Immersive Worlds | L Masters Design

The Immersive Worlds of Intuitive Learning Journeys

The Team

01.

Product Manager

01.

Product Designer

(me)

03.

Engineers

01.

Education Lead

The Challenge

Lingumi - EdTech, for children ages 2-6 years

Reimagine the Lingumi experience to enhance self-sufficiency, improve learning efficacy, and create a more intuitive interface for children.

“I often find myself wanting to go back and revisit previous lessons to reinforce what my little one has learned, but the current app makes it a hassle to do so.”

"I often feel lost in the app, not knowing which lesson to do next or if my child is making any progress. It's like wandering around without a map.”

"Navigating the app is really frustrating. My child often feels lost, and I have to step in constantly to help find the next lesson. It's not clear what to do next."

Lingumi users told us...

With the addition of new content and a revised curriculum structure, the once simple and user-friendly Lingumi experience has become bloated, causing frustration and confusion among both children and grown-ups.

Originally designed for a single stage, the interface now struggles to accommodate multiple stages and the inclusion of 12 topics per module within each stage. This complexity leaves users unclear about their learning journey, compounded by the lack of auto-progression, making it difficult for learners to know what to study next.

The product vision has outpaced the user experience, resulting in confusion and inefficiency. The current challenge is to reimagine the Lingumi experience, making it intuitive and straightforward for children to navigate independently, without the need for grown-up assistance.

Addressing User Needs: Streamlining for Clarity and Ease

To gather and synthesise user needs, we conducted comprehensive interviews with both existing and new users, gaining direct insights into their experiences and challenges. We also analysed feedback messages from our customer support team, which highlighted recurring issues and user frustrations.

Independant Play

Caregivers wish for children to navigate and learn independently without constant assistance.

Visible Progress

Caregivers find it difficult to track their child's progress and understand their current learning stage, leading to uncertainty about the child’s educational journey.

Replay lessons

Children want to replay lessons and switch subjects on their own, highlighting the need for more intuitive and child-friendly interfaces.

Child Profiles

Children and their caregivers, with more then one account, want to see who is playing and easily switch accounts if needed.

The Creative Process

Our creative process involved conducting user interviews to establish user needs, performing competitor analysis to identify industry best practices, generating ideas and holding creative sessions with the team, and developing initial prototypes followed by iterative testing and refinement based on user feedback.

The Solution

The solution centred on making all 60 lessons within a stage accessible on the screen, enabling learners to easily track progress, replay lessons, and find their favourite lessons within the immersive worlds tailored to each topic (set of 5 lessons). Learners responded positively to the experience, and most importantly, children could play intuitively without any caregiver assistance.

Learning Journey

The Learning Journeys feature revolutionises the user experience by displaying all lessons within a stage on a single screen. This intuitive design allows learners and caregivers to easily visualise their progress and explore lessons at their own pace. Unlike the previous design, Learning Journeys enables automatic progression to the next lesson or topic, eliminating the confusion users previously faced. By ensuring learners follow the sequence intended by teachers, this feature enhances the educational experience, making it more cohesive and structured. As a result, children can enjoy a seamless and engaging learning path, playing lessons in the optimal order without needing guidance from a caregiver.

Child Profiles

Child profiles are a convenient addition to the homescreen that allows caregivers to easily manage and monitor each child's progress. With Child Profiles prominently displayed, caregivers can quickly identify who is currently playing, addressing the common issue of not knowing which child's account is active. This feature provides peace of mind, ensuring that each child receives personalised learning experiences and progress tracking without interference from others. By minimising confusion and maximising accountability, Child Profiles offer a low-risk, high-reward solution that enhances the overall user experience for both children and caregivers.

Immersive Worlds

The Immersive World Experience transforms learning by creating unique, engaging environments for each topic within a stage. Each topic is brought to life with tailored backgrounds, transition animations, and thematic audio elements, including button sounds, to fully immerse learners in the subject matter. For example, a space-themed topic will feature cosmic backgrounds, interstellar animations, and space-related audio, while a jungle-themed topic will include lush greenery, wildlife animations, and nature sounds. This attention to detail creates an engaging and interactive atmosphere, making learning not only educational but also an adventure. By immersing children in these vividly themed worlds, we enhance their focus and enjoyment, leading to a more memorable and effective learning experience.

Content Switching

The latest designs introduce the ability to effortlessly switch between active subjects and stages directly from the child home screen. Previously, this task was cumbersome and relegated to the grown-up area, denying children autonomy over their learning journey. By placing this functionality front and centre, we address the user need for easy accessibility and empower children to take control of their learning experiences. Now, navigating between subjects and stages is intuitive and user-friendly, ensuring that essential actions are no longer hidden away but instead seamlessly integrated into the learning journey.

The Outcome

Following the finalisation of designs, we meticulously addressed edge cases, finalised flows, and prepared tickets for engineering work.

However, as we neared launch, Lingumi decided to embark on partnerships, prompting a shift in direction. While our designs were customisable, they were hardcoded in Lingumi's signature style. To accommodate partnerships, we made small adjustments to allow for customisability and developed an internal tool for easy uploading of background images, audio, and creation of new styles, including button styles tailored to any brand, without requiring additional engineering work.

Once back on track, we conducted an A/B test comparing the current one lesson experience with the new learning journey experience. The results were overwhelmingly positive, prompting a phased rollout until every learner transitioned to the new, enhanced experience.

To delve deeper into the customisation process, read more about it here.

Metric Breakdown

-15%

decrease in log-in to FreePlay rates

increase in log-in to lesson start rate

15%

increase in Foundation Stage trial completion rates

35%

increase in the average total session length

"I liked how the lesson buttons were all there on the screen, making it seem like the lessons got tougher as you moved through them. It felt like my kid was making progress and facing new challenges,"