Babbel
A concept redesign exploring how a language-learning app could make each language visually and culturally immersive, using Japanese as the example.
Year:
2026
Timeframe:
Tools:
Figma
Category:
Mobile / Concept
Overview
A visually immersive language-learning experience
Babbel teaches languages through short, bite-sized lessons. I started using it to learn German and stuck with it, so this began as a curiosity about a product I actually use. Learning a language goes hand in hand with learning a culture, and research shows visual association improves comprehension and retention. Babbel's interface is clean by design, but it leaves that visual, cultural dimension largely untapped. This is a self-initiated concept exploring what it could look like if it didn't. Babbel doesn't currently offer Japanese, so I used Japanese to illustrate the idea.
A clean interface that leaves culture on the table
Babbel's design is deliberately minimal and consistent across every language, which keeps it clear but makes learning French, Japanese, or German feel visually identical. When you arrive in a new country the first thing you notice is how different everything looks: the architecture, the signs, the symbols. That visual and cultural texture is part of how a language is learned and remembered, and a one-size-fits-all interface can't carry it.
What if each language looked like the culture it comes from
I explored a version of Babbel where each language has a visually distinct experience matched to its culture, using Japanese as the worked example. The visual direction draws on the Ukiyo-e woodblock tradition, a reddish-orange palette used with restraint, familiar scenes from Japanese life for lesson imagery, and Noto Sans JP as a typeface that stays clean for interface use while supporting Japanese writing systems. The redesign keeps Babbel's existing structure and learning flow intact, layering cultural immersion onto the home screen, lessons, vocabulary, and progress views rather than reinventing how the app works.
