Related: The UX lessons I learned from video games The app’s gamification is one of the biggest reasons why Duolingo has over 300 million users worldwide.

Advancing through lessons and getting cheerful, congratulatory messages from them makes you feel accomplished so you keep coming back reminders that you’ve skipped a lesson or three make you feel like you’re missing out and messing up. Their solution to motivating people to learn: Make it into game.ĭuolingo’s Super Mario is Duo, the all-knowing green owl who does their best to keep you progressing. The team behind Duolingo knows that it’s much easier to not learn a new language and never come back after the first lesson. Hopefully you at least still have that frozen burrito. It always hurts so much to find out that the Duolingo owl is giving up on you ? /0wJrTJZjPe This goes on for a while, until you eventually get one final message. Thought learning a new language might be fun but I ended up having to deal with the pain of regularly disappointing the duolingo owl instead /UflncUNeTM Duo knows you have time for a quick lesson. But then you come home from work and spend seven hours scrolling through your ex’s new girlfriend’s Instagram and Twitter feeds before falling asleep to a rerun of 90-Day Fiance, your frozen burrito still thawing on the counter when you wake up in a cold sweat. No time for that today, but I’ll get back on track tomorrow, you promise the bird. I have reawakened the Owl’s wrath ? /c58jS1Sj7o I accidentally opened Duolingo the other day… No matter which of the 37 languages you sign up to learn on the app, your lack of engagement typically results in a quick reminder like this: Skip a five-minute daily lesson-as I did on, you guessed it, January 2-and you’ll hear from Duo.

But the only one who’s ever held me accountable is Duo, Duolingo’s owl mascot.

Duo owl