“Speaking Kashmiri feels weird.”
Research signal: Understanding the language does not always translate into confidence or willingness to speak it.
← Back to work
Case study · Interaction Design & UX Research · Capstone
Kāshur: turning a language children understand into one they proudly speak.
A three month capstone about a language quietly slipping away, and the research that changed how I thought children could reconnect with it. It became Kāshur, a heritage language experience that helps Kashmiri children use the language they already understand through stories, play, and real world interactions.
3 Months
466 Participants
Research-Led
Solo Project
Overview
A whole generation of Kashmiri kids understands the language,but answers in English or Urdu. Kāshur helps them use it, and feel proud doing so.
Kāshur is a heritage language experience for children who already understand Kashmiri but rarely speak it. Instead of teaching vocabulary from scratch, it encourages children to use the language through stories, play, and everyday conversations. A teacher starts the journey. The child carries it forward.
RoleSolo UX researcher & interaction designer
Timeline3 month capstone
ProblemChildren understand Kashmiri but rarely choose to speak it
BetDesign for use and pride, not vocabulary
466ParticipantsSurvey + interviews
7 → 3PersonasFocused on three users
3 → 1ConceptsRefined to one
4 LevelsExplorer → ChampionCard progression
The real design challenge was never explaining why Kashmiri is fading. It was answering two smaller, harder questions: What does a child do on her first day in the app? And what keeps her coming back for years?
Stage 01Brief
A language in decline, and a feeling I could not shake
Not one of my younger cousins speaks Kashmiri. Neither, really, do I.
I began to notice the same pattern in children almost ten years younger than me.
Before designing anything, I wanted to know whether this was simply my family’s story or part of something much larger.
Stage 02Research
Research · desk study
A language fading, quietly
On paper, Kashmiri looks safe: spoken by around 6.8 million people and recognised as an official language. But the deeper I looked, the more the numbers told a different story.
<5%of schools actually teach in Kashmiri
64of ~94,000 Class 10 students chose it as a subject
~95%of literate Kashmiris cannot write their own language
Three forces quietly shaped this decline.
Reason one
Social neglect
English came to represent opportunity, Urdu respectability, and Kashmiri something left behind.
Reason two
Migration and urbanisation
Migration and displacement disrupted communities where Kashmiri thrived, making Urdu and English the languages children used most outside the home.
Reason three
Government indifference
Kashmiri became a compulsory subject only in 2008, taught unevenly. Hence <5% of schools and 64 exam takers.
Deeper still
Inherited shame
Srinagar's Kashmiri became the standard, so people feel embarrassed even of their own version of Kashmiri next to someone else's.
Secondary research
Grounding the research
Before entering the field, I first studied how languages survive and why they disappear. David Crystal’s Language Death fundamentally changed how I framed the problem, while two Kashmir-specific sources showed the same patterns already existed locally. Rather than treating these as conclusions, I carried them into field research as hypotheses to validate.
THE FRAMEWORK THAT SHAPED THE RESEARCH
THE KEY INSIGHT
The bilingual stage is the intervention window.
Crystal describes a stage where people begin using a dominant language while still retaining competence in their first language. This suggested a critical window where language use might still be influenced.
FROM THEORY → TO KASHMIR
Many children I spoke to could understand Kashmiri but increasingly switched to Urdu or English when responding. This led me to investigate whether the problem was not understanding the language, but finding meaningful reasons to use it.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
If children already understand Kashmiri, could design create meaningful reasons to use it?
The same pattern, closer to home
The same patterns appeared in regional literature focused on Kashmir.
Regional study
Kashmir and Its People
Edited by M. K. Kaw
Survival depends on more than the classroom. Home, teachers and a sense of identity decide whether Kashmiri lives on.
Paper · Language & identity
The Dying Linguistic Heritage of the Kashmiris
Kashmiri literary culture & language
Each generation speaks less than the last, driven by social prestige: a shift of pride, not ability.
One sentence captured everything
“My language was Kashmiri, but we were ashamed of writing in Kashmiri.”
Dina Nath Nadim, 1974What I carried into the field
I turned what I read into three convictions: assumptions to validate with real families, not conclusions.
H 1
If children already understand Kashmiri, the opportunity may be to create more opportunities to use it, rather than simply teach more vocabulary.
H 2
If language is tied to identity and social prestige, children may need to feel proud and comfortable speaking Kashmiri, not simply be evaluated on proficiency.
H 3
If home, teachers and identity all shape language survival, the solution cannot live in the classroom alone.
These were hypotheses, not conclusions. I went into the field to understand which held true and where they broke down.
Primary research · survey & interviews
I stopped guessing and started asking
Instead of relying only on statistics, I wanted to hear directly from the people living this problem every day. I surveyed 466 participants and interviewed stakeholders across the Kashmiri language ecosystem from school children and college students to parents, teachers, school directors, JKBOSE officials, research scholars, and the editor of Kashmir’s only daily Kashmiri-language newspaper.
466survey responses
9stakeholder groups interviewed
1:1semi-structured interviews
Interviewed across the whole language chain
School childrenCollege studentsParentsTeachersSchool directorsJKBOSE officialsResearch scholarsNewspaper editorPhD language scholar
Behind every insight was a real conversation.
I travelled across Kashmir, visiting schools, government offices, universities, and newsrooms to understand how the language is experienced by the people shaping it every day.
