Duolingo, Busuu and the rest made vocabulary feel like a game. Writing is treated as a side skill. Months into an app, learners can order food but can’t write the simplest characters.
Most Japanese apps teach you to recognise and say words. Writing comes later, if at all. Kakimasu flips that: characters are the foundation, practised stroke by stroke, so literacy grows alongside vocabulary instead of after it.
I designed it end to end over three months, from the first interviews to a tested prototype.
Before designing anything, I wanted to know whether this was a real gap or just my own experience.
How might I make writing Japanese characters approachable for beginners, so literacy grows alongside vocabulary instead of waiting until later?
Three screens from the tested prototype: pick a course, pick a lesson, then write.
Each one answers a finding from the research.
Characters never show up alone. They arrive inside real words you can use straight away, so meaning and writing are learned together.
Example: instead of learning 水 (water) as an abstract shape, you meet it in 水曜日, Wednesday, literally “water day”. Meaning and culture stick together.
Each character is broken into numbered strokes with arrows. Drift off course and a gentle haptic nudges you back onto the path.
Impact: 73% fewer character formation errors than with static instructions in testing.
Every stroke sequence plays its native pronunciation, so sight, movement and sound reinforce each other.
Design decision: audio plays automatically during practice. No extra play button to break the flow.
No wall of completion percentages. Progress shows up as small, specific wins: “3 new strokes mastered today” or “perfect stroke order on your first try”.
Three rounds, each with more people and a more real prototype.
A final usability test with 23 people, after the three design rounds, plus how they used it afterwards.
“For the first time, I understand why stroke order matters. It helps me remember the characters.” Interview participant
“I actually look forward to writing practice now. The app makes me feel like I’m improving, not failing.” Beta tester
93% called the stroke-order system “game-changing” for how they learn.
Going after a specific gap made for a stronger product than polishing what already exists. Learners knew exactly what they were missing; the apps just hadn’t asked.
The main lesson: confidence is a UX outcome you can measure. Tracking how people felt about their progress, not just what they completed, is what made them come back.