Let’s Yum Cha!
Product Management • Product Design • Animation • Sound
Did you know that every two weeks a language dies with its last speaker?
Let’s Yum Cha!" is an interactive mobile game designed to introduce young children to the Cantonese language, while celebrating the richness of Cantonese culture.
This innovative product was created to address a key challenge: the limited availability of Cantonese-language content for young children in non-Cantonese-speaking communities, particularly during the crucial period of early language development.
User Research
Conducted surveys and interviews with British-Chinese families to understand barriers to Cantonese learning.
Found key challenges such as lack of engaging resources and traditional methods not retaining children's interest.
Identified families' desire for a modern and interactive approach to language learning.
Prioritised creating a solution tailored to young learners, considering developmental and cultural needs.
Used research insights to shape a gamified app designed to make learning fun and intuitive.
First Iteration & Feedback
Designed a gamified app with interactive games and integrated playful audio-visual elements to engage children in learning Cantonese.
Created original animations, sounds, and voiceovers to enhance the app’s immersive experience and reinforce language concepts.
Focused on building an intuitive, child-friendly interface that allowed independent navigation.
Conducted market research through surveys to assess the demand for this type of app, evaluating its potential appeal and marketability. The findings indicated strong interest, validating the product's viability and confirming that pursuing its development was worthwhile.
Agile Approach & MVP Development
Adopted an agile methodology, scaled down the original game design, and focused on delivering a simpler, more manageable MVP.
Prioritised core features and avoided over-complicated mechanics, ensuring a focused and incremental development process.
A plan to release the product in phases, refining and expanding it based on user feedback and technical capacity.
Marketing Strategy & User Engagement
Developed a centralised website to host updates, Cantonese resources, and gather email sign-ups, helping build a direct audience connection.
Focused on social media engagement, posting weekly content that blends Cantonese culture with language learning, to attract and engage a young audience.
Engaged followers by encouraging user contributions and developing a sustainable posting format.
Grew a strong social media following, with over 2500 followers and 250 newsletter sign-ups, increasing visibility for the game launch.
Second Iteration and Feedback
Held a story-writing workshop to develop the narrative, ensuring the game's story and characters were integral to the learning experience.
Explored mini-game concepts through paper prototyping, eventually settling on a food-ordering game involving dim sum as a learning tool.
Mapped out detailed user flows and game flows, creating diagrams to guide the development process and ensure cohesive gameplay.
Created an interactive prototype using Protopie, gathering user feedback through surveys to refine game mechanics and user interaction.
Development and release
Based on positive feedback from iteration 2, iteration 3 introduced a full-colour game, small animations, updated character design, additional levels, and a dim sum menu for revising learned phrases.
Collaborated closely with the developer, delivering game flow documentation and detailed interaction logic, alongside audio and visual assets.
Conducted final round of user testing with 50 testers across Android and iOS devices.
The game is scheduled for release in January 2025, with final tweaks based on the latest insights via a feedback survey to optimise the user experience.