Duden Online
Reshaping an iconic brand’s digital services
In 2018 I lead a team to help transform Duden Online into a future-proof resource for all questions relating to the German language.
Amongst native speakers the Duden is considered to be the German dictionary. Its publisher is striving to make it the number one worldwide reference for the German language: from German natives to foreign students and immigrants, from everyday people to professional writers, editors and translators.
Duden Online had to become a provider of helpful digital services rather than a place to buy books.
Within the given Duden corporate design we defined a visual language that separates tools and educational content from entertaining content, and user input from Duden output.
Different elements of Duden Online’s visual language
In a total of three sprints we explored several user journeys from dictionary usage to subscription management, audited content and analysed the existing structure of the Duden website.
Lots of educational as well as entertaining content had to be made more accessible. New services had to be integrated.
Start page
Word definition page
Sprachwissen: lots of official rule-sets and how-tos on grammar and style
User account
In several user flows we sketched out the overall potential and diverse modules of a user account shared between different web-based products. The pictures above show the dashboard, payment information and dictionary bookmarks.
The new website concept and the new Duden Online design language will be applied to all future web services and products by the in-house team at Duden Online.
We have placed our visitors at the centre of development. The new website is geared to their diverse needs. We are continuing this dialogue so that we can remain the No. 1 contact point for all questions relating to the German language in the future.