Designing and Developing a Learning App – A Case Study for Holistic Learning
Designing and Developing a Learning App – A Case Study for Holistic Learning
Overview
Holistic Learning is a specialized EdTech company that needed a website where apart from learning, students can book a particular teacher for a one-on-one learning session according to their needs.
Holistic Learning is a USA-based brand that goes beyond the average domains of an EdTech company. Their primary focus is to prepare high school students for higher education and jobs along with a separate focus on student well-being and counseling. They have integrated services ranging from career development, academic guidance, and wellness coaching.
Staying true to the vast requirement, they needed a learning platform that would cater to everything. Students can enroll themselves according to the subscription options and based on that they will get access to different features.
One of the key features of this platform is the one-on-one tutoring option where students can book top-tier teachers around the USA for a particular session. So, once you book the appointment, no other students can book the particular tutor for the allotted time. Other than these, there are separate sections for career development, seminars, college counseling, personalized progress tracking, and wellness coaching.
The website caters to both students and teachers along with different functional implementations. Additionally, a robust database was also necessary for the vast amount of data.
Challenges
Building a customized website always comes with some challenges. From implementing custom codes to making the website feature-friendly, there were a lot of discussions and strategies regarding the UX of the website.
So, there were a couple of challenges that we predicted during the initiation stage of the project. However, there were some issues that we solved as we progressed further.
The ‘Appointment Booking’ section of the website needed a lot of customization from a free plugin with Ajax.JS and PHP custom codes. These custom codes help with the functional aspect of the section where students can easily find and book tutors for a particular lesson. The section also had to block other students from booking the same tutor during that particular lesson which was only possible by using custom codes.
We created a separate ‘Blog’ section where people can access information on different topics. One interesting element of the blog section is to ensure that different sections of the targeted audience can access content according to their preferences. Here, our target audiences were students, teachers, educators, and parents. So, we had to make sure that the website is easily navigable for people.
The use of animation enhances the UX of any website. The client wanted to make the website attractive for young learners, which is why the integration of animation was necessary. We had to introduce animation in the ‘Benefits’ section. Moreover, we had to use some WordPress hooks and added filters for the smooth functioning of the software.
Technology
We used the WordPress open-source CMS for this project to keep it light and responsive. Apart from that, we utilized HTML and custom PHP codes to ensure smooth navigation of the learning platform.
Our tech stack included:
- CMS: WordPress
- Web Server: Apache
- Front-end technology: HTML, jQuery, CSS
- Programming Language: PHP
- Database: MySQL
Our Project Execution Protocol:
For this project our protocol included the following steps:
- Initiation
- Planning
- Create tasks
- Setting timelines
- Assigning specific tasks to the team
- Tracking progress
- Communication
- Engaging with the client
- Scheduling necessary changes
- Testing
- Closure
User Categories:
- Students
- Teachers/ Educators
- Super Admin
Admin Panel Categories:
Solution
As a team developing and designing a customized learning website, our job was to ensure that the platform caters to high school students who primarily want guidance in life. Moreover, the front end should be responsive and easily navigable for educators as well.
Our work led to the following results:
- The website provides a holistic platform for students looking for career advice along with mental and physical wellness.
- The one-on-one appointment booking section helps students to take special classes with reputed teachers around the USA. So, location isn’t an issue anymore to avail private tutoring.
- MySQL database and WordPress CMS make the website more scalable for the future.
- By creating a masonry grid in the Blog section, we made it convenient for users to navigate a variety of informative content.
- Popup videos and animation help to appeal to young audiences as learning becomes more fun.
Client Feedback
The project took a lot of planning and hard work from our end which was appreciated by our client. The client was super responsive during the whole project. During the communication, they appreciated our efficiency and hard work.
Thanks to our dedication, the client continued to provide us with many enhancement tasks and continues to be a part of our journey.