The project
8billionideas is an e-learning platform for children aged 10–14, built around three focus areas: Start a Business, Career Passport, and Level Up. The platform serves six user types — children, parents, mentors, admins, partner schools, and students — each with their own interface, dashboard, and access level. Children work through courses and videos, submit homework, chat with real mentors, and attend live online Experiences.
Customer
8billionideas
Service
Web app development
Backend and API’s
Quality Assurance
Product design
Technology
React
Node
6 months
Built during COVID, delivered on time for UK school year
50+ schools
At peak
Thousands of users
Students at peak across the UK
The challenge
The client came to us during COVID with one non-negotiable constraint: live before the UK school year started. Six months. Six user types. A full content platform with search, live experiences, parent dashboards, mentor communication, and an admin panel - all in scope from day one.
The solution
We agreed the MVP scope with the client, scaled the team to 8, and ran two-week Scrum sprints throughout. The platform launched on time for the UK school year. Subsequent phases added video content and expanded the online school features. The project is complete - the platform reached 50+ schools and thousands of students at peak.
Duration
Finished
Team
8
members
Main features
- Authentication — Standard password and passwordless magic link. Built for users of every age and technical level.
- Children's interface — Bright illustrations, soft colours, focused layout. Courses, homework submission, and direct mentor chat.
- Parent dashboard — Progress tracking, submitted work, and mentor feedback in one view.
- **Content search **— Elasticsearch-powered. Children filter by topic, content type, and applied filters.
- Experiences — Live online webinars with trained facilitators. Mailchimp notifications so children don't miss upcoming sessions.
- Mentor and admin interface — Material Design components. Mentors manage groups and leave feedback. Admins run the full platform.
There is one target audience that deserves special attention: children. To provide a creative learning environment, we've dressed up the interface with bright illustrations and soft colors.
But our main goal remained the same: to help our young users improve their skills and create memorable user experience. While working through courses or videos, a child can send a question to a real person using such a function as ‘Chat with mentor’ - and get a quick answer!
Futhermore, with the help of the Elasticsearch engine we have simplified search for study materials, so now the children can easily browse the library by choosing a topic, a type of content and applying filters.
One of the best features of the 8billionideas platform is interactive Experiences - online webinars that allow children to take part in learning activities guided by trained facilitators. Thanks to the in-app Mailchimp’s notifications the child will be informed in time about an upcoming event and won’t miss it.
Testimonials
DND were excellent to work with and were aligned to the goals of our business. They worked hard to deliver on a product co-designed with us, and were fair and responsive on its continued development.
Ravi Chauhan, Director of Design & Marketing
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