Lipy: Language iOS App

Our 90 day journey from concept to app store release

We wanted to create a language learning app based on conversations. We chose to build it natively using SwfitUI. This ensures that the app is snappy and lightning fast, also it has a smaller size 28 MB

Design Process

Swift UI live previews offer a good way to mock up a design without using dedicated design tools like Figma. Since the app is minimalist all the layouts were done on the fly while coding the app. As the app code got more complex there are some screens that no longer support the live previews and this makes iterating on design a little slower we are having to compile the app for each change. Going forward we plan to have the design evolution done in Figma using tools like www.visily.ai to extract the current design from the app screen shots.

Language learning is hard the list we can do if have a conformable app. Dark Mode light mode is synced to iPhone settings ( with the option to change it ) all screens off the app are cheerfully tuned.

Backed Database

As a backed we are using google sheets with an app script that updates a Firebase database. This allows non technical course creators to create and edit lessons just by modifying an excel file. These also allows us to use Googles translations services to give language learners the possibility to use there native language in the app.

Test Flight

Once the MVP of the app was done we released it on Test Flight. We got a detailed review in less then 24 hours. Main suggestion was to introduce more progress indicators so we did.

Lets dive into a lesson

Intro screen with the topis you are about to learn and some quick navigation buttons with progress indicators.
Inital MVP did not have the intro screen, the vocabulary screen was the first that showed up. Users could not find the next button so after scrolling the list they clicked dismiss. To fix this we added the start button wrapped around the next button to create a connection we also added a green circle indicating students progress in each section of the lesson.

Vocabulary Screen uses apples voice recognition to help you practice the pronunciation of each word.

Story Action Screen the same screen is used to present a story with drawn characters or a video conversation between 2 German speakers this is were the vocabulary words are put in context and you can see how they go together.

Exercise Screen only multiple choice is a available for now, you get the German word spelling and hear the audio and you have to match it to the vocabulary illustration.

AI TEACHERS


At the end of each conversation you will be greeted by one of our AI generated teachers. This will be a guided conversation in witch you will use the record button to pronounce one of the possible answers on display.
We use Synthezia to generate the videos and Hera.com for the quick lessons. While AI text conversation is present in a lot of apps video is not that common.

Game screen

Last part of each lesson is game screen for now the only game is GoFish. This is a popular card game where you have to guess the opponents card. Have fun with our animate character Craby! And of course our progress screen where your an monitor you daily minutes and overall time spent.

If you are in the EU and have a iPhone you can get Lipy today