Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com • 2017
Word of the Day Quiz
Role: UI/UX Design, User Research, Usability Testing
Platform: iOS
As the lead designer on the mobile apps team at Dictionary.com, I worked closely with the product manager and engineers to envision a new addition to the app. We wanted to bring a fun and engaging feature to our users that would continue to help them learn and improve upon the English language, while driving increased time per session and more ad revenue. Given that Dictionary.com has a loyal Word of the Day audience, with some user testing and prototyping we decided that weekly Word of the Day quizzes was one of the new features we were looking for.
Push Notification and Location Permissions
Role: UI/UX Design
Platform: iOS, Android
When I joined Dictionary.com, the app would prompt users for push notification and location permissions with no context as soon as you opened it for the first time. This felt invasive and was leaving a negative first impression on users who were wondering why a dictionary would need to send notifications and have access to your location. In turn, a large percentage of our users declined the permission requests immediately or uninstalled the app altogether. We implemented a brief contextual onboarding to let users know the value of allowing these permissions and saw a 20% increase in permission request opt-in which also led to increased engagement with Word of the Day.
Reverse Dictionary Concept
Role: UI/UX Design
Platform: iOS
Have you ever come across a situation where you might know the definition of a word you’re looking for, but not the actual word itself? (“What’s the word for _____?”) I worked closely with the VP of Product to imagine what the world's first reverse dictionary might look like. The idea was that you’d use voice to talk with the app just as you would to a friend or colleague when trying to figure out a certain word, and quickly get an accurate response backed by Dictionary.com’s immense amount of word data. In the times where the app couldn’t pinpoint a word based off of your question, the app would call on crowdsourced information - creating a tight-knit community of word enthusiasts and English learners.
Editorial Homepage
Role: UI/UX Design
Platform: Web
During my time at Dictionary.com I was tasked with redesigning the editorial content home page with a goal of increasing the number of article page views per day. A combination of the new design and more resources going toward creating new editorial content led to ~30% increase in page views and the first time we had hit one million in a week.
