The document proposes adding "Delights" to Duolingo's language learning platform to provide mini culture-related tasks throughout a user's learning tree and achieve a more immersive experience. Delights would include categories like food, music and video to expose users to different aspects of a language's culture. The proposal outlines plans for delight creation, testing, and integration into Duolingo to engage users and motivate continued learning while staying aligned with the company's mission of free education for all.

1. I’m Frances!
Introducing
Duolingo Delights

3. Duolingo + Culture
Music
Art
Food

4. Future Plans for Duolingo
“In the longer term, we want everybody to
have access to all types of education of the
highest quality. We started with languages,
but we won’t stop there.”
- Luis Von Ahn

5. Surprise yourself with Delights.
Learn the language, explore the culture.

6. Objectives
Create an even more immersive platform
where users can learn more about the culture
around the language they're trying to learn
Achieved by inserting mini culture-related
tasks throughout user's learning tree
These will be dubbed delights

7. the definition
of culture
?

8. It’s more than just language.
Culture
Architecture
Religion Ethics
Customs
Language
MusicFilmsTheater Literature
Clothing
ArtCuisine

9. Features
3 key categories
content ratings
difficulty level
hands on & engaging
taste, sight, hearing
food
video
music

10. video

12. delight delight unlocked!
food delight
Did you enjoy it?
meh yes!
food delight
French
croissant
with nutella
I’m done!
Recipe

13. delightdelight unlocked!food delight
French
croissant
with nutella
I’m done!
Recipe
food delight
Did you enjoy it?
meh yes!

14. Content Ratings
each delight associated with age
range
user has to submit age to get higher
age range
default is G-rated delights until age
submitted
older you are, more delights available
kid
teen
adult
G-rated
12 & under
PG and PG-13
13 to 18
PG-13 & R
18+

15. Difficulty Level
each delight associated
with difficulty level
roughly 25 levels max in
each language
room for discussion as to
how levels are divvied up
beginner
intermediate
advanced
level 1+
level 10+
level 20+

16. JSONcategory
video, music, food
content rating
G, PG, PG-13, R
difficulty level
1, 2, 3
delight
image
link to delight
{
"category": "video",
"rating": "R",
"level": 3,
"delight": "Amelie (2001)",
"image": "http://goo.gl/TLHN2h",
"link": "http://goo.gl/d6eEpj"
}

17. JSON Output
video delight
Amelie (2001)
rated R
I’m done!
Watch

18. User Personas
35 year old
French lvl 22
food: Bordeaux
wine
music: Bella by
Maitre Sims
video: Amelie (R)
17 year old
French lvl 13
food: macarons
music: La Vie En
Rose by Edith Piaf
video: The Class
(PG-13)
10 year old
French lvl 2
food: croissant
with nutella
music: Frère
Jacques
video: A Cat in
Paris (PG)

19. 10 year old
French lvl 2
All personas desire a deeper immersion
for the language they’re learning
17 year old
French lvl 13
35 year old
French lvl 22
La Vie en Rose
by Edith Piaf
I’m done!
Listen
music delight video delight
Amelie (2001)
rated R
I’m done!
Watch
food delight
French
croissant
with nutella
I’m done!
Recipe

20. Current Industry
small niche market
no competitors have similar product
products out there that focus on learning
through video, music, and food
specific culture facts usually found on
numerous niche blogs like everyculture.com

28. User Testing & Validation
# of students who do/do not provide
feedback for delights after it is unlocked
A/B testing with delights turned on/off
delights with most positive/negative
feedback

29. Success Metrics
increased revenue
higher % of users deciding to use Test Center
increased retention
new user signups
more monthly active users
reduced churn

30. Timeline
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6
User Testing &
Validation
Delight Creation
& Review
Categorize
Delights
Develop &
release Beta
Launch
Launch Plan &
Marketing
Official Release

31. Desired Impact
fall back feature for users that get tired of being tested
on vocabulary and grammar
engage users further with interactive recommendations
better understanding of what cultural aspects of the
language are
further motivation for user to complete lessons

32. It takes Duolingo one step further towards
becoming an immersive learning platform,
true to its long-term mission of providing
free education for everyone.

33. Risks
• choosing appropriate delights for age ranges
• making delights as accessible as possible
• verifying user completed delight
• delight bar takes up too much space
• delights may seem superficial
• culture is tied to specific countries, not languages

34. Alternatives
removing food recommendations to avoid liability and make more accessible
to those with certain food requirements
more information for each delight shown
Duolingo Entertainment only
make all entertainment delights G or PG rated to avoid further complexity
avoid tech debt with partnerships (Netflix, HBO, YouTube, etc.)

35. Q&A

36. Thanks for listening! ✶
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37. References
• iconfinder.com/Squid.ink
• duolingo.com
• duolingo.com/design
• wikiwand.com/Outline_of_culture
• greekgeek12.deviantart.com
• quora.com/profile/Luis-Von-Ahn
• donquijote.org/culture
• everyculture.com
• fluentu.com
• rockalingua.com
• worthofweb.com
• wikiwand.com/en/Mango_Languages
• rockalingua.com.w3cdomain.com
• iconfinder.com
• qlipo.com
• mangolanguages.com
• fluentcity.com
• rosettastone.com
• lingvist.com
• memrise.com