English that matters

A service for learning English idioms & cultural expressions via Instagram content

overview

Role: Product  Design, UX Design and Development
Master's Thesis at NYU ITP
Spring 2016

English That Matters is a mobile app for non-native speakers to learn English idioms and cultural expressions via memes and Instagram posts.

Real-Life Expressions Are Different from Textbooks.

In South Korea, where I’m from, English education is focused on getting a high score in the SATs.  Because textbooks didn’t include the real-life expressions, I watched Friends to see what normal, daily conversations feel like. It turns out, you could learn a lot about idioms and every day use of language in this way.
Based on my experience, I started to design a product for non-native English speakers to bridge the gap between their academic accomplishment and daily use of the language through pop culture . 

social media content is AN infinitely growing Education resource generated by real people.

SOCIAL MEDIA + DICTIONARY + COMMENTS: 
EDU-TAINMENT

When I moved to NY,  I watched less TV and spent more time on social media. I was naturally picking up new expressions through my friends' Facebook/Instagram  feed all the time and found this valuable. So, I began prototyping and user-testing ways to turn this natural behavior of browsing social media into an educational activity and came to a conclusion of three main elements to begin with:
Instagram API - Using Instagram content means memes & expressions that help instantly feel what it means even when a user doesn't know the specific vocabulary or idioms. Plus, it's fun to read.
Dictionary APIs - Combining Urban dictionary, Wordnik, and Google Translate are useful to look up both formal & informal expressions.
Comments - Act as a user-generated dictionary if there are expressions that cannot be found through existing Dictionary services. 

for people who want to be connected & mingle with native speakers

This service is for non-native speakers beyond intermediate level who want to engage more in casual conversations that often include cultural nuances and references.

browse, keep, and memorize expressions with images

Users come to the service and choose topics they are interested in such as animals, memes, celebrities, etc. and can browse the content, save it as a "flashcard", and review/memorize. 

contenT

The content in ETM should be curated to bring in the most effective material. To do so I integrated the Instagram API and created an Instagram account, “englishthatmatters”  and asked my users to tag when they find expressions either userful or hard to understand. I would then pull in the content via HTTP GET requests and populate the stream algorithmically.

SKETCH, PROTOTYPE, REPEAT

USER INTERFACE 

Version 1

Version 2

USER TEST

WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

For the interface design, my first approach was a Tinder-style swipe to make it feel more casual.  But it turns out swiping works well with faces, and not so well with images with many words.  Based on user-feedback, I updated the interface similar to a social media feed, the scroll that everyone is familiar with. 

THE LATEST VERSION

NEXT STEPs

Here are the future steps for English that Matters:
1) Continue to manually curate useful content
2) Develop ways for users to contribute easily for crowdsourced translation
3) Enrich the "images as a dictionary" feature

thesis presentation