VOICES FROM THE FIELD
Different people described different parts of the problem.
Across generations, homes, schools and institutions, the conversations revealed different perspectives on why Kashmiri is being used less in everyday life.
“If children are sent to elite schools, why should they speak Kashmiri?”
Research signal: Kashmiri can carry a lower social status than Urdu or English in some settings.
“Children should learn Kashmiri because it is their mother tongue.”
Research signal: Parents value language connection, even when Urdu or English dominate communication at home.
“Students from Classes 1st to 5th are interested in Kashmiri, but interest declines in Classes 6th to 8th.”
Research signal: Engagement declines as Kashmiri becomes an additional academic subject.
If children are not encouraged to speak Kashmiri, how will they get inspired?
Research signal: Children may understand Kashmiri, but home and school environments often give them fewer reasons and opportunities to use it.
“There is a shortage of subject-specific Kashmiri teachers.”
Research signal: Education Department officials said Kashmiri is often taught by general subject teachers rather than dedicated Kashmiri specialists, creating a gap in language-specific teaching.
Languages survive when people actively use them.
Research signal: Curriculum and textbooks can support a language, but everyday use remains essential.
Kashmiri is rarely represented on public signage, reducing its visibility in everyday life.
Research signal: The language has limited visibility in public spaces and everyday environments.
Different voices pointed to different causes. I mapped them together to understand what patterns connected them.
AFFINITY MAPPING
Making sense of the patterns
I grouped recurring observations across home, school, social environments and language identity before translating them into design opportunities.
WHAT THE RESEARCH REVEALED
Four patterns kept appearing.
Language needs use.
Children may understand Kashmiri, but they have fewer opportunities to actively use it in everyday interactions.
Home shapes fluency.
Strong speakers described regular exposure to Kashmiri at home and in the surrounding community.
School does not always create connection.
Kashmiri is taught in schools, but teacher constraints, classroom practices and limited engagement can make it feel like a subject rather than a lived language.
Social value shapes choice.
Urdu and English are often associated with education, modernity and opportunity, while Kashmiri can carry lower social value in some settings.
FROM INSIGHTS TO OPPORTUNITIES
The opportunity was not simply to teach more Kashmiri.
The research suggested that a digital experience could create more opportunities to use the language, while making that use feel engaging, social and emotionally safe.
01
Engagement & Experience
Make language practice interactive, playful and easy to return to.
02
Social & Community
Create opportunities for conversation, peer interaction and shared use.
03
Identity & Pride
Make Kashmiri feel visible, valuable and connected to identity.
04
Home & Daily Life
Bring small language interactions into children's everyday routines.
05
Safety & Comfort
Create a low-pressure environment where children can participate without fear of judgement.
06
Teacher Support
Support classroom engagement without adding unnecessary workload for teachers.
THE PROBLEM I CHOSE TO SOLVE
PROBLEM
Children learn Kashmiri as a school subject, but have few opportunities to use it in everyday life.
DESIGN DIRECTION
Create a digital experience that gives children meaningful reasons to use Kashmiri through everyday interactions, stories, social experiences and playful practice.
THE QUESTIONS THAT GUIDED THE DESIGN
HMW 01
How might we help Kashmiri-speaking children develop a meaningful emotional connection with their language and actively use it in daily life?
HMW 02
How might we make using Kashmiri feel socially accepted, desirable and rewarding among children?
These questions shifted the direction from teaching Kashmiri to creating reasons to use Kashmiri.
WHO I WAS DESIGNING FOR
Finding the right users to build for.
Before deciding who Kāshur was for, I mapped the wider ecosystem around Kashmiri, from children and parents to teachers, researchers, publishers and education stakeholders.
This helped me see that language use is shaped by more than the learner alone. The final product focus therefore centred on the people who could directly influence a child's everyday relationship with Kashmiri.
06
→
Stakeholder perspectives
Children, parents, teachers, researchers, publishers and education stakeholders.
03
→
Core users
Child, parent and teacher.
01
Kāshur
A connected learning ecosystem.
THE CORE ECOSYSTEM
Three people shape the experience.
From the wider stakeholder ecosystem, three users became central to the product experience: the child who uses Kāshur, the parent who reinforces it, and the teacher who enables it.
01
THE CHILD · USES KĀSHUR
Sara, 11
Sara understands Kashmiri when spoken by elders but usually replies in Urdu. She feels hesitant to speak Kashmiri in front of peers because of possible judgement or embarrassment.
02
THE PARENT · REINFORCES KĀSHUR
Seerat, 38
Seerat wants her children to remain connected to their cultural roots, but does not actively enforce Kashmiri at home. She is open to engaging ways of learning that do not feel like another academic burden.
03
THE TEACHER · ENABLES KĀSHUR
Adil, 31
Adil wants students to become more interested in Kashmiri, but lacks engaging teaching materials and has limited time and resources to make classes more interactive.
THE LEARNING ECOSYSTEM
Child uses it
→
Parent reinforces it
→
Teacher enables it
This shifted the product from being simply a children's language learning tool to an ecosystem connecting learning, home and everyday use.
The research changed the question.
I started by asking how children could learn Kashmiri. I ended up asking something more fundamental:
How might we give children reasons to use the language they already understand?That question became the foundation for Kāshur.