New Language learning website, turbolingo.com

Cianos

Hey folks,
This is a project I've had on my mind for a long time and only recently it's gone in to development and getting close to completion.

It's called turbolingo.com (thoughts on the name?)

The concept is quite simple - language learners are matched with a native speaker of the language they're trying to learn.

For example, if I'm learning French, I'm connected with a French person who is learning English.

Users are connected by video/audio/text chat, kind of like chatroulette. They can then casually chat away in either language, learning as they go.

I expect the site to launch in a few weeks, but I thought I'd post up some mock ups for now and put it out there for any ideas for layout, usability, design and so on.

You can check out a mock up here.

Any and all input would be really appreciated!

utyh2ikcq9z76b

checkout italki.com sounds similar to this

Cianos

Rohan Inexpensive Meaty wrote: »

checkout italki.com sounds similar to this

Thanks for the link. Thankfully italki doesn't offer the same thing

The main feature of my site is the live video chat that will have you chatting to a native speaker of the language you want to learn in seconds (once there's enough users online, that'll be the tricky part!).

I haven't come across any other website that offer this. Other sites are more like social networks where you have to build up a friends list, browse through profiles, message people etc before you're actually learning.

Mine is a quick way to put you in the hot seat to test out your language skills

montreal2011

It seems like a very good idea. The layout is simple and clear, as it should be. I don't see much (anything!) wrong with it. As you said, getting enough users will be the hardest part. Your integration with facebook should help with that. Also look into promoting it in language schools, uni's etc. This could probably be done with fb too, liking their page, commenting with your url. Good luck, it's a good idea. I'm sure many guys would like to help Sarah from Spain with her English! :pac:

Cianos

Thanks for the feedback Montreal.

I've made some chagnes to the layout which you can see here. Which do you prefer?

I thought it's a bit weird having the two chat windows so far away from each other, so I brought them in closer. It's more standard this way, used by all the main video chat sites. The problem with that layout was that it compromised space for the chat, but I still think there is enough room there for it to be user-friendly.

To the left of the chat I put the user information for quick reference.

The benefit of this layout means you can also tab the chats, so users have a log of the last 5-10 people they've talked to. This feature won't be brought in until down the line (if at all), but at least this layout gives the opportunity.

tricky D

You could pop the logo above 'Sarah'. Think about removing the reflection and button on it too. (Make it simpler)

Some sort of username caption for the cams might be an idea or something for focus info. (previously wasn't obvious who was who, maybe just me, tho)

montreal2011

The tabbing is a good idea. I think I prefer the original, with larger chat window and the Sarah in the larger chat window. I'm not sure but I think it's usual to have your own video smaller and the person you talk to larger. I'd go with the original with the 2nd video smaller under Sarah's details. That just my personal preference, maybe most others prefer both larger. Either way, the idea is good and maybe you could have user options for such things later. Good luck.

Tricky D has a good point about moving the logo above Sarah, and maybe have the navigation bar above on the right also. You'll have lots more screen that way.

Cianos

tricky D wrote: »

You could pop the logo above 'Sarah'. Think about removing the reflection and button on it too. (Make it simpler)

Aesthetics won't be much fussier than what you see in the mock ups - I want to keep the site looking quite minimal really, rather than jump at a strong brand identity from the get go and end up stuck with it. What dyou think - do you think I should go for a stronger look or stick minimal for now?

Looking at it again now I think logo could have a reduction of the reflection cheers - I want to keep some there just to blend it in to the white and help push it out from the page.

Dyou think moving it above the left video pane would be worth it, as all the content would have to be pushed down as a result - meaning many users would have to scroll to type, and scroll back to view the full video pane?

Some sort of username caption for the cams might be an idea or something for focus info. (previously wasn't obvious who was who, maybe just me, tho)

For the user it'll be clear, because it'll always be their own face and their partners face

Cianos

montreal2011 wrote: »

The tabbing is a good idea. I think I prefer the original, with larger chat window and the Sarah in the larger chat window. I'm not sure but I think it's usual to have your own video smaller and the person you talk to larger.

I'm going to mess around more with the layout and see if I can fit the small and large one neatly together as I also prefer it with a smaller window for the user. Laying it out so it looks right is kinda tricky though.

I'd go with the original with the 2nd video smaller under Sarah's details.

The problem is, I need to leave space here as I want to include more info about the chat partner eventually.

Thanks again

Cianos

Hi again guys,
I'm just hoping to get some thoughts on this.

