Milonbook
Designing Language Learning: A Story-Driven, Gamified Experience
Young Druze students struggle with Hebrew due to outdated, repetitive teaching methods. MilonBook reimagines language learning through storytelling, voice interaction, and gamification—making it fun, engaging, and effective.
My Role
Product Designer
UX Writer
User Interviews
A /B Testing
Company
Matrix
Teams
Education Entrepreneur
Head of Product
PM and R&D Team
Year
2020
Introduction: Bridging The Language Gap
Children in the Druze community have difficulty learning Hebrew because of its grammatical complexity, unfamiliar scripts, and limited exposure beyond the classroom.
Problems with Traditional Learning Methods:
Repetitive memorization made learning boring and discouraging.
Little real-world practice left students unconfident in using new words.
Lack of interactive learning led to low retention rates.
📌 The Challenge: Making Hebrew Learning Engaging for Young Students
We partnered with a Druze teacher and entrepreneur to create an engaging, gamified solution to help children naturally build confidence in Hebrew.
Understanding Our Young Learners
Classroom testing with 1st–3rd graders revealed major obstacles in Hebrew learning:
Key difficulties identified:
📝 Language Structure Differences – Different scripts & grammar made translation difficult.
🎧 Lack of Exposure – No real-world practice opportunities slowed progress.
📚 Repetitive Learning – Memorization-based teaching was disengaging.
😟 Confidence Struggles – Fear of mistakes discouraged speaking practice.
Key Insights That Shaped Our Design:
Active participation boosts retention—kids learn by doing, not memorizing.
Voice features improve pronunciation—hearing themselves speak built confidence.
Gamification increases engagement—learning became an interactive adventure.
Competitive Research: What Works & What Doesn't
To create an engaging and effective language-learning experience, We analyzed top language apps to identify gaps:
Duolingo – Fun & engaging, but lacks context-based learning.
LingQ – Rich in content but too complex for young learners.
Kahoot! – Classroom-friendly, but lacks long-term retention.
ABCmouse – Story-driven, but not engaging enough.
💡 Key Takeaways from Research:
Gamification works (Duolingo, Kahoot!), but it needs to balance fun & education.
Story-driven learning helps retention (ABCmouse), but it needs personalization.
Too much complexity discourages young learners (LingQ).
Ideation: How MilonBook Solves These Problems
MilonBook’s Unique Solution: Gamification + Storytelling
📖 Story-Driven Learning – Unlike Duolingo, MilonBook teaches words in context through storytelling.
🎙️ Voice Practice & Feedback – Unlike Kahoot!, It offers voice feedback for pronunciation improvement.
🎮 Balanced Gamification – Unlike ABCmouse, We introduced gamified progression & rewards.
🎯 Why This Works?
Kids see immediate results from voice practice.
Personalized story-based learning improves engagement.
Gamification drives motivation without distraction.
We built MilonBook around three key learning principles:
Storytelling for Retention – Encourages creative sentence-building to reinforce vocabulary.
Voice Recording for Pronunciation – Helps kids hear themselves speaking Hebrew, boosting confidence.
Gamification for Motivation – Virtual coins & class rewards encourage consistent engagement.
This game-based approach changed learning from a monotonous task into an interactive adventure—keeping kids engaged while ensuring genuine language progress.
Collaborative Story Building
Children add sentences to an evolving story, reinforcing sentence structure and vocabulary.
Voice Recording
Enables students to practice pronunciation and develop speaking confidence.
Friendly Competition
Mutual class scoring allows friendly competition between classes.
Gamification
Reward system with virtual coins for expanding vocabulary and completing exercises.
Class Dictionary
A shared word bank that helps students learn new words in context.
Planning the User Flow & Experience
To ensure MilonBook was intuitive and fun, I worked closely with the Product Manager to map out key interactions. User flows for adding sentences to the story, ensuring a logical progression in learning.
Key UX Considerations:
Narrative Flow – Designed a sentence-building process to guide kids naturally.
Voice Integration – Seamless recording access to keep pronunciation practice intuitive.
Gamification Loops – Ensured rewards felt meaningful and encouraged learning.
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(1) Early sketching of the flow with the main screens and navigation
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(2) Early sketching of the flow with the main screens and navigation
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Early sticky notes ideation session with the Product Manager
Advanced Sketching of the main flow
Milonbook’s Style guide
MilonBook's visual design was tailored for young learners:
Bright Colors, with natural background: A child-friendly aesthetic to create a welcoming learning environment
Intuitive Navigation: Simple interface for effortless interaction, ensuring young learners can interact independently
Accessible Typography: Heebo font for readability in Hebrew, minimizing visual strain.
