLE

CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH 5 TEAMS

TIMELINE

10-MONTH SPAN FROM INCEPTION TO LAUNCH

EMPATHY

DEEPLY UNDERSTANDING STAKEHOLDERS AND USERS

PRICE

EFFICACY

SIMPLICITY

TARGET USERS

TRAIT:

BUSY PROFESSIONAL

NEED:

MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY

TRAIT:

IMMERSED IN DANISH

NEED:

REAL-WORLD SKILLS

TRAIT:

PROGRESS-DRIVEN

NEED:

INDIVIDUAL FEEDBACK

TRAIT:

VARIED LEARNING PREFERENCES

NEED:

FLEXIBLE LEARNING OPTIONS

PROTOTYPING

Prototype 1

Goals:

Test Results:

Prototype 2

Goals:

Test Results:

Prototype 3

Goals:

Test Results:

Prototype 4

Goals:

Test Results:

Prototype 5

Goals:

Test Results:

THE MAGIC FORMULA

ELABORATION THEORY

THE CHALLENGE

OPTION A

OPTION B

2-SIGMA EFFECT

CHATBOTS FROM SCRATCH

Risk-Free Practice

HUMAN TOUCH

DANISH EXPERTS FOR EVERY LEARNER

A go-to expert for Danish questions

Personalized feedback

Motivation to keep learning

THE FULL EXPERIENCE