I'm considering presenting a pop up type effect for the user to choose their language options and to then log in via Facebook Connect.

Something like this.

It doesn't have to be an actual pop up, it could be just designed to look like one, with the background a flat image and then when they log in they're brought to the flash app.

Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea? I think that showing the user the flash app in the background is a good way to help explain the concept, so that they know what to expect. More info could be put in the pop up box to describe the concept as well.

Would love to hear some thoughts

eoghanhickey

It's an interesting idea for a site—and original to boot. The layout is clean and neat. I like that the logo has that space to itself, but I think it works better without the rounded box and reflection (as it appears in the pop up).
It could be fatigue from seeing it done so often, but I think it would give the illusion of more space by removing those elements, and having the logo blend into the page more.

I prefer the first draft with Sarah’s details to the right, although I think you could shrink, and move the self facing camera over beside it .

The tagline is good, and explains the sites function succinctly. I do think the type could be improved (granted this is a mock up), and there could be more of a distinction between the two people speaking.

Cianos

Hi again,
Just thought I'd post up another mock up and show you guys the direction things are going so far.

I took your advice and removed the reflective elements from the logo, and I think it works a lot better, so thanks for that.

I've kept the cams sitting side by side for now at least. It fits a lot better for the content that we have for now and for launch. I'm still not 100% on this though so any further thoughts on the composition would be great.

I also did some work on the buttons - what do you think? I'm colour coding the buttons because of the multilingual nature of the site, so Green for Start, Red for Stop, and then Blue for next. I'm hoping to make it as self explanatory as possible

For the camera/mic buttons, I went with a green/red indicators for on/off. Do you think they work? I was a bit worried that some people might think the Red is for record...but I think when the user actually sees the camera being disabled it'll be obvious that it means on/off.

The mock up can be seen here.
Thanks!

eoghanhickey

I like the new finish on the identity. It pops more. I think the buttons need to be clearer. It's not very apparent what they do from the screenshot. What does start button start, and where does the next button bring you?

Are the camera/mic icons underneath the video buttons, or indicators? It's difficult to judge from a screenshot.

The cams are a good size for web chats. I think that the new layout would benefit from more space (the buttons are a little squished between the camera and chat area), or perhaps some defined areas (such as a distinction between the header, body, and footer).

Best of look with the site. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

Trojan

Haven't checked the site but loved the domain name. I hope you've read Ferriss 4HWW on language learning, sounds right up your street.

(Was wondering what you were doing with the chatroulette clone project)

Edit: checked out all 3 mockups - realise 3rd is live mockup - prefer 2nd (3rd very empty). See what else you can do with design to fill it out a bit.

Cianos

Trojan wrote: »

Haven't checked the site but loved the domain name. I hope you've read Ferriss 4HWW on language learning, sounds right up your street.

(Was wondering what you were doing with the chatroulette clone project)

Edit: checked out all 3 mockups - realise 3rd is live mockup - prefer 2nd (3rd very empty). See what else you can do with design to fill it out a bit.

Thanks for the reply!

I had a look at the Tim Ferris stuff, looks very interesting thanks. Maybe he'll be interested in turbolingo since it provides an instant way to practice speaking which ties in with his whole efficiency buzz

Yes the site is effectively live now, but definitely not 'launch-ready' so no promo will be happening yet. There's a lot more work to do as regards the interface.

We'll be integrating Facebook quite a bit so that should flesh out the content. We'll have the logout button, and then a Comment wall on the right hand side (which is kind of shown in the 3rd mock up).

I have been planning on integrating Facebook, as it solves a few problems;

1. It will deter people from abusing the platform/other users by pretending they're on chatroulette
2. We can tell what native language the person speaks according to their FB info, so we can display the interface accordingly.
3. It provides a viral marketing route, info fed back to their wall and so on.

The downside of course is that some people don't like using their FB account on other sites, and any login process takes longer and dissuades interaction than having no login process at all.

In the beginning we have the chicken and egg problem of gaining that decent level of activity before we can be confident there'll be people online for others to speak to.

Any thoughts on which approach (FB login, or no login) would be better for this?

I'll be using google ads to bring in some traffic for experimentation purposes so that should teach us a lot anyway!

Cianos

Hi again folks,
The site is very much nearing completion now. You can see it's current state at turbolingo.com

Still a lot of tidying up to do but we're about 90% there.

