Here, take a look at this video:
As the video makes clear, the icon looks “sad and old” if you don’t use Duolingo for a while. The more you use it (and the more regularly you use it), the “younger” it will look.
This, if you want to be a grumpy, cantankerous cynic, has nothing to do with anything. If, on the other hand, you want to be a person who appreciates delightful little touches full of whimsy and wonder, this is just wonderful.
This, and other delightful little experiences woven into the Duolingo app, are due to the “Delight” team:
As the post makes clear, Duolingo wasn’t (and isn’t) optimizing for any specific metric – no change was expected in “their numbers”. Duolingo was (and is) optimizing for delight, plain and simple.
And, it turns out, optimizing for delighting your customers tends to work well for “your numbers”. Or to copy a much better turn of phrase, delight facilitates learning in ways one cannot anticipate.
There’s an important lesson in there for those of us working in education. Get your processes right, have a solid foundation, provide a good experience and make sure your academic processes are rigorous.
But do make sure that somebody, somewhere, is optimizing for delighting your customers.
EconForEverybody 