{"id":134441,"date":"2023-06-06T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T01:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=jhkvppla"},"modified":"2023-06-06T01:00:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T01:00:46","slug":"behind-the-design-duolingo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2023\/06\/06\/behind-the-design-duolingo\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Design: Duolingo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What makes Duolingo<\/em> such an engaging way to learn a language? The answer is hiding in plain sight. \u201cThe secret to Duolingo<\/em> is that we\u2019re not an education company. We\u2019re a fun and motivation company,\u201d says Ryan Sims, VP of design. \u201cFun is the most important part of the work we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a decade since its launch, Duolingo<\/em> continues to boast best-in-class design, great interactions, and an easy-to-follow UI. It\u2019s filled with fun touches, like gamified lessons, hilarious characters, and a learning path that leans on actual conversations. And then there\u2019s Duo, the famously tenacious owl mascot who achieved viral notoriety for his skill at encouraging people to extend their learning streaks. The app has figured out how to make a daily language lesson feel not like classwork but a joy. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/div>\n

This past year, Duolingo<\/em> launched a major learning path redesign. In previous versions, it focused on a main screen \u2014 known as \u201cthe tree\u201d \u2014 that let people explore numerous routes. \u201cTwo people could spend the same number of hours doing the same number of lessons, but end up in different places,\u201d says Sims. Today, all Duolingo<\/em> users follow a single route. \u201cWe call it \u2018the path,\u2019\u201d says Sims. \u201cIt was a complete reboot of our product strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The path redesign coincided with another important update: animations for Duolingo\u2019s<\/em> wonderful cast of characters. There\u2019s Lily, a perpetually unimpressed teen with a dismissive slow-clap; Oscar, a dramatic teacher who takes his job very seriously; and Eddy, a fitness buff with an enthusiasm for just about everything. Their subtle animations when people get something right are a reward in themselves. \u201cA lot of that character interaction was informed by seeing how people connected with Duo,\u201d says Sims. <\/p>\n

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The secret to Duolingo<\/em> is that we\u2019re not an education company. We\u2019re a fun and motivation company.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ryan Sims, Duolingo<\/em> VP of design<\/p>\n

<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Filling the app with memorable personalities required world-building \u2014 a process not often found in language apps. \u201cIt\u2019s such a gigantic task,\u201d says Sims, \u201cand it really just started with our head of art, Greg Hartman, who began drawing characters and saying, \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be cool if you encountered the same people through the entire experience?\u2019\u201d And of course, there\u2019s a team of experts on hand to make sure every character\u2019s story is consistent. \u201cThere are quite a few people whose job is to help write these stories and make sure they don\u2019t contradict each other,\u201d says Sims, with a laugh. <\/p>\n

\"Even<\/div>\n

Duolingo\u2019s<\/em> approach under the hood may have changed, but the sense of fun is still front and center.<\/p>\n

The lessons are brisk and breezy, emphasizing the building blocks of language through repeated phrases and sentences. And it\u2019s all designed not just to attract learners, but to get them to stick around through quick lessons, compelling rewards, and unapologetic encouragement to keep their streaks alive. \u201cYou learn a language to connect to another human. That\u2019s all it comes down to,\u201d says Sims. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re passionate about teaching folks to speak new languages \u2014 because it brings everyone together.\u201d <\/p>\n

Learn more about Duolingo<\/a><\/p>\n

Download Duolingo from the App Store<\/a><\/p>\n

Behind the Design is a series that explores design practices and philosophies from each of the winners of the Apple Design Awards. In each story, we go behind the screens with the developers and designers of these award-winning apps and games to discover how they brought their remarkable creations to life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Explore more of the 2023 Behind the Design series<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What makes Duolingo such an engaging way to learn a language? The answer is hiding in plain sight. \u201cThe secret to Duolingo is that we\u2019re not an education company. We\u2019re a fun and motivation company,\u201d says Ryan Sims, VP of design. \u201cFun is the most important part of the work we do.\u201d More than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}