01
Language Learning
Lemma
Client
2 Months
Year
2026
Role
Product Designer
Learn words. Understand patterns. Build fluency.
Lemma is a vocabulary-learning platform designed to help language learners move beyond memorizing isolated words. Through contextual exercises, grammatical variations, audio pronunciation, and spaced repetition, the experience helps users understand how words work across different forms and sentences.
01 — The Challenge
Knowing a word isn't the same as knowing how to use it.
Learning a new language involves more than remembering translations. A learner might recognize a verb but struggle to conjugate it, understand its meaning but fail to recall it in conversation, or remember a word today only to forget it a few days later.
Traditional vocabulary-learning experiences can separate memorization from practical application, leaving learners with fragmented knowledge rather than a deeper understanding of the language.
Lemma approaches this problem by making words the foundation of the learning experience. Instead of treating vocabulary as a collection of definitions, it connects each word to its grammatical forms, pronunciation, and real sentence usage.
The design challenge was to make this information accessible without overwhelming learners, while creating a repeatable study experience that supports long-term retention.
The guiding question: How might we help language learners understand, practice, and retain vocabulary in context, rather than simply memorize translations?
02 — Understanding the Learning Experience
From recognizing a word to using it with confidence.
The product experience is built around the idea that vocabulary becomes more useful when learners can recognize patterns and understand how words change depending on context.
Three design opportunities shaped the experience:
01. Connect vocabulary to context: A translation provides a starting point, but example sentences help learners understand how a word functions in a real situation. Showing the original sentence alongside its translation makes the relationship between meaning and usage more explicit.
02. Make grammatical patterns visible: Words can have multiple forms depending on tense, person, number, and grammatical function. Organizing these variations into a structured vocabulary system helps learners explore the relationships between them instead of treating every form as an unrelated word.
03. Reinforce learning over time: One successful answer doesn't necessarily mean a word has been mastered. A learning system needs to account for correct answers, mistakes, and the time elapsed between reviews. This creates an opportunity to turn individual exercises into a continuous learning journey.
These opportunities informed the information hierarchy, study interactions, and progress-tracking experience.
03 — Design Strategy
Three principles guided the interface.
Clarity over complexity
Language learning already requires substantial mental effort. The interface should make the task immediately understandable, with a clear sentence, a focused set of answer options, and supporting information available when needed.
Context over memorization
Vocabulary should be presented through meaningful sentences, translations, pronunciation, and grammatical information. Learners need to understand not only what a word means, but also how it is used.
Progress over perfection
Learning is iterative. Feedback should explain whether an answer is correct, reinforce the relevant information, and help learners understand what needs additional practice.
Together, these principles informed a clean, structured interface that balances focused exercises with deeper vocabulary exploration.
04 — The Solution
One vocabulary system, multiple ways to learn.
Lemma organizes the experience into three primary areas: Home, Study, and Words. Each serves a different purpose within the learning journey.
Home: Turn intention into action
The home dashboard gives learners an overview of their current learning state and a clear starting point for the next session.
Key interface elements include:
Learning statistics: Reviews, accuracy, mastered words, new vocabulary, and words requiring relearning.
Daily study summary: An estimate of the words and reviews awaiting attention.
Vocabulary progress: A visual representation of progress through the learning system.
Spaced repetition timeline: A clear view of the stages words move through as knowledge strengthens.
Needs attention: A list of words that may benefit from additional practice.
Primary actions: Start studying or browse the vocabulary collection.
The design prioritizes actionable information over passive reporting. Rather than asking users to interpret a complex analytics dashboard, it helps them understand what they have accomplished and what they can do next.
The distinction between new, mastered, and relearning vocabulary also makes progress more meaningful than a single total-word count.
Study: Practice in context
The Study interface is the core learning experience.
Each exercise presents a sentence with a missing word, followed by a small set of possible answers. Supporting elements include the English translation, pronunciation, and audio controls for both individual words and complete sentences.
The interface establishes a clear visual hierarchy:
The sentence and missing word receive the greatest attention.
Answer options remain easy to scan and select.
Translations and pronunciation provide additional context.
Feedback and grammatical information reinforce the learning moment.
A single primary action moves the learner forward.
The result is a focused exercise that minimizes unnecessary navigation and keeps the learner engaged with the language itself.
Words: Explore vocabulary beyond the exercise
The Words section provides a searchable, filterable vocabulary library.
Learners can review their saved words, search for a specific lemma or form, filter by grammatical category or learning status, and sort the collection according to their needs.
Each word has a dedicated detail view that brings together:
Its meaning and pronunciation.
Part of speech and relevant grammatical characteristics.
Individual forms and their translations.
Learning status and progress.
Example sentences with translations.
Review history and performance information.
This creates a bridge between short study exercises and deeper exploration. Learners can investigate a word independently, understand its different forms, and return to practice when they are ready.
10 — Outcome & Impact
A more connected vocabulary-learning experience.
The resulting design brings together focused practice, grammatical exploration, contextual learning, and long-term progress tracking within one coherent interface.
The main design outcomes are:
A clearer learning journey: Home, Study, and Words serve distinct but connected purposes.
More meaningful vocabulary practice: Exercises connect answers to translations, pronunciation, and grammatical information.
Greater visibility into learning progress: Learners can inspect both overall progress and the history of individual words.
More actionable feedback: Correct and incorrect answers are distinguished visually and supported by contextual information.
A foundation for continued growth: Reusable interface patterns support additional vocabulary categories, learning states, and progress features.
These are design outcomes based on the proposed experience, not measured improvements in retention or engagement. Quantitative impact would need to be validated through usability testing and product analytics.