When I started LearnType from Dhaka, I thought Bangla typing was one problem. It turned out to be two.
Most people here type Bangla in one of two ways. Avro Phonetic lets you type Bangla by spelling it out with English letters. Bijoy maps Bangla letters to fixed keys, and it is still common in offices, newsrooms, and government work.
My first plan was a single "Bangla" course with a layout switch at the top. Simple to build. Simple to explain. It did not work.
What went wrong with one course
The two layouts teach your hands completely different habits.
An Avro learner is mostly building English touch typing plus a set of spelling rules. Their hard moments are things like conjuncts and vowel signs, where the spelling in your head does not match what appears on screen.
A Bijoy learner is memorizing a new keyboard. Their hard moments are finding the right key at all, then remembering which letters need Shift or a link key.
So the same lesson order was too easy for one group and confusing for the other. A beginner who picked the wrong layout on day one often blamed themselves instead of the course.
What I changed
I split it into two full paths, each starting from zero.
- A clear choice first. Before any lesson, the learner picks Avro or Bijoy with a short explanation of who each one suits. Freelancers and students who already type English usually do well with Avro. People heading into office or press work often need Bijoy.
- Lesson order per layout. Avro lessons build from familiar English keys toward the tricky Bangla combinations. Bijoy lessons build from the home row keys outward, the way you would learn any new keyboard.
- The same honest feedback in both. Live speed and accuracy show up the whole time, so practice stays honest no matter which path you are on.
It meant a lot more content work. I still think it was the right call, because the goal is not a tidy course list. The goal is a beginner who actually finishes.
What I learned as a builder
Your users may be solving different problems with the same name. "Bangla typing" sounded like one market. In practice it was two groups with different pain.
Splitting can be cheaper than patching. I spent too long adding tips and exceptions to the single course before admitting the structure was wrong.
Make the first decision easy. The layout choice is the most important moment in the whole product, so it deserves the clearest copy on the site.
Where it stands
Both paths are free in the browser, alongside English, Hindi, and Arabic practice. If you are curious how the Avro and Bijoy onboarding feels, you can try it at LearnType.
I would really like feedback from anyone who has built for more than one input method or script:
- How did you decide when to split a product into separate paths?
- How do you help a new user make the right first choice without a long quiz?
Thanks for reading. I will share what changes next as we keep improving it.
Top comments (1)
"Your users may be solving different problems with the same name" is such a good line. I ran into a smaller version of this with an iOS app: same product, but adding separate en-GB and en-AU listings almost doubled search impressions, because people in each market search with their own words. One "market" on paper, several in practice.
The choice screen before lesson 1 is a nice touch, since it catches the wrong-layout problem before the learner blames themselves. Have you seen a difference in completion rate between the Avro and Bijoy paths? I'd guess Bijoy learners drop off earlier because the first lessons feel slower.