Almmie
BFA Thesis | 9 Weeks | Focus: Digital development
My BFA thesis explored how design can further promote language revitalization work through digitalization and language nests. It’s focused on the lack of educational material and accessibility. The project was done in collaboration with “Álgguogåhtie - Umesamer I samverkan” during spring 2021.
HOW MIGHT WE PROMOTE THE REVITALIZATION OF THE UMESÁMI LANGUAGE INBETWEEN THE LANGUAGE NEST GATHERINGS?
Problem definition:
Research:
Surveys / Interviews / Desktop studies
The project concentrated on qualitative research to get a more in-depth and personal stand on what the language nest future could look like and how a digital tool could enhance the learning experience of the physical language nest meetings for the users.
I conducted interviews and surveys with experts in the academic field of language nest, Sámi language revitalization workers, language nest leaders and language nest participants.
BENCHMARK:
Giällabiässáje / Language nest
Umesámi - About 100 speakers
USERS:
Language nest participants
LANGUAGE:
“ Continuity and connection to everyday life is very important for language revitalization.“
- Language revitalization worker
Anonymous survey
User journeys
Screening of interviews
Focus points:
The data from the research were translated into user-journeys, list-of-conclusion, functions list and a market analysis. Together with all the research I could conclude that the end concept should have the following summary to solve the problem definition:
The product should be applicable within the near future and have the language development in mind. The product must be partially or fully digital to be accessible to the user wherever they are. The product should be able to encourage and foster the language use in the user's everyday life. The product should aim to imitate the feeling of today giällabiässáje in the sense of togetherness and have an identity validating feeling.
Three of the main pillars I worked with based on the research was:
Promote continuity
Redistributing workload
Foster the community
Exploration & Development:
The ideation phase started with two workshops, one remote and one physical. In the workshops I facilitated we broke down what educational material or language was to broaden the vision on what language learning can be.
Furthermore I continued on the results from the workshops with one individual ideation to conduce it to tree concepts, which I evaluated through discussions with users and a SWOT-analysis. The developing process included user testing, site-mapping, MCF discussion and physical & digital prototyping.
Final concept:
Almmie
User based learning | Interactive material bank | Community
Almmie is a digital service that creates the opportunity to integrate the language learning of Umesámi more seamlessly into everyday life. This is done by intertwining the language learning in relatable activities based on the interests of the users. The service offers language learning, social interaction and a growing interactive material bank.
This app is intended as a compliment to today's giällabiässáje/language nest sessions to increase language use and create more language contexts. The primary user are adults who want to use or learn the Umesami language more continuously.
Language nest participant
“There are many different language learning apps out there, but it’s always a predetermined learning material on them. This app makes language learning relevant to what you’re interested in. This is a winning concept for all languages!”
Feedback:
Language nest participant
“How exciting! This app has both a meeting place and documentation on the same space. Fantastic! I haven’t seen that combination before!”