Better learning for the student, faster building for the business

When you develop for an institution that has been providing distance education for 90 years, everything has to be right. The platform used daily by more than 100,000 active students and hundreds of teachers was worn out. It was rigid, outdated and slowed down new ideas. Our task was clear: bring back calm for the student and create speed for NHA.

An oasis of calm on the screen

With more than 700 courses, NHA offers an impressive range of learning material with in-depth knowledge. In the new digital learning environment, this extensive content comes into its own even better, thanks to a clear layout that brings overview and calm while studying.

Focus on the learning material with manageable blocks

We designed the learning environment so that the content takes centre stage. Clear blocks break up the material, while subtle shadows and animations guide attention. This not only makes it more pleasant to read, but also helps students process the information more efficiently.

A playful and motivating Word Trainer

One of the most enjoyable parts to build was the new Word Trainer for language courses. This used to be a fairly rigid module: type one accent wrong and it was incorrect. In the new motivating learning environment, we make learning a language more dynamic through gamification, a handy dictation function and flexible settings that match the student's personal preferences.

A trial lesson that immediately shows what you are learning for

The trial lesson was also overhauled. Where this used to be a fairly basic environment, the trial lesson now instantly conveys the real feel of the entire course. Prospective students immediately see the end goal they are working towards and experience what it is like to be in contact with fellow students. That completes the picture and makes taking the step to start much smaller.

Why we no longer draw on a whiteboard

What really accelerated this project is our way of building with SmartCode. In the past it went like this: you have meetings, sketch out processes on a whiteboard, create wireframes and only months later does the client see the first code. And very often it turned out that what looked logical on paper had to be slightly different in reality.

Clicking through directly in the refinement meeting

Nowadays we build working Proof of Concepts (POCs) in advance based on the knowledge we have built up. As a functional engineer, I set up the UI, while the technical engineers safeguard the backend and edge cases. During the refinements we click through it together straight away. When we looked at complicated resit rules, for example, the NHA team immediately saw in the prototype how the logic works. This way you understand each other directly, gather targeted feedback and prevent rework.

Building the future of education together

NHA can now also deploy AI to support teachers. Think of smart tools that ease administrative work or do preparatory work when marking. The teacher always stays in control, with more room for personal attention for the student. With the new architecture, there is a solid foundation that is ready for the future, for example to scale internationally.

In addition, this new way of working brings a huge amount of energy to our team and to NHA. Because we make ideas tangible right away and keep refining them together, we not only develop faster, but above all build better education with a lot of enjoyment.

Do you recognise this in your organisation?

I am curious how you maintain the balance between speed in development and focus on the user.