Avant Assessment / Platform modernization
Bringing Avantâs language tests onto a shared platform.
We helped Avant Assessment bring a fragmented family of language-testing products into a shared platform, with a more coherent experience for learners and administrators.
Explore the story â
01 / The challenge
A growing product family.
A common foundation.
Avant had built a family of language assessment products serving different users and contexts. Its portals, interfaces and infrastructure had evolved in different directions as the business grew.
More about the challenge
The challenge was to improve that foundation while accounting for an existing service and the people who relied on it. This called for coordinated product and engineering decisions across the portfolio.
- Project
- Avant Assessment
- Our contribution
- Product design, engineering & cloud migration
- People using it
- Test takers, educators & administrators
- Engagement
- Platform modernization
02 / A product decision
Breaking the sound barrier
Integrated HTML5 voice recording replaced the earlier Flash-based approach. Bringing recording into the browser made it part of the assessment experience rather than a separate plugin-dependent step.
03 / Inside the work
A common foundation for assessment.
We analyzed the portal variations and identified an infrastructure and interface approach that could serve the product family. The work brought offerings onto a shared cloud-based platform and applied a more consistent visual system.
A common foundation also had to support the details of testing: recording responses, presenting prompts, managing access and explaining results. Those everyday activities guided the design.
04 / A product decision
Reassessing the user experience
New tools and reporting configurations give test takers and administrators different ways to work with the assessment. The interface brings access, testing and feedback into a more consistent product experience.
05 / A product decision
Remodeled for modern users
The assessment interface presents questions and prompts in a clear, contemporary format. The project also includes a machine-learning algorithm for auto-scoring student writing responses.
06 / A product decision
Results you can see
New report designs for test takers and administrators break down scores and highlight specific areas for improvement, both for individuals and across test groups.
07 / Our contribution
The assessment stays central.
The platform moves forward.
Avant brought its language-assessment expertise and an established family of products. We connected browser-based recording, reporting and interface design with the move to a shared cloud foundation.
The work spanned the testing experience and the systems behind it: how a learner records a response, how an administrator reads a report, and how the product family is built and deployed.
Under the surface: how this project was built
In-browser assessment
React, HTML5 voice recording and reporting supported the test-taker and administrator interfaces.
Application services
Kotlin and Java with Spring Boot, Hibernate and PostgreSQL formed part of the service layer.
Cloud migration
The project moved services from a data center to AWS, with CloudFormation, Docker and automated builds.
08 / Product work
Bring the assessment experience together.
Language testing, reporting and administration within a shared product platform.
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you want to make possible.
Tell us who it is for, where the experience breaks down and what needs to change.
How we build and evolve products