1) Intro

1.1 Why we decided on Gamification...

The reason we were interested in gamification in the first place is because game-related concepts felt more appealing to research, especially since it was our first time deconstructing an interface in depth.


Gamification naturally improves learning experiences, provides motivation, and can eventually lead to real learning. We didn't understand the psychology behind it or how it triggers human needs and wants.

So we realised we could learn a lot about this topic.

1.2 Why we chose Duolingo...

We chose Duolingo because the concept of gamification in education is a highly impactful and future-oriented topic. Our goal was to understand why Duolingo is such a popular language-learning app and how extensively it relies on gamification.

Given that some of us had prior experience with the app, we were aware of its appeal and positive impression. We noticed it uses repetitive, engaging tasks to make learning a habit. By analyzing its mechanics, we aimed to uncover the strategies that make it so effective.

1.3 What are our key goals for this research?

1) Investigate Duolingo’s Success 

(Strategic & Behavioral)

Understand how Duolingo became the leading language learning app by analyzing the psychology and design behind its gamification strategies.

2) Deconstruct Gamification Features 

(Systematic & Interactive)

Explore Duolingo’s reliance on gamification, identifying its key features and their role in user engagement.

3) Identify Improvement Opportunities

(Optimization & Enhancement)

Assess how gamification influences the user journey and learning outcomes, suggesting potential enhancements for greater effectiveness.

2) Research Question

We revised our research question to add a more critical perspective. We split it into two questions: one continues to focus on Duolingo's UX strategies, while the other takes a more critical approach.

3) Idea Generation

3.1 Rejected Ideas

Redesigning Duolingo

This concept involved focusing exclusively on redesigning Duolingo’s interface and improving its functionality. While interesting, we decided against this idea because it limited the scope of our project and didn’t allow us to fully demonstrate the depth of our research.

Design Guide

Another idea was to create a design guide, which could either highlight intentional flaws or showcase highly effective principles of gamification. However, this concept didn’t align with our goal of presenting research findings in a visually engaging and interactive way.

3.2 Idea Generation

Expectations/Oppositions workshop

After our initial concept presentation and the feedback we received, we realised that a traditional redesign would not be the best approach. Duolingo itself is conducting extensive studies to optimise its gamification strategy, which means that our influence in this area would have been minimal. Instead, we opted for a scrollytelling format that analyses and visualises Duolingo's design elements to illustrate how they work. We were also advised to take a more critical perspective on the topic. This approach was reinforced by participating in the Expectations/Oppositions workshop with Jordi.

The workshop was about writing down expectations and the opposite of these expectations for your own project. Afterwards, you could sit down somewhere else, choose an opposition and then generate ideas for it, which in turn were put together to form a big idea with which you sit at the table. This was repeated several times.

Through the workshop, we got some very blatant ideas for a really toxic Duolingo; we were less able to realise the ideas due to our analytical approach, but it still gave us new, interesting perspectives.

3.3 Accepted Idea

Interactive website to showcase our research

This was the idea we ultimately decided to pursue. The goal was to design an engaging, gamified website that not only presented our research findings but also served as a practical example of gamification in action. By choosing this approach, we could combine our analysis with a functional application, making the website both a tool and a demonstration of our research and redesign efforts.

Why we chose an interactive website?

Ultimately, we chose the interactive website because it provided a dynamic, engaging, and meaningful platform to present our research. This format allowed us to showcase not just our findings but also why gamification work, something that traditional presentations or static redesigns couldn’t fully convey.

Who will find value in our work?

• UX/UI Designers: 

  Interested in gamification and user engagement techniques.

• Product Managers: 

  Focused on improving user retention and engagement.

• EdTech Professionals: 

  Looking to learn from Duolingo's strategies.

4) Analysis and Deconstruction

Analysing gamification in action

To gain a deeper understanding of Duolingo’s approach to gamification, we employed several methods to analyse and deconstruct its design and user engagement strategies

4.1 GUI Ripping

Analysing Visuals for User Retention

By capturing and analysing screenshots, we mapped out how gamification elements like streaks, badges, and rewards are embedded to engage users. Features such as vibrant animations and intuitive navigation ensure a seamless and motivating learning experience.

