JORA: Product Design

Cultural Context 

In today's fast-paced society, the challenges of parenthood are amplified when coupled with demanding careers that demand significant time and energy. Recently, I conducted a survey of 2000 parents on behalf of Munchery, a food delivery service, revealing an astonishing reality: I found that they have just 32 minutes of free time each day, with a staggering 18 hours weekly devoted to direct childcare. When I considered the additional commitments like a one-hour daily commute, 42 hours allocated for sleep, and another 10 hours for various life essentials such as cleaning, cooking, and socializing, the picture became crystal clear. For parents, time emerges as the most precious commodity. When they seek to acquire new skills, explore hobbies, or nurture self-care routines, it's the constraints of time that loom largest.

Through candid interviews with potential users, a fundamental truth resonated — time was indeed the paramount concern among my target audience. This observation strongly endorsed my focus on a hands-free, conversational teaching method with Jora. Moreover, it brought forth an intriguing revelation: 66 percent of participants emphasized the importance of interacting with a community of learners in the learning process. This revelation spurred my creation of a community engagement feature, enabling users to track friends' progress and monitor leaderboards. One user aptly articulated, "I believe that interacting with others in your community enhances language learning. Having a conversation partner adds a profound dimension to the process. I'm constantly."

These insights triggered a pivotal transformation that placed user interaction at the forefront, making the app community-focused. This evolution can be seen by integrating friends’ progress tracking and leaderboard features throughout the learning journey.

The overarching goal of my UX strategy became resolutely clear: to craft a platform that empowers users to connect with one another, forging valuable conversational partnerships to facilitate the learning of new languages. This user-centric vision guided my design journey, shaping an experience where time-starved parents can embark on their language-learning journey and find a supportive community that elevates their learning to new heights.

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Seeking Understanding and Observe Behavior

Market Research: In my quest to create a transformative language-learning experience for busy parent professionals, I delved into extensive market research and conducted a comprehensive competitive analysis. This exploration uncovered a fascinating landscape within the realm of language learning apps. I observed that most existing apps predominantly offer two primary approaches: visual or audio-based learning methods. However, what truly stood out was the scarcity of apps employing Voice User Experience (Voice UX) and embracing a conversational style of learning. This unique approach, I realized, held immense untapped potential.

Target Market: My intended audience represents a diverse group of individuals who share a common aspiration: acquiring language skills. These parents and professionals, aged between 30 and 45, boast college-level education and lead highly engaged lives, both personally and professionally. They find themselves amid the whirlwind of parenthood, juggling myriad responsibilities and commitments within their day-to-day routines. Despite their busy schedules, they harbor a strong desire to learn languages for various reasons, including travel, career advancement, and the sheer joy of acquiring new skills.

User Interviews: To delve deeper into the minds and experiences of my target audience, I embarked on a series of user interviews. These conversations provided invaluable insights into how my audience currently balances their days and acquires new skills.

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Understanding the Data

Doing, Thinking, Feeling: I created this chart to understand how users experience their day-to-day lives and challenges. This insight helped me dig deeper into how they could use the app and the barriers in their life that hinder their ability to learn.

Defining Painpoints: With the data gathered, I uncovered critical pain points that afflict my audience. 100% of the participants felt like they didn’t have time to learn a language, even though they desperately wanted to. The chaotic lifestyle of parenting emerged as a significant obstacle, giving rise to struggles in time management and motivation. It became evident that the challenges they faced resulted in a profound inability to efficiently acquire new skills, particularly language skills. I also discovered that 60% percent of participants believed the flashcard feature was an important part of learning and wanted to use it along with the conversational learning feature.

Potential Solutions: In response to these pain points, I formulated a set of potential solutions that lay the foundation for my language-learning app. Among these solutions, a conversational learning voice chatbot takes center stage, designed to engage users by speaking phrases, actively listening to their responses, and confirming their understanding. Additionally, a vibrant learning community fostering friendly competition, akin to the engagement seen in platforms like Peloton, aims to keep users motivated and connected. Lastly, the capability to build a classroom (friends group) of learners, providing support and encouragement to one another, was envisioned to further enhance the learning experience.

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PROTO-PERSONAS:

After selecting the target market, completing my initial user research, and identifying potential user pain points, I developed the following Proto-Personas.

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USER FLOWS:

• Amy, a busy working mom, is in the middle of learning Spanish, she logs into JORA to resumes her lesson, engages with her learning community, and saves the lesson as a favorite.

CLICKABLE PROTOTYPE:

Outcomes:

• 100% of the participants agreed that a hands-free conversational language learning feature would fit within their busy schedules.
• 60% of the participants insisted that the flashcard learning feature was an important part of the learning process and should be included in the application.
• 80% of the participants believed that seeing the achievements of friends would motivate them to learn more and stay focused.

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Conclusion:

In essence, the journey to design Jora represents my response to the challenges faced by time-starved parents and busy professionals in their quest for language growth and skill acquisition. The overwhelming demands of parenthood, combined with career responsibilities and other essential commitments, make traditional language learning methods impractical. However, my research illuminated a strong desire within my target audience to acquire language skills despite their busy lives, pointing to a clear need for a solution tailored to their unique circumstances.

To address these pain points, I devised a user-centric vision that prioritized interactive learning and community engagement. Jora's core feature, a conversational learning voice chatbot, was conceived to engage users actively and efficiently, making language learning a hands-free and convenient experience. This approach not only aligns with the limited time available to my audience but also caters to their preference for conversational language acquisition.

Furthermore, my research emphasized the importance of community engagement for motivation and support. I integrated features like tracking friends' progress and leaderboards, enabling users to connect with one another, foster friendly competition, and maintain motivation. The concept of building learning communities, akin to forming a classroom of friends, was envisioned to enhance the overall learning experience.

My research results validated these solutions, with 100% of participants expressing enthusiasm for the conversational learning feature, 80% believing in the motivating power of tracking friends' achievements, and 60% emphasizing the importance of flashcard learning within the application.

Jora represents a comprehensive solution that empowers my target audience to embark on their language-learning journey without the constraints of time, while also offering a supportive community that enhances their learning experience. I am confident that Jora's user-centric approach and unique features will successfully address the gap in the market, providing a valuable tool for busy parents and professionals striving to acquire new language skills. 

The journey to design Jora has been driven by empathy and innovation, this project pushed me to think creatively about a tough problem without abandoning traditional conventions. Moving forward as a designer I will remember the principles of Sankofa (loosely translates into, look at the past to create/improve the future.). Rooted in West African culture, Sankofa holds profound significance not only in the realm of heritage and culture but also in the world of product design. Sankofa teaches us the importance of looking back to our roots and history in order to move forward with greater wisdom and purpose. While creating Jora I wanted to completely abandon traditional ways of learning and focus on innovation. Despite my initial ideas, my design thinking process allowed me to empathize with users' need for both tradition and innovation. As I continue to develop as a Designer I will always remember to “look back in order to move forward with greater wisdom and purpose.” 

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