Trojan

Couple comments (bug reports more than anything):

I don't like ',' character in the title (picky!)

I can choose the same language to learn as I do to speak - a clever bit of Javascript onclick goodness should fix that.

I'm forced to use Facebook (reasons above)

This 404's: http://turbolingo.com/whyfacebook.php?PHPSESSID=950b2c73f1d48f802b7b4efce0fe6c06

(can you avoid the PHPSESSID in the URL?)

Facebook asks me to:

Turbolingo wrote:

1) Access my basic information
Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends and any other information I've shared with everyone.
2) Post to my Wall
TurboLingo may post status messages, notes, photos and videos to my Wall

I like neither (1) nor (2), but I'm not a typical Facebook user afaics.

Cianos

Trojan wrote: »

I don't like ',' character in the title (picky!)

No, I know what you mean, I have been meaning to get that changed alright

I can choose the same language to learn as I do to speak - a clever bit of Javascript onclick goodness should fix that.

Good spot, though I'm actually leaving it as an option if people want to use the site as a general chat room. You never know, people might just want to chat to others in their own language for a change and anything that keeps people on the site is a good thing. I'm not going to mention it as a feature anywhere, but rather just let it be as a 'hack'.

I'm forced to use Facebook (reasons above)

This 404's: http://turbolingo.com/whyfacebook.php?PHPSESSID=950b2c73f1d48f802b7b4efce0fe6c06

Facebook asks me to(...)

I'm going to use the "why facebook" to explain forcing people to use facebook. If the site grows, we'll open up other registration methods, but for now Facebook is a handy way to get people logging on quickly and effortlessly which is important imo for a site that depends on user activity to be of any use. To do this it is necessary for the user to grant permission for those types of access you outlined.

When someone chooses their practicing language, it sends back a post to their wall such as;

"Cianos is practicing Spanish with native speakers on http://turbolingo.com" (thoughts on this as the message?)

We're implementing a way for users to block this from happening if they want to, which will also be explained in the "why facebook?" link.

After testing it, a friend of mine messaged me on FB asking me was I learning Spanish This is exactly what I want, peoples friends to get interested in the site by their friends activity.

eoghanhickey

Just a small issue, I'm a bit unsure about the way the page is positioned. As the content is floated to the right, there's a large amount of space to the left. This is fine on smaller screens but it seems unnatural on larger displays. It might benefit from being center weighted, or left aligned.

tricky D

Trojan wrote: »

I'm forced to use Facebook (reasons above)

Grrrrrrrrrr :mad::mad::mad::mad:

No good reason.

Cianos

eoghanhickey wrote: »

Just a small issue, I'm a bit unsure about the way the page is positioned. As the content is floated to the right, there's a large amount of space to the left. This is fine on smaller screens but it seems unnatural on larger displays. It might benefit from being center weighted, or left aligned.

Yep, I definitely agree. We're going to move it in to the centre. We all have 1280 screens so it's been looking fine for us during the build

tricky D wrote: »

Grrrrrrrrrr :mad::mad::mad::mad:

No good reason.

I hear ya. We'll be providing a registration process soon, but initially we'll be focusing on the Facebook method, just to get it out there and see how people engage.

Thanks again for all the feedback everyone, much appreciated!

Trojan

Cianos wrote: »

When someone chooses their practicing language, it sends back a post to their wall such as;

"Cianos is practicing Spanish with native speakers on http://turbolingo.com" (thoughts on this as the message?)

We're implementing a way for users to block this from happening if they want to, which will also be explained in the "why facebook?" link.

After testing it, a friend of mine messaged me on FB asking me was I learning Spanish This is exactly what I want, peoples friends to get interested in the site by their friends activity.

I'd have no problem with that, as long as I had the option of not sending it. Remove that choice and it's a definite no to using the site for me.

Pity FB doesn't let you get more granular with that data i.e. give me: first name, primary and secondary languages, profile picture and permission to request posting to status.

Cianos

Trojan wrote: »

Pity FB doesn't let you get more granular with that data i.e. give me: first name, primary and secondary languages, profile picture and permission to request posting to status.

We're able to use the persons first name, country, profile pic and languages - we'll be using all of these as part of the interface.

I'm going to be careful in how this is received by the users as for some it may be a bit too revealing having their first name visible. We have the option of showing their second name too but I've removed this for the same reason as I think a full name is definitely too much.

I'll eventually add the option of hiding any/all personalised info in any case.