CREATING A RESONANT ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE @ TECH FLEET

Reducing 26 screens and rewriting the narrative from colonization to celebration

BUSINESS BACKGROUND

Stakeholder: Casa Areyto

MY ROLE

UX Research Apprentice, supporting Lead UX Researchers and liaising with the UX Design team

TIMEFRAME

12 weeks: May - July 2024

CONTRIBUTIONS

Creating participant recruitment content, co-authoring a gamification research white paper, leading usability tests, analyzing test results, liaising with the UX Design team, and presenting at cross-functional meetings.

IMPACT

Our initial round of usability testing for the Learn Taíno mobile app indicated that the onboarding history lesson was a funnel-neck to user sign-up. Our analysis led to a direct elimination of 26 screens from the onboarding flow and a shift in celebrating Taíno history and storytelling.

Additionally, I was part of a smaller group that researched how to leverage gamification for indigenous language learning and presented 3 distinct design recommendations for future lessons.

CHALLENGE

Learn Taíno is a mobile app aimed at teaching users a reconstructed version of an indigenous Caribbean language that was sadly lost. The app not only teaches the modern Taíno language but also serves as an introduction to the culture and history of the Taíno people. I was part of the UX Research team tasked with 2 challenges.

Part One

Evaluate the user response to the onboarding flow of Learn Taíno.

Part Two

Analyze how gamification might be used effectively in an indigenous language learning app.

PART ONE

The onboarding flow originally started with a history lesson, which focused on the nascency of the reconstructed Taíno language. Our mission was to gauge users first impressions, engagement, comprehension, usability, and feedback on the onboarding experience.

Recruitment

Participants were recruited through social media channels, including Instagram and LinkedIn, and from Casa Areyto's mailing list. Participants were screened through a Google Forms survey.

Research Goals

Assess user feelings about first impressions and the introduction content for Zunzún (the colibri mascot). Understand user feelings about the specificity of the Taíno history content. Evaluate the accessibility of language and content. Determine if the overall app flow makes sense.

Participants

5 participants with varied backgrounds in language learning from formal education to Duolingo. Most had prior exposure to Taíno culture through Casa Areyto. All usability tests were remote moderated sessions conducted through Zoom.

Constraints

The reconstruction of the Taíno language navigates a fragmented landscape, where communities disagree on language reconstruction methods, preventing a unified tribal consensus. Historical records contain 95% nouns and minimal grammar, and efforts of borrowing from related Arawakan languages remain controversial.

Participant recruitment graphic that I created for social media channels

USABILITY TEST GUIDE

Background questions:

Participants were asked about their primary language learning methods, prior Taíno learning experiences, as well as their motivations for learning Taíno.

Task 2: Introductory lesson covering the history of the Taíno people and language

"What was your initial impression of the intro experience covering the history of the Taíno people and culture?"

Task 4: Signing up for an account

"How did you find the process of signing up for an account? Were there any points during the sign-up process where you felt confused or encountered difficulties?"

Task 1: Launching the app

"How do you feel about the content for the introduction of Zunzún?"

"How engaging and clear was the introduction?"

Task 3: Learning to say “My name is…” in Taíno

"How would you describe your experience in the section that teaches how to say 'my name is...' in Taíno? How well do you feel you understood and remembered the phrase after completing the section?"

Task 5: A/B Test

Participants were presented with three versions of a sentence regarding historical content and asked to indicate which one they found the most compelling and why.

USABILITY TEST FINDINGS

Overall, users found the Learn Taíno app intuitive and engaging, specifically praising its cultural relevance and the inclusion of interactive elements. Users appreciated the clear navigation and the cultural context provided by the character Zunzún.

Several issues were identified, including the need for clearer navigation, more engaging content, and improvements in the onboarding process.

Single ease question (SEQ) results:

Participants rate the ease of each task on a scale from 1 (very difficult) to 7 (very easy).

Task 1: 100%
Task 2: 66%
Task 3: 91%
Task 4: 96%
Overall Rating: 88%

System usability score (SUS):

SUS evaluates the overall usability of a system; consists of a 10-item questionnaire with 5 response options ranging from "Strongly agree" to "Strongly disagree.

