Reinventing education, to support the future of work
Frances and her team set out to reinvent tertiary education with the launch of academyEX.
Headless CMS website
Innovative course browsing experience
Refreshed Learning Management System (LMS)
Custom enrolment process
NZQA requirements
Frances Valintine and her team had a mission - to revolutionise tertiary education and create a culture of growth mindset.
To bring this vision to life, they needed to launch academyEX, a new brand designed to change the traditional approach to education. As a long-standing delivery partner, Pixel Fusion was asked to deliver a slick new brand website with a completely redesigned enrollment process, along with rebranding the previous LMS "Ako Mai" platform (also built by Pixel Fusion).
The project had an immediate start date, a very tight deadline, and a constrained budget to deliver MVP.
As Pixel Fusion had worked alongside Frances Valintine and her team on multiple initiatives over the previous ten years, they understood the challenges and the need to deliver the best 'bang for your buck'. With the objectives and budget aligned, Pixel Fusion accepted the project and immediately got to work.
Working in tandem with the fabulous team at Osynlig to reimagine the user experience for the new site. With a focus on helping students find the right learning pathway for them, making enrolment as easy as a few clicks and bringing the people of this learning community closer together.
“The new academyEX project was going to be a significant amount of work for a few months on top of what we already did with Pixel Fusion. Initially we excluded Pixel Fusion because they already had a lot on with us, so we went out and had three bigger agencies pitch back. At the end of the pitches, we sat around and thought "it's not Pixel Fusion."
With a clear focus on designing for the future, and delivering for the present, the new brand website was built to support scale.
The new website was built using content management system Contentful to maximise the re-usability of content and support future scale. A key reflection of the new brand was the implementation of a more simplified navigation and browsing experience with humanised categorisation with improved search and filter functionality. Learners could now easily explore the different learning options that suited their particular lifestyle and preferred way of learning. This redesign improved the user experience and supported academyEX in presenting their courses, events, and community stories in a more flexible and engaging way.
The new streamlined enrolment process made it faster and more convenient for students to sign up and start learning.
The new enrolment flow allows for one-click account creation and easy payment options like Apple Pay, and provides a smooth user experience that guides students through the enrolment process step by step - from simple short course enrolments through to more detailed post-graduate study options. Since its launch, the new enrolment flow has played a critical role in increasing student conversion, engagement, and satisfaction.
The project was a resounding success, with a cross-team collaborative product approach that allowed for faster delivery and consistent quality across all digital platforms. Pixel Fusion's agile product delivery methods allowed the marketing, design and development teams to run fast and in parallel, resulting in faster speed to market and enabling the ambitious project to be delivered on time
Pixel Fusion's collaborative working relationship with academyEX was crucial to the project's success. The team were impressed by Pixel Fusion's leadership and their clear understanding of priorities, clients' needs, budgets, and expectations.
By working collaboratively with Frances and her fantastic team, alongside their partner Osynlig. Pixel Fusion was able to successfully launch the academyEX website in record time, despite a tight deadline and constrained budget.
