About the App
Exchange is an app designed to fuse language learning with social media. The premise was derived from many studies that show that people progress faster when they are able to practice speaking their target language regularly. Most language learning apps focus on vocabulary and grammar, but not as much emphasis is placed on the importance of speaking.
The Exchange app connects people who are learning the same language, so they can learn and practice together. Through the Exchange app, people can participate in the exchange of ideas, cultures, and broaden their horizons while learning a new language.
Key Features
Language Learning Sections: sections dedicated to learning vocabulary, grammar, and speaking
Reference Guide: a quick, one-page tool designed to help you speak by reminding you of basic grammar guidelines
Quizzes: quizzes designed to test your progress and show where you can improve. Quizzes are graded by an actual person who can give you personalized notes. High quiz scores allow you to earn points faster
Social Feed: upon opening the app, you can view and interact with posts in your target language
Ask a Question: People in your language community can ask questions regarding various aspects of language learning. They will appear on your feed, and by answering them you can earn points
Points Shop: You can redeem points earned through quizzes and answering questions to customize your profile, donate to charity, gain an extra life, or you can save up your points and cash out for physical money.
Core Brand Values
Education: continuing education, fostering a love of learning at any age
Diversity: appreciation of languages and cultures of people all around the globe
Self-Improvement: broadening perspectives, experiencing new cultures, meeting new people
Exchange is designed as a supplemental tool to more traditional language learning programs, such as Duolingo or Babbel. These apps lack the social aspect of speaking a language, you are learning alone and your progress will eventually stagnate unless you make the effort to speak in your new language. This app is designed to appeal to anyone wanting to learn a new language, but especially travel-oriented adults who are eager to experience new cultures.
User Needs & Solutions
For this app to be successful, people have to make meaningful connections with other users as well as progress in their language comprehension. It needs to be intuitive, and there needs to be a visual way of displaying their progress. From a business standpoint, we want there to be regular usage of the app, whether it's for social interaction or for continuing their education.
Solutions that meet these needs include:
● A simple navigation bar that clearly indicates which part of the app you are accessing
● Lots of white space to prevent the app from appearing overwhelming or cluttered
● Simple education tools that are not intimidating or confusing to use
● Lots of visuals and motivational language to increase user engagement
● A search bar that allows users to connect with each other easily
● A reward system that encourages continual usage of the app
● A social media feed that allows you to interact with people learning the same language as you, as well as messaging/video chat options
● A place to view your progress- past quiz results, visual charts, etc...
The main goal for this app's design is simplicity and clarity of information/organization.
Potential Brand Directions
I ended up deciding to go down the 'Retro & Bubbly' route, since it reminded me of summer and felt much more warm and inviting than the other two. From there I created some moodboards that pertained to the style direction and app interface (below). As you can probably tell, the focus was on travel and exotic destinations, but the app itself would feel modern and minimal while still using fun colors. I wanted to stay away from super trendy elements because they would quickly become outdated, as well as alienate people who are not aware of current trends.
App Moodboards
Logo Design
At this point in the design process, I had not yet decided on a name for my language learning app, so I played around with various names and sketched logos for my top three.
I felt the name Exchange captured the idea of cultural exchange, the sharing of ideas and friendship, so I moved forward with that one.
For the app icon I wanted to show the idea of bringing two things together to become one, much like friendships bring people together. This fit nicely with the letter E, so I decided to use that as my icon.
At first I played around with the font I selected when discussing brand directions, but thought it felt out of place with the app icon. They were too different stylistically. I then noticed that the bottom half of the E looked a lot like a lowercase C, so I decided to render the rest of the letters by hand for custom type. This resulted in a fun and bubbly (but not childish) wordmark.
App Design
My main goal with the app design was to make sure everything was simple to use and engaging enough to keep people's attention. I kept the layouts simple but used bright and fun colors, as well as icons, to represent each topic.
Below you'll find images of the welcome page, home/social feed page, education page, and the final video demo of the app.
Brand Guidelines
Mockups from Freepik. Vector icons from The Noun Project