Amy Brumet
Increasing Engagement with a Future Vision
Babbel is a language-learning platform that offers bite-sized, interactive lessons designed by experts to help users gain practical conversation skills in 14 different languages.
I simplified the lesson trainer architecture to improve maintainability while envisioning new features to accelerate learner comprehension.
Approach
Over time, the lesson ecosystem had grown fragmented with 20+ types of lesson trainers with overlapping goals and inconsistent quality. This created usability issues for learners and challenged internal teams to create, maintain, and evolve content efficiently. Key activities included:
Partnered with instructional designers, engineers, and product managers to audit exercises and identify redundancies
Conducted usability testing to uncover misinterpretations and improve user feedback loops
Collaborated with curriculum writers to introduce adaptive scaffolding—varying levels of structure and difficulty based on learner performance
Facilitated cross-functional workshops to align teams around a core lesson vision
Outcomes
Building on research and testing, we designed adaptive lesson flows that balanced challenge and support. This helped learners progress at their own pace while reinforcing long-term retention.
To align teams on the future direction, I co-led the creation of a prototype showcasing key ideas:
Clear, motivating learning objectives
The ability to skip ahead or explore grammar and vocabulary in depth
In-lesson performance feedback and dynamic review opportunities
Integrated scaffolding to adapt difficulty over time
Qualitative testing with six participants validated the approach—users found the new experience more intuitive, motivating, and cohesive. Insights from this work were carried forward into multiple product initiatives across Babbel.