Malberg for Sanoma Learning • Research & UX • 2014
A new digital learning environment
Project
Malmberg is a part of Sanoma Learning and is one of the big educational publisher in the Netherlands. It combines books with a digital application. The web app gives the teacher a complete overview of their class and of each individual student. The student gets a personal study plan that adapts to their level and speed. It challenges the students and it keeps them motivated.
My role
On behalf of Soda studio I worked on this project and was responsible for UX design and user research. During the concept phase I worked in an agile scrum team and close with the visual designer. After two years the web app was updated in which I was involved as well by working in-house at Malmberg together with the development team.
Design values
At the start of a design process we decided together with the client what the most important values were and translated these into the following design values:
Simplicity & insight
Freedom & opportunity
Motivation
Back to school
To be sure that we were on the right track, the end users were closely involved during the whole design process. Every 3 weeks of the design process we went to school to test the concept with teachers and students to translate insights and improve the design. It resulted in a digital learning environment that is useful for both teachers and students.
On what subject do you want to work?
Each student has their own personal learning environment and can choose the subject that he wants to work on. For every subject there is a more detailed overview of what the current status is of that student and the items that need extra attention.
Being flexible
There is one flexible design for all subject like mathematics, history, languages etc. For every subject a primary color is used and it has its own specific features resulting in a uniform yet flexible product.
Is everything clear?
The teacher has its own overview page for a class. There he can track progress of the whole class and every single student. This overview makes it very clear if an assignment went well or if the class or student needs extra attention.
Don't stop learning
The final design is simple, motivating and a personal learning environment for both the teachers and students. Below an example of a teacher and me conducting a usability test in the classroom.