About

Created an interactive campaign to support correct name pronunciation and cultural respect for Duolingo.

Designed the AR experience, motion, and illustration digital assets across playful digital touchpoints.

Duolingo Name Card #Name Matters

My Role

Visual Designer – Concept & Story Strategy

Responsibility

Empathy-driven research, Ideation, Visual Storytelling, Motion and AR, Illustration

Timeline

8 weeks 2024

Credits

The One Club x Edelman Mentorship

  • Edelman Mentors

    Jesse Suchmann, ECD

    Megan Skelly, ECD

  • Creative Team

    Zixuan Zhang, Neige Guo, Gabriela Bastidas

Summary

Duolingo wanted a fun, shareable campaign to connect with Gen Z and millennials while staying true to their playful tone and Duo.

#NameMatters — a digital tool that makes name-sharing easier and more inclusive. It helps Gen Z overcome awkward moments, while fix the problem of mispronunciation.

Through The One Club x Edelman Mentorship, presented to Duolingo’s brand team, James Kuczynski, Global Sr. Creative Director, Brand & Marketing at Duolingo, as a scalable system for social learning.

#Name Matters. #Mispronunciation

Why this topic?

73% of ethnic minorities have their names mispronounced.

Phenomenon

Mispronouncing names happens all the time in the life. According to Race Equality Matters, about 73% of people have experienced having their names mispronounced.

To better understand their experiences, our team conducted interviews with 10 students from China, Japan, and Chile living in Western countries.

In the interviews, we amazingly felt the phenomenon of negative emotions by mispronouncing names.

  • “It's a pain to keep telling them how to pronounce my name, so I just accept it.”

  • “I felt pressured to introduce my real name, so I adopted a more ‘Americanized‘ name."

We uncovered that name mispronunciation can cause name shame. It can impact cultural identity, especially for Gen Z international students.

So… What’s the point there? And what campaign can we bring with Duo?

Competitor Research:

Learning from Existing Campaigns

After identifying the problem, we researched six similar campaigns, and here are the highlights of two:

  • Starbucks #WhatsYourName – Launched in the UK, this campaign celebrates gender diversity, particularly transgender stories.

  • Race Equality Matters #MyNameIs – A movement dedicated to sharing name stories and correct pronunciations, especially for non-English names.

We aim for a younger, more playful approach. And we hope to reduce pressure and negative emotions. Our campaign aims to be fun and optimistic, and Duo’s personality makes name-sharing an engaging experience for Gen Z.

Pain Point #1

Lack of Accessible Information

There are limited easy-to-use tools to help people learn them. This leads to frustration and social avoidance in diverse environments like universities.

Pain Point #2

Lack of Engaging and Fun Learning Methods

Traditional pronunciation tools are often dry and unattractive. Gen Z prefers interactive, playful experiences that encourage participation.

Pain Point #3

More Personalization & Identity Expression

Names hold cultural meaning, but digital spaces often ignore their deeper significance.

Duolingo, known for their mascot-driven, gamified experience, can bridge this gap by offering custom avatars, visual storytelling, and interactive learning tools.

Question

  • How might we make it easy to pronounce names correctly?

  • How might we make sharing names to be fun and cool?

Ideation

OK! Now that we have questions and the information, let's imagine that…

If we create a Duolingo-connected tool that helps fix mispronunciations in a playful and interactive way, it could make learning names easier and could make sharing names playful and reach wider young users.

Our Solution

The Duo e-ID

A fun way to share your name with the story and culture behind it.

  • Input your name + story

  • Record your voice

  • Generate your AR video

  • Share with friends and social media

Our Mission

Name sharing made simple and fun.

Timing

Name Share During Orientation Days

Easing awkward first meetings and helping Gen Z make social into playful moments.

Core Experiences

Step 1:

Tell Your Story Name, background, and story.

Input your name + story

Step 2:

Say It Out Loud Record your name to guide pronunciation with emotion.

Record your voice

Step 3:

Making Names Shareable & Fun with AR & Gamification

Generate your AR video

Final Step :

Sharing with your friends and tag us on the social media!

Share with people

My Highlight

AR Filter Design

With Duo’s playful and quirky personality, I designed a set of interactive stickers using Spark AR. Stickers are a big part of self-expression on social media and daily life for Gen Z.

Result

A great Pitch to Duolingo!

The Name Matters project was completed in Spring 2024, thanks to the support of The One Club and Edelman team, our mentor, Jesse and Megan . After The One Club team group pitch, our group had the final opportunity to pitch our campaign to James Kuczynski, Global Sr. Creative Director, Brand & Marketing at Duolingo. Though our pitch wasn’t ultimately selected, the experience was invaluable, and we built a connection with him.

Wishes

Polishing the Campaign/Product and Bringing Ideas to Life

We are grateful for the chance to create this campaign. It helped us sharpen our skills in design thinking, teamwork, user research, and execution. We’re excited about future opportunities to create meaningful and impactful products.

Embracing a deep UX and exploring user-centred solutions!

On a personal level, this project marked a turning point — it sparked my interest in diving deeper into product design and user experience, and inspired me to push my creative boundaries in more intentional, human-centered ways.

Thanks, Jesse! I am glad to the time with you and the team!