Developing the Learn to Speak V.10 Software Suite for eLanguage
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Challenge
- eLanguage wished to introduce a new version of its award-winning language software, Learn to Speak. This new version would include many new features and functionalities, as well as improve on existing components within the software suite, to provide a richer and more interactive learning experience for the product’s users. eLanguage required the new product to be both modular and maintainable to accommodate future versions. However, eLanguage had limited available development resources to complete the work. eLanguage needed a software development partner to help plan, develop and deliver the new product on-budget and in record time.
Solution
- eLanguage had worked with Orbital on an earlier version of Learn to Speak and knew that Orbital had the expertise to deliver a quality product to spec. Orbital worked closely with eLanguage to include the new features in the product. In addition, Orbital updated the application’s engine and refactored the application’s code to ensure a highly robust and maintainable product.
Results
- Orbital delivered Learn to Speak version 10 per eLanguage’s requirements. The new product was modular for easy maintenance and contained all of the new features and functionality to provide a richer and more interactive learning experience for users.
“Learn to Speak version 10 was a major release for eLanguage – one which we needed a trusted development partner to help complete. Orbital continues to impress us because they understand how to develop software for a software company, they are professional, and they have great depth of expertise to deliver what we need. An additional advantage with Orbital is that they also manage the software development process, making it easier for us to focus on other aspects of our business.”
-Founder, eLanguage
eLanguage is the leading developer in language learning products, providing a number of award-winning educational software titles that teach users how to speak, read and write in 35 languages. When eLanguage wished to introduce version 10 of its leading language education product, Learn to Speak, it chose Orbital to complete the work.
eLanguage wished to add a number of new product features and functionality to Learn to Speak version 10, which would further advance the product and provide a richer and more interactive experience for the product’s users. Among the new features, eLanguage wished to include download capability for new language lessons, notification for new online lessons, Unicode support for easy version localization, a new user interface (UI) with a similar look and feel to current Windows applications, and enhanced security for the product. eLanguage also required the product’s architecture to be designed with modularity in mind to ensure swappable components and content, and easy maintenance for future versions.
Having worked with eLanguage on an earlier version of Learn to Speak, Orbital was familiar with the product’s codebase. Orbital worked closely with eLanguage to architect a detailed plan that would include all of eLanguage’s specified functionality. Because of the software suite’s complexity, it was determined that the feature additions would also require enhancements to the application’s engine, as well as refactoring the code. Given that eLanguage had limited available development resources, it tasked Orbital to manage the entire project and complete all the work at hand.
Updating the product’s UI proved challenging because of the product’s legacy codebase. The UI was very tightly integrated into the underlying application engine, which meant that changes to the UI would result in changes to the engine as well. Orbital updated portions of the engine to ensure integration with the new UI. Orbital also added Unicode support for easy localization of future language versions.
With regard to enabling download capability for new language lessons, Orbital added the ability to lock content. This would enable language lessons to be either available or purchasable online, based upon the version of the product bought.
Learn to Speak version 10 is available in English, Spanish, French and German versions. Orbital ensured the product’s modularity and ease of maintenance, per eLanguage’s requirement. The new product contained all of the new features and functionality specified by eLanguage, providing a richer and more interactive experience for the product’s users.
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