4.2 User Journey Map

Key Gamification Touchpoints

A detailed map of the user experience revealed key gamification touch-points, from onboarding tutorials to streak maintenance and celebratory milestones. These elements are carefully designed to build habits and sustain motivation throughout the user journey.

5) Research process + Results

There were some ups and downs in our research process. As our project grew steadily, we often came to the point where we researched topics but ultimately threw them out again. In the end, we decided to really focus on analyzing the elements so that we had a clear focus and didn't work too broadly and therefore superficially.

Results

Deconstructing the Elements

In this part, we looked at the individual gamification elements. Right at the beginning of our research, we found a paper “Analyzing gamification elements in educational environments using an existing Gamification taxonomy” which gave us a good starting point for our research and analysis. The paper defines a taxonomy by categorizing elements into different dimensions. The paper focuses specifically on learning platforms and also takes a look at Duolingo, which is ideal for us.

With the taxonomy, we had a uniform basis for analysis from which it was easy to continue working. With the analysis and the additional categorization, we were able to determine the focus of the elements, which is in the personnel and performance area, and we were able to collect the first initial clues for the following parts, such as the psychology part and the improvement/missing things part. As far as the psychology part is concerned, we have already established that the focus is on extrinsic motivation. This was shown by the analysis of the dimensions. Ultimately, however, you have to keep in mind that there will always be a focus on extrinsic motivation, as gamification is designed for this. For the imrovement part, we have seen that one dimension is not served at all, namely the fictional dimension. Elements could be incorporated here to expand this dimension. However, we will discuss this further below.

psychology

In this section, we first look at how gamification works. We will look at the following four principles:

operant conditioning

This is about rewarding good behavior so that you want to do it again and again. In other words, if I notice that I am climbing up the leagues faster by practising regularly and therefore get more rewards for the same work, I tend to keep up my workload. But it also works the other way around. If I make mistakes and lose hearts, I focus my attention so that I don't make the same mistake again next time.

dopamine release

When we receive a reward, the body releases dopamine, the happiness hormone. The body loves this hormone and is constantly trying to get more. As a result, we regularly open the app in the hope that we will get another dopamine boost.

flow theory

The theory is that attention is limited, but emotional stimuli can be processed more easily subconsciously. This is crucial for achieving a state of flow. This state describes intensive immersion in an activity. This means that you not only spend more time with the learning material, but also longer.

self-determination theory

This theory by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan states that people are naturally motivated to develop and overcome challenges. According to this theory, there are three basic psychological needs that must be met for people to feel motivated, satisfied and mentally healthy: Autonomy,Competence and Social Involvement. However, this concept can also be applied to gamification, as our study shows.

Another point we look at is the type of motivation. There are two different ones: Intrinsic motivation (the motivation that comes from me) and extrinsic motivation (motivation from outside). The intrinsic is better in the long run, orally because the motive is better - I learn because I want to learn and not because learning gives me rewards. However, we have found that Duolingo uses more elements for extrinsic motivation.

The focus on extrinsic motivation can have negative consequences, but this is not the only problem with gamification. We also look at the following negative effects: potential for addiction, stress and overload, reinforce negative behavior and bad feedback. These effects do not directly make Duolingo bad and the same applies to gamification. However, they are problems that should be considered and that definitely have an influence on learning behavior.

6) Reflection

We were able to decide on the topic of gamification relatively quickly. Choosing Duolingo as the focus of our project was also quickly clear. However, it was always a problem for us to ensure that the project didn't become too big. Duolingo is perfect for a case study and, above all, for a really comprehensive one. It was challenging to agree on focus points and to keep an eye on them at all times. Sometimes it was also very frustrating to work on research that was completely discarded or concepts such as the flowchart that were not implemented simply because the project would otherwise have overwhelmed us.

All in all, we are quite satisfied with our project, which perhaps needs a little more depth in a few places and it is also a shame that the experience on the smartphone is not so optimal.

Nevertheless, it was a good and important project for all three of us and really exciting to deal with individual elements at this level.

7) Final Project

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Figma Presentation Board Link
Figma Planning Board Link

Duolingo Brand Guidelines Link

Feedback Board Link