Visibility Signals Importance
Users care about a feature in proportion to how much the product visibly cares about it.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 86%
A board member's insight to Duolingo: users care about the streak so much because Duolingo cares about it so much. The streak gets the most animated, celebrated screen in the app after every session, is referenced across notifications, and is never hidden. That prominence is deliberate — visibility teaches users what to pay attention to. Build a streak and tuck it in a corner, and users won't value it, no matter how good the mechanic.
Origin
Attributed by Jackson Shuttleworth to Duolingo board member Bing Gordon.
Core principles
- 01Attention is contagious: the product's emphasis becomes the user's emphasis
- 02Prominence is a hierarchy signal telling users what matters
- 03A great mechanic hidden in a corner won't earn user attachment
- 04Reinforce visibility across surfaces (post-session screen, notifications)
How to run it
- 1
Decide which mechanic deserves top-of-mind status
Choose the feature you want users to attach to, accepting there are other levers you may deliberately keep quieter.
Pro tip You can't make everything prominent — visibility is a scarce hierarchy signal, so spend it on the mechanic you most want valued.
- 2
Give it the most celebrated real estate
Surface it in the most prominent, richly animated moment in the flow — for Duolingo, a big streak screen after every session, cooler than almost any other screen.
Pro tip Cause users to pause and soak in the moment (animation, haptics) so they connect emotionally to the feature.
- 3
Reinforce it across other surfaces
Reference the feature in notifications and other screens so users are constantly reminded it matters.
Pro tip Duolingo's notifications work largely because they reference the streak, which users already care about.
Watch out Hide the feature away and users likely won't care about it as much — which may be fine only if you've chosen a different priority lever.
In the wild
Board member Bing Gordon observed that users care about the streak because Duolingo does: a big animated streak screen after every session, references in messages, prominence everywhere. It's not an accident.
→ Framed as a deliberate hierarchy principle — the streak's visibility is a primary reason users value it so highly.
Common mistakes
Building a good mechanic but hiding it
A streak sequestered in a corner of the app won't earn user attachment; users take their attention cues from what the product emphasizes.
Is it for you?
Best for
PMs deciding how prominently to surface a habit/engagement mechanic they want users to value.
Not ideal for
Teams that have deliberately chosen a different primary lever and don't want to spend scarce attention on this feature.
From the transcript
“the reason why users care about your streak so much is because you care about your streaks much”
“making sure that you're giving it the visibility it deserves if you want it to have the kind of impact that duelingo has”
“so many of our notifications work because they reference the streak because users care about the streak”
From the episode
Behind the product: Duolingo streaks
Jackson Shuttleworth (Group PM, Retention Team)