Illustrative Elements: Visual storytelling elements to aid comprehension and engagement.
Gamified elements: progress badges and virtual coins kept motivation high.
Iterations: improving the app design accessability
User Testing: Key Improvements After Feedback
📌 Participants: 70+ students & teachers across 3 grade levels.
Improved UI Clarity – Adjusted layout & navigation for younger users.
Personalized Student Profiles – Customized progress tracking.
Gamification Tweaks – Adjusted rewards pacing for engagement.
Refined Voice UI – Larger buttons & clearer instructions for pronunciation practice.
The Final Product: A Game-Changer for Language Learning
MilonBook transformed Hebrew learning for Arabic-speaking children by making it interactive, intuitive, and engaging. By integrating storytelling, voice practice, and gamification, the app provided a fun and effective learning experience, helping students build vocabulary, improve pronunciation, and gain confidence in speaking Hebrew.
Key Features That Made the Difference
📖 Collaborative Stories – Students collaboratively build narratives, reinforcing sentence structure and vocabulary.
🎤 Voice Practice & Recording – Helps improve pronunciation through active participation.
🏆 Gamified Rewards – Virtual coins & badges encourage active learning and progress tracking.
🎯 Class Competition – A friendly scoring system increases motivation and engagement.
📱 Try the prototype below to explore MilonBook’s key features in action!
Measuring the Impact: How MilonBook Transformed Learning
To measure MilonBook’s effectiveness, we combined quantitative and qualitative data over an 📊 8-week user testing. Our teacher/entrepreneur partner conducted baseline assessments, tracking:
Hebrew word recognition, pronunciation, and sentence construction before and after using the app. This set up the teacher’s satisfaction score.
Long-term retention metrics, comparing initial learning to post-use vocabulary application.
Story completion rates as an engagement indicator.
Impact Metrics (Across Three Grade Levels)
| Grade | No of Participants | Weekly Average Use | Story Completion Rate | Teacher Satisfaction Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Grade (Class A) | 🧒 24 | ⌚ 3.4 hours | 82% | 87% |
| 2nd Grade (Class B) | 🧒 26 | ⌚ 3.1 hours | 81% | 85% |
| 3rd Grade (Class C) | 🧒 22 | ⌚ 2.9 hours | 78% | 83% |
Key Insights from the Results:
📈 Increased Engagement: Students actively participated in exercises, exceeding expected average weekly usage (3.1 hrs vs. 2 hrs!).
🧠 Higher Retention Rates: Vocabulary improved significantly due to contextual learning, leading to faster learning & higher story completion rates.
🗣️ Improved Speaking Confidence: Voice-based exercises helped students become more comfortable speaking Hebrew in class.
👩🏫 Positive Teacher Feedback: Teachers reported increased motivation, better comprehension, and noticeable progress in student performance.
Takeaways & Next Steps
MilonBook is a testament to how thoughtful UX design can break down language barriers and create engaging, effective learning experiences. It demonstrated that gamified, story-driven learning leads to better vocabulary retention, more engagement, and stronger language confidence.
Key Takeaways from the Project
User-Centered Learning Works – Interactive, participatory methods drive stronger educational outcomes than passive memorization.
Gamification is a Powerful Motivator – Reward-based learning enhances engagement and long-term retention.
Technology Can Bridge Language Gaps – A well-designed app can transform how students approach language learning.
Future Enhancements & Growth Opportunities
AI-Powered Personalized Learning Paths – Adapting lessons based on individual student progress & proficiency levels.
Advanced Content for Higher Grade Levels – Expanding to older students with more complex linguistic challenges.
Speech Recognition for Real-Time Feedback – Helping students improve pronunciation through automated analysis.
School Curriculum Integration – Positioning MilonBook as a classroom companion tool for wider adoption.
🚀 In conclusion - A Smoother, More Enjoyable Way to Learn
Learning a language is hard enough—the tools you use shouldn’t make it harder. With MilonBook, I reimagined the experience to make finding words, understanding grammar, and staying engaged effortless. The improved navigation, smarter search, and clean UI transformed it into a frustration-free learning companion—helping users stay focused and enjoy the process.