Duolingo iOS App Heuristic Evaluation
Duolingo iOS App Heuristic Evaluation
By/ Obai Mandorah
- Introduction
Apple announced Duolingo as the app of the year in 2013 [1]. Duolingo is language learning app with high rating review in app store (4.5 out of 5). The mobile app provides online learning for many languages in fun, engaging, and motivating forms. The app uses many combinations of pictures, pronunciation coach, typing, listening, tests, etc. I followed Jakob Nielsen�s 10 Usability Heuristics to evaluate this app along with Severity Ratings for Usability Problems [2], [3], as the following 0 to 4 rating scale can be used to rate the severity of usability problems:
0 = I dont agree that this is a usability problem at all
1 = Cosmetic problem only: need not be fixed unless extra time is available on project
2 = Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority
3 = Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority
4 = Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released
1 = Cosmetic problem only: need not be fixed unless extra time is available on project
2 = Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority
3 = Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority
4 = Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released
I used the app version 4.5.9 on iPhone 6 running iOS 9.2.1.
- Beginning setup:
Problem 1: Redundant notification
The first thing encounter the user is a pop up notification asking for a permission to use the notification center in the phone. Once you click OK, another pop up notification asking you whether allowing or not the app to send you notifications.
Severity rating: 1
Heuristic violated: Error prevention
The redundancy of the notification is confusing. It should have been the second notification only. There is no need for the first one. This is a minor issue since it appears only once (when opening the app for the first time), it is not a persistence problem where it pops up each time you open the app.
Problem 2: Different goal�s measurements
Severity rating: 1
Heuristic violated: Consistency and standards
When using the app for the first time, you must select one of the 16 languages (the list is updateable). Then pick a goal (one of four levels). After that, select whether you are a beginner or not. The first two selections can be changed later on. when selecting the goal at the setup page (Pic.1) it differentiates the difficulty level by time (how many minutes per day), but when you try to change that goal later (Pic.2) it differentiates the difficulty by XP points per day. I�m assuming the XP refers to experience points. Since users� learnability differs from one to another and some of them can take more or less time than the picked goal, the XP values seems to be more achievable goal than sitting a goal by time.
- Skills selection menu:
Each course in Duolingo (showed in the circles below) grouped of lessons. The gold bars show the completed lessons, while the grey ones show the uncompleted ones or the lessons that have been taken long time ago. Between each group of skills there are tests of the uncompleted skills if the user passed these tests, the next group of skills well be unlocked.
Problem 3: Delete a language from the courses
Severity ranking: 2
Heuristic violated: User control and freedom
If the user added the wrong language, or has a change of mind and decided to remove a language from the course list, this option is not available via this app. To delete a language from the list, the user must open the desktop webpage and dig into the menu in order to remove it from the courses list. It is an annoying problem that when you add a language by mistake then decided to remove it, you have to login into your account (in the full website version) and dig in the setting to correct a simple mistake. This option should be available in the app.
Problem 4: Inconsistent page naming
Severity rating: 2
Heuristic violated: Consistency and standards
When a user wants to go to the settings, he must go through the profile page first then go to settings page. This conflicts with common sense. If a user need to change some of the app settings, there should be a clear button in the main page, not hidden under another page. Furthermore, from the setting page you can go to profile settings. Due to its persistency, this issue is there until the user remember the path of the settings he wants to configure during time.
- Lessons selection menu:
Offers multiple-level of lessons depends on previous ones. Each lesson has a verity of exercises.
