Today's Foreign Word Widget

Mobile UX, Visual Design, Prototyping

Background

When I was in high school, I started watching Asian TV series and became interested in learning Japanese and Korean besides English and my native language (French). I learned them on my own for a while and ended up minoring in Japanese in college. When my time became limited, I found it hard to keep learning. As I talked to people around me, I realized that they had a similar problem as me:


A lack of time to dedicate to learning a language.

Solution

People spend a lot of time on smartphones checking emails, browsing social media, messaging friends, and so on. What if each time they unlocked their phone they could learn something new? As an Android user, I saw the opportunity to create a widget that allows users to learn a new foreign word each day.

Today's Foreign Word Widget

Starting Out

The first thing I did was look into what kind of widgets were already existing. I found that there were already widgets dedicated to learning a French or Spanish word each day but no widget allows one to learn a word in several languages at once.


I also read the reviews to figure out what people are looking for in a language widget. Many people mentioned that it would be helpful to have spoken pronunciation. Other reviewers wanted more customization options for the look and size of the widget.


I then created a simple information architecture of the main features.

Information Architecture Information Architecture

Final Product

This widget allows users to see a word each day in various different languages without having to do anything besides selecting languages, but there are also enough customization options to keep advanced users satisfied.


Today's Foreign Word Widget
Past words

View past words

If you want to take a look at words that appeared on previous days, simply select a day. If you have a specific word in mind that you would like to see again, a quick search will do the trick.

Word frequency

Select a time interval

If you want to see more than a word a day, just adjust the time interval to match your preference.

Font sizes

Adjust font sizes

Easily change the font size of the word of the day both in the main language and in the secondary languages. You can easily preview how the words will appear as you change the sliders.

Change languages

Choose languages

First, choose your main language from the available options. You can then add a language or several languages for the word of the day to be translated to. Simply tap the + to add a language and the × to remove one.

Color themes

Customize colors

Choose the color scheme that fits your style. Preview the widget directly on your wallpaper to see how it will look. Once you tap "OK" your color choice will be applied.

Today's Foreign Word Widget



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