SiDim (wip) — Bri Yee

SiDim - A Chinese-American Calendar App

An exploration into language and culture preservation, looking at Cantonese as the jumping point for research and design.

Why worry about language and culture preservation?

A Chinese calendar app paired with a promotional experiential activation aimed at Cantonese-Americans to reintegrate culture into their everyday.

Synopsis:

Design Research (Primary and Secondary), Wireframing, Experience Flows, App Prototyping, Ideation Sketching, Coding, Woodworking, Rendering

Skills:

Each year, around 9 languages are lost every year amongst the 7,000 plus languages that exist. Of those 7,000, 40% are in danger of disappearing by the end of this century.

Efforts to promote language preservation include digital archives of various languages like Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) or The Rosetta Project, but they’re not advertised as much.

Along with digital archives, there’s content creators like Adam Aleksic, also known as the Etymology Nerd, who’s a linguist and etymologist, that have contributed to the rise in younger generations taking into account the importance of understanding and remembering languages in the world.

In surveys conducted regarding language preservation, majority said that preserving languages is one of the most important efforts to be made by communities now.

Even so, 58.3% of participants said they rarely pursue learning another language.

Instead of encouraging others to learn a whole new language, a feat often motivated by the individual, are there other ways to incentivize others to prevent language and culture loss?

To look into ways to incentivize language and culture preservation, Cantonese, the language of my family, was utilized as an example of a dying language.

In the US, Mandarin is predicted to replace Cantonese as the lingua franca among Chinese speakers.

The Multilingual Apple: Languages in New York City Walter de Gruyter

A Dying Language

Cantonese-American individuals participated in an interview that gave them a chance to speak on their perspective, losses, and values that came to be from their experiences.

Interviews

“I had to Google Lunar New Year dates every time... Googling just feels so separated from the culture.”

“Cantonese is part of my identity. It's just a very subtle thing that doesn't come up a lot because I don't use the language as much. I feel like Cantonese kind of has this identity with language because it's not a language that I hear a lot anymore because it's being phased out and Mandarin is becoming the more predominant language.”

“Holiday traditions that Paupau would put together and all that family tradition stuff. I like talking about it and also look forward to going to them.”

Cantonese has a high entry barrier to understanding.

Category IV Language

FSI ranks it as one of the hardest for English speakers.

Speakers Declining

Future Cantonese generations aren’t inheriting the language.

Desire to Preserve

Across the board, there’s a want and need to preserve Cantonese.

Busy Lives

The amount of people that know Cantonese as a language and culture in the US is slowly decreasing, making it harder for the younger generation to connect with the older generation through conversation.

“Just in general, [I want to] learn more about [the holidays] then take that information and try to integrate into my life. For example, Chinese New Year. I’d like to participate in some of the traditions like putting out a bowl of candy or put tangerines around the house.”

Searching Holidays Online

Many second-generation Cantonese-Americans rely on online searches to find specific Chinese holiday dates, which can make the experience feel disconnected from the cultural roots of their heritage.

Busy Lives

Many individuals aren’t prioritizing learning Cantonese daily.

Existing App Analysis

All Chinese Calendar apps are targeted towards users that already know how to use the Calendar.

The Opportunity

A Chinese Calendar App with a promotional activation that helps others learn more about Chinese holidays and Cantonese language and traditions.

The Value

A Chinese calendar app helps 2nd gen and future generation Cantonese-American Individuals who want to preserve their language and culture by integrating cultural aspects into their daily life, driving cultural and language preservation.

App Architecture

User Flow

Wireframing

Building the pages and exploring specific features and possible layouts.

User Validation

Returning to the interviewees and survey participants, validation feedback was received to narrow down on the features that were most desired by the target users.

“I feel like I would totally use this where if it's like a plugin to my main my main calendar or vice versa… every year I always have to look up when is the first day of the lunar year this year?”

“When I speak Cantonese with my parents, they always harp, like you have the tone wrong and everything like that. So I think it speaks to me and my experience.”

“Maybe keep a streak up you know… That would incentivize more on logging in daily, right?”

Retention Rate

For long-term use, how will success of the app be measured and used by developers to further evolve the app past its original release to retain and gain users.

Calendar Syncing

Tonal Importance

User Retention

Make accessible for use with users’ existing calendars.

Users find use and connection with community in the tone-based game.

There is a need to understand how to keep users engaged with the app.

Branding

SiDim

Creating a point in time to reconnect with Cantonese.

Calendar Toggle

Switch between the Lunar and Gregorian calendar to learn more about how the two coincide with each other.

Popups and Information Modals

Different buttons offer new information to be learned about holidays, fortunes, moon phases, and the zodiacs here.

Calendar Syncing

xxxSee the year’s list of annual holidays and understand the history and cultural significance. Cantonese translations appear next to each holiday’s name to get both names and learn pronunciations.

Hone Your Tone

Cantonese has a range of tones, but six is generally used throughout the dialects. Hone your tones by listening to phrases and guessing the tone of each word. Compete and share your score with friends and family to keep track of each others’ progress!

Chinese Holiday List

See the year’s list of annual holidays and understand the history and cultural significance. Cantonese translations appear next to each holiday’s name to get both names and learn pronunciations.

Birth Chart

Everyone wants to know their zodiacs, right? If someone doesn’t know, search their birth year and find out! Learn the personalities and fortunes associated with the animal for each year and share with friends and family to get them talking about what they are.