Telly App

Telly is a free app that helps people practice English conversation through improvisation. Users build stories from random words related to a theme chosen before the round begins. This turns English practice into something more playful, bringing more confidence when it’s time to put words together and speak out loud.

Design Process

Challenge Based Learning

Storytelling Concept Test

Before building any part of the app, we validated the core storytelling mechanic through a low-cost MVP test: participants were simply shown sets of words and asked to tell a story on the spot. No app, no interface, just the raw prompts. Each person was tested individually, but the word sets were split into four different formats so we could compare how each shaped the storytelling experience.

Group: nouns, verbs, and characters

Combining nouns, verbs, and characters gave participants the richest material to work with. Characters in particular seemed to entertain users more, adding a playful, personal quality to the stories. The main challenge was pacing: stories tended to repeat themselves and were difficult to wrap up.

Group with the addition of emojis

Adding emojis alongside the words made narration noticeably easier. Participants identified which terms to use more quickly, though a few words were occasionally forgotten or left unspoken during the story.

Only nouns

Limiting prompts to nouns alone resulted in shorter, less creative stories. Without verbs or characters to build around, and with no connecting theme between the nouns, participants had less to work with and struggled to develop a fuller narrative.

Group with emojis and drawing while creating

This group tested a specific hypothesis: that sketching while telling a story could make the exercise easier or more engaging. In practice, we found the opposite. Participants had difficulty narrating and drawing at the same time, though the stories that did emerge were told more simply.

What we learned

Nouns, verbs, and characters, paired with emojis, offered the strongest balance between ease of use and creative engagement. Because this test relied only on printed word sets rather than a working prototype, we were able to validate the core mechanic quickly and cheaply, and these findings directly shaped the word categories and prompt structure built into Telly’s final version.

App User Experience

We approached User Experience through a user journey map, a persona, and a value proposition canvas. We also mapped out the app’s user flow, which was fundamental in aligning the team around a shared vision and in creating a concise, coherent experience for the user.

User Journey

User Flow

Persona

Crazy 8s

User Interface

We prioritized feedback on user interactions, both visual and tactile. The images below demonstrate all the interactions within Telly.

Results