SUS Result: 87

87 is considered an excellent SUS score, indicating that users found the Learn Taíno app to be highly usable.

Prioritization matrix of usability test findings by effort x priority

LEARNINGS AND IMPACT

Our usability test findings led to a proposal for a revised onboarding flow to enhance user engagement, foster a deeper cultural connection, and provide a simplified user experience. The focus was to emphasize storytelling by introducing Zunzún as a guide, and to streamline the history lesson by restructuring it into an introductory overview rather than an in-depth lesson. The overview speaks to the pre-colonial history of the Taíno people as well as the relevance of learning Taíno as a form of cultural preservation. The revised onboarding flow would remove 26 screens, allowing for easier conversion (signing up).

PART TWO

In addition to testing the design that was already created, we continued to research how the rest of the app could be designed using gamification to create a learning experience that is not only educational but meaningful and culturally affirming.

How might we gamify the Taíno Language Learning app in a way that resonates with the values of the community?

METHODOLOGIES & INQUIRIES

Competitive Analysis

Identify and evaluate gamification strategies used by leading competitors within the US market, with a specific focus on online language learning platforms.

Literature Review

Implications of using gamification to engage learners.

Perspectives on education held by indigenous communities against Western models.

Relevant pedagogical theories that might apply to the needs and values of the Taíno community.

Concept Testing

Understand the perceptions of the Taíno community on the effectiveness of gamification in language learning.

Identify which gamification elements are most appealing to the Taíno community.

Discover ways to incorporate gamification into the language learning experience.

DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation 1: Incorporate individual and collective progress monitoring towards culturally relevant goals

Participants appreciate visual tracking methods for their personal progress and also emphasize the importance of contributing to the community's success.
Only 8.3% of participants found traditional rewards like experience points essential.
To determine meaningful metrics, further research is necessary to understand how the Taíno community defines success in the context of language learning.

Recommendation 2: Provide an option to turn off aspects of gamification.

Striking a balance between an engaging game-like experience and serious learning environment is crucial: "If it's too much of a game then people will lose interest and not take it as seriously."
An option for turning off gamification could be to allow users to choose whether they want “streaks'' and “points” to be tracked.
The loss of a significant streak can result in user disengagement, ultimately leading to platform abandonment.
An optional point system could address concerns of users engaging with content based on point incentives rather than intrinsic interest and learning objectives.

Recommendation 3: Offer user choice in the order of learning.

Allowing users to make choices in how they engage with the content aligns with the primary pillar of culturally-relevant pedagogy: supporting student autonomy.
One way the app can achieve this is by offering users a choice in what they want to learn next.
Further research is necessary to have a framework that supports a structured progression while allowing flexibility within each level to accommodate individual learning styles and preferences.
Recognizing the diverse use cases for the app- such as connecting with a relative or loved one, for religious purposes, or other personal motivations- allowing users to jump to content immediately relevant to their lives can make the app more useful and meaningful.

This visual was presented to the UXD team (linked to Figma for better viewing) and shows how our findings from 3 methodologies (competitive analysis, literature review, concept testing) resulted in 3 recommendations for how to incorporate gamification into language learning.

KEY LEARNINGS

EMPATHY

I deepened my ability to empathize with users through cross-cultural research and navigating sensitive topics, including the impacts of colonization. Entering this project in its infancy, I was mindful of the fragmented landscape on which it was created. At its heart, the need for community among the Taíno people existed within a contentious environment where not all tribes were united. This affected all aspects of the research process, including recruitment, stakeholder relationships, usability test creation, and background research on gamification.

DOCUMENTATION

I learned that it's not enough to present research effectively to cross-functional meetings with its current team roster. Documenting research and making it accessible to future team members is crucial for the work to be carried on effectively- especially in a project that requires building trust with its users. For our incoming team members, we left a clear archive of work (organized within Notion and Google Drive) as well as recommendations for how to move forward from our findings.