Lingotune
Product Design Intern
Redesigning features for a music language-learning app to increase user retention and satisfaction.
Timeline
Start: May 2025
End: October 2025
Role
Product Design Intern
Tools
Figma, Canva, Illustrator
UX Cam, Framer, Ideogram
Skills
Mobile/Web Design
AI Prompting
Prototyping
Problem: Users struggled to navigate between songs efficiently
In the original app, users tapped small left/right arrows to change songs. Through observation and usability feedback, I noticed repeated friction points:
Users instinctively tried to swipe instead of tapping arrows
Frequent mis-taps led to confusion
Some users left the page entirely when navigation didn’t respond as expected
Overall interaction felt unintuitive and slow
💡 This didn’t align with common mobile browsing behaviors, leading to unnecessary cognitive load and frustration.
So…How can I make song selection more intuitive to reduce user frustration?
Solution: Swipe-based song navigation carousel.
I designed a more intuitive horizontal swipe carousel with visible side cards and pagination dots, creating a clearer and more intuitive navigation pattern.
Natural swipe gestures, partially visible cards (signaling for more content), and pagination indicators made this interaction easier and more intuitive for the user.
This interaction aligns with common mobile navigation patterns, reducing cognitive load and the need for explicit instructions.
Process: Research to Prototyping
Research: Analyzing multiple user test sessions
I watched real user behavior utilizing UX Cam and noticed instinctive swipes. I collected feedback from repeated testing cycles, and identified a mental-model mismatch between users and the UI.
💡 Users expected swipe gestures because music & media apps have normalized horizontal browsing.
Goal: What am I trying to solve?
I aimed to make song selection intuitive, seamless, and frustration-free.
More importantly, I needed to ensure that users could naturally and intuitively swipe or tap without needing prompts, navigate faster between songs, have fewer mis-taps, exits, and frustration, and have more confidence in the interaction.
Ideation: Exploring different apps
I explored navigation UI patterns similar to modern media apps. I noticed that these shared common similarities, such as a horizontal carousel for content browsing, cards as a visual cue to swipe, and pagination for context and progress.
Prototyping: Multiple iterations
I created mid-fidelity and high-fidelity Figma prototypes, and received feedback from lead designers and founders.
Reflection: What I learned, and what I'd do next!
I learned that the carousel redesign successfully reduced confusion and made song selection feel more natural and enjoyable by leveraging familiar swipe gestures and clear visual cues. This project reinforced the value of grounding interaction decisions in real user behaviors, especially when small usability issues can quickly accumulate into significant friction.
My next step would be to measure its true impact on engagement and ease of navigation. I would define success using product metrics such as:
Navigation success rate (% of users who switch songs without exiting or tapping incorrectly)
Onboarding friction (number of errors/mis-taps per session)
Time to first song interaction (how fast users progress once landing on the page)
Gesture adoption (swipe vs. button tap usage)
Drop-off rate during song browsing
Problem: Users couldn’t clearly understand their level or progress
The original app’s level indicator and song completion bar lacked clarity. Users struggled to understand how far they had progressed within a level, how levels related to song progression, and what their current status meant at a glance.
This created uncertainty and unnecessary friction, and users were unsure of their progress and how levels related to the songs.
So…How could I simplify and improve the song completion and level bars?
Solution: Clearer progress and simpler navigation.
I redesigned the progress and level UI to make learning status instantly understandable.
Horizontal progress bar with clear completion ratio
Labeled level indicator detached from the progress bar to reduce cognitive confusion
Intuitive layout where progress = song completion and level = skill tier, making the hierarchy obvious
This redesign gives users immediate clarity and reinforces motivation since they see progress both visually and numerically.
Process: Iterating towards intuitive visual hierarchy
Research: Analyzing data
I observed that users hesitated when trying to interpret progress. The confusion was caused by the blending of the song progress and level indicators. I competitively analyzed other apps, such as Duolingo, to study the clear systems.
💡 Progress and skill level must be visually separated to reduce cognitive load.
Goal: What am I trying to solve?
I needed to redesign a system where users are able to instantly understand their status, without explanation.
More specifically, I needed a progress bar that clearly showed how many songs were completed, distinct level indication, and where the users are and what's next.
Ideation and Prototyping: Exploring multiple options
I explored multiple different ideas, such as the progress bar being above vs. below the content, icon and label vs. icon-only, and different ways to reveal the levels (modal, dropdown, etc.). With feedback from the lead designers and founders, we decided to go with the gear icon level dropdown, and a progress bar.
Reflection: What I learned, and what I'd do next!
This redesign reinforced the importance of clarity in progress indicators, users should never work to understand where they stand. The steps I'd take next would be to measure the…
Time to interpret progress (before vs. after)
Task success rate (are users able to accurately identify their level and progress?)
Navigation fraction (are users hesitating or tapping in the wrong places?)
💡 Clear hierarchy and separated status elements = faster comprehension and a stronger sense of achievement.
