Embers
A Project by Allison Parsley
Embers is a flashcard and calendar app for busy professionals seeking to learn a new language.
Context: This was a solo design project that I completed for my CareerFoundry Intro to UX Design course.
Problem: The user needs a way to continually and incrementally improve their language skills over time.
Goal: Create a language learning app that can be used in short snatches of time during a person’s busy schedule.
Role: UX/UI Designer
Technology: Zoom, Marvel, Figma, and Google Slides.
Stakeholder: CareerFoundry Intro to UX Design course
The Process
Empathize: In order to understand the space and my users' needs, I conducted a competitor analysis and user interviews.
Define: With the insights from my competitor analysis and user interviews, I was able to create a proto-persona, some job tasks, and a problem statement.
Problem Statement:
Austin needs a way to continually and incrementally improve his German skills over time. We will know this to be true when he marks the flashcards as complete for each deck.
In addition, I got started on the task analysis and user flows.
Ideate: This led naturally to the creation of the first wireframes for the app, which I converted to a clickable prototype using Marvel.
Test: With the clickable prototype, I was able to start my usability testing.
I conducted usability tests over zoom with 4 people in separate 10 minute sessions. Each participant was given 4 tasks to complete, and I took notes on any friction points and positive or negative feedback. I used these notes to inform revisions to the app, which I made at the same time as converting it to a mid-fi prototype in Figma.
Below, you can see my updated Figma prototype:
This is where the project stopped for the purpose of my course. If I had continued with the project, I would have done another round of usability testing to confirm that the updates resolved the issues discovered in the first round of usability testing. I would have performed further updates as appropriate after the second round of usability testing, and I would have conducted both an accessibility audit and a visual design audit.
Takeaways:
I really enjoyed the process of creating this app. This was my first time prototyping in Marvel, and creating the first prototype in Marvel and the second one in Figma really highlighted the differences between the two programs.
The usability testing was also a great learning experience, and it really drove home to me the importance of providing clear instructions and feedback to the user.
I'm looking forward to creating more projects in the near future!
