An Intuitive Lesson Experience
Project Details
COMPANY
Duolingo
ROLE
UX Designer
EXPERTISE
UX/UI Design
YEAR
2025
Project Description
Measured user interaction and satisfaction while incorporating those results into an iterative UX design process through researching, analyzing, designing, testing, and reporting usability with a heuristic evaluation.
Timeline
Initial research to final designs, all in 10 weeks.
Background
Duolingo has built one of the most recognizable language learning products in the world, but recognition and usability are not the same thing. In a team of four, we ran a full usability audit across four core areas of the app: onboarding, lessons, lesson progress, and profile. Using a combination of heuristic evaluation, task-based usability testing, and both moderated and unmoderated user testing, we identified where the experience was breaking retention for new users and why. The redesign that followed closed those gaps which improved usability by 57%.
Process
We conducted a complete evaluation of Duolingo's onboarding workflow, lesson completion, lesson progress tracking, and making changes to an account profile for new users of Duolingo, applying Nielsen Norman’s heuristic evaluation methods.
Research & Planning
Though out initial team evaluation of the app we identified, is 3 key violations, which included user control and freedom, help and documentation, and aesthetic and minimal design.
We hypothesized: If Duolingo reduces cognitive load through clearer navigation, consistent interaction patterns, and uninterrupted lesson flow, then new users will experience greater engagement and sustained retention, because removing friction from the learning path allows users to focus on language acquisition rather than navigating the product itself.
We then verified our initial evaluation by gathering 9 new Duolingo users (who have spent <4 months on the app and is at a beginner to intermediate Spanish learning level) to take us through their experience of the app themselves in a round of moderated testing, measuring results with SUS scores, task completion rates, and Single Ease Question (SEQ): Post-Task Satisfaction.
Design & Prototyping
Every design decision in this phase was made around one corrective principle: stop putting the product's interests ahead of the user's. We audited existing flows against our research findings, then redesigned from those friction points outward. Within our already existing wireframes, onboarding was condensed from 19 to 16 screens. When assessing the information hierarchy, we were able to simplify the navigation for the most important scenes, while keeping all original touch-points within the UI for a more intuitive interaction. Every wireframe and prototype iteration was validated against one standard: does this reduce friction, or trade it for new friction somewhere else.
Development & Implementation
Implementation translated each design recommendation into a specific, buildable change tied directly back to a documented user failure. We followed by condensing our onboarding significantly by shifting the prioritization of heavy practice test screens with a streamlined account and profile creation flows. Once a users profile is created, they are introduced to a contextual tutorial that walks new users through key features and pages on the home screen so they arrive oriented rather than overwhelmed. When the user is ready to begin their lessons, they can then begin the practice test by clicking the first milestone button on the homepage.
Navigation was simplified down to only the most essential pages, with ambiguous icons redesigned to improve discoverability of the features users actually want. The condensed navigation architecture was implemented with updated iconography and clearer labeling, reducing the number of steps required to reach core features and surfacing settings at logical points rather than burying them.
The most structurally significant change was progress saving: users can now exit a lesson at any point without losing their progress and resume exactly where they left off, eliminating the all-or-nothing consequence that our research identified as the product's single most trust-damaging behavior. The lesson experience itself was rebuilt around practical speaking, listening, and conversation-based exercises rather than repetitive vocabulary drills, the five to six post-lesson recap screens were condensed into a single summary, and subscription ads were repositioned to post-session moments where they no longer interrupt momentum during onboarding and lessons.
Testing & Optimization
We recruited new Duolingo users with our same participant criteria we began with and built our surveys around a deliberate mix of background, experiential, and open-ended questions. The goal was to surface honest, unprimed responses: enough structure to get the answers we needed, not so much that participants could anticipate what we were testing for. From that pool we selected our top 6 participants and conducted an unmoderated test through the redesigned experience, testing directly against the findings our moderated test measured. Observing how participants moved through the updated experience, where they paused, what they reached for naturally, and which changes they adopted without instruction told us clearly which decisions had landed and where the experience still had room to grow.
Solution
With our research findings as the foundation, our solution was a more focused, intuitive experience that respected the user's time, protected their progress, and cleared a cleaner path to the reason they opened the app in the first place.
Straight-forward Onboarding & Comprehensive Walkthrough
Condensed the onboarding process by recentering the goal of account creation. Added an in-app walkthrough following profile creation that highlights and explains key features, screens, icons, and Duolingo subscription plans.
Task-Efficient Navigation Buttons
Condensed navigation to only the most important pages, reorganized out of place icons, and redesigned ambiguous icons to reduce clutter and improve discoverability.
Lesson Progress Saving & Well Timed Pop-Ups
Implemented the ability for users to leave lessons without losing progress then resume later from where they left off, removed pop-up screens upon onboarding for ease of user flow, and condensed the 5-6 screens at the end of a lesson into a one page recap.
Results
Putting the redesign in front of real users gave us something research alone could not: confirmation. We set up our findings as observed behavior rather than self-reported opinion, which is the more credible framing for making design changes in order to improve usability.
Users want concise, contextual explanations
They often don’t understand Duolingo’s features; they want contextual guidance that explains without restricting exploration.
Users want simple navigation with flexible exploration
They value an intuitive navigation along with the freedom to learn and explore within Duolingo without losing progress.
Users learn better with an uninterrupted experience
They are more engaged and retain information better when lessons flow smoothly without unnecessary interruptions or pop-ups.
