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DDM Academy students showcase amazing skills in mobile app development
Cohort 4 UI/UX students of DDM Academy, on Thursday, March 12, 2025, showcased amazing skills in the development of mobile app after just two months of learning.
The event, which was aired live, by Diaspora Digital Media saw on-site UI/UX students showcase their amazing skills after an incredible journey, learning, designing, and refining their skills.
Wednesday, March 12, finally arrived for them to present their projects at DDM VILLA in Awka, the Anambra State capital.
The primary assignment was development of DDM Movies App.
The students displayed their works, from user research to wireframing, and high-fidelity designs.
They finally had their chance to showcase what they have built and receive feedback right in front of dozens of attendees.
The event saw milestone achievements as the students displayed wonderful skills in developing a new mobile app tagged “the DDM Movie app”.
The event precedes the graduation ceremony of the students of the Academy, which will come up later in the month.
DDM Academy’s lead UI/UX designer, Mrs. Oluchi Ethel Christian, presented the students after a thorough 2 months-plus tutorage on UI/UX.
Mrs. Christian began by taking her listeners in a ride on the meaning and journey of UI and UX.
She said: “UI means “User Interface”, while UX means “User Xperience”.
“UI/UX simply refer to seamless usage of a product.”
This formed the basis of the address delivered by the lead UI/UX designer.
In a brief remark, she said a UI/UX designer ensures the creation of an appealing platform that brings satisfaction from using a product.
She then ushered in the graduating students who took turns to make presentations on the newly designed DDM Movies app.
Ihuoma Daberechi Emmanuela
First to speak was Miss. Ihuoma Daberechi Emmanuela.
Miss. Ihuoma said that the new DDM Movie app was created to fix the issues of:
- Downloading movies and saving them to watch later.
- Watching movies translated in one’s native language or what she termed localization options;
She listed the advantages of having the app, which include:
- Easy movie discovery with personalized recommendations
- Having a seamless, user-friendly interface for smooth navigation, which is a simple onboarding process for quick user engagement
- Having a dedicated film-maker portal for content creators to show their work
- Bridging the gap between African filmmakers and movie enthusiasts, creating an engaging and accessible platform for authentic African storytelling.
Daberechi further gave an overview of the app. She said DDM Movie app is a movie streaming app with diverse African content.
This she said gives room for offline viewing and multilingual subtitles.
The languages supported are English, French, Swahili and other languages.
She also stated that the app has personalized recommendations using AI to suggest movies based on viewing history.
Another feature, she noted, the app has is the Grok AI integration that enhances search and content discovery.
The app also has a feature where rated actors and producers can upload their movies.
She stated that one beautiful thing about having the app is having to know about DDM via the app.
This she said is possible because the app also contains a platform on the make-up of DDM.
She highlighted the five stages of the design timeline followed in creating the app:
- Empathize: a phase of having an understanding of what the user is likely to feel about the app.
- Define: Defining the app.
- Ideate: Ideate or developing user flows to fix solutions to problems using the app.
- Design: The design itself.
- Test: The testing of the app.
She concluded her presentation by saying the app is very easy to use, as a child can use the app.
Loveth Nnedinma Okorie
Another graduating student, Miss Loveth Nnedinma Okorie, also made her presentation about the DDM movie app.
Miss Okorie noted the gap that DDM movie app has covered, and the design processes already highlighted.
She also mentioned the possibility of an upgrade of the level of the app by the user, for more complex features, at the cost of the of one’s preferred mobile network.
She also showed on screen different features of the app, like menu, settings, etc.
Okorie emphasized that with the exception of English, the languages on the app are African languages.
There was an interlude of game time, wherein the anchor, Miss Lilian Chinecherem Offorah, dazzled the audience with riddles and puzzles with cash prizes for correct answers.
Ezenwa Chinwendu Anasthesia
During her turn, Miss Ezenwa Chinwendu Anasthesia talked about the DDM movie app, stressing the login features the app, or sign up for starters.
She also talked about the kids’ section of the app which reduces the burden of setting parental control.
“There is also a medium ‘for you’ where movies are auto-recommended, based on the movie the user last watched.
“There’s also room for search, favourites, notifications (for upcoming movies) and help center where the user can reach customer service for complaints and enquiry,” she added.
Other students also took turns to talk at the event.
On his part, DDM Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Joseph Mmadubuike, emphasized on the growth DDM has achieved through the beautiful works of the Tech/Academy students.
DDM CTO, Joseph Mmadubuike
Mr. Mmadubuike spoke glowingly about DDM, which he noted, was established to control the narratives and tell undiluted African stories.
He said the presentations are clear evidence that Africa is a home of talents and implored on investors to cash in on this opportunity.
He commended the students and then put forward that DDM is open to everyone who would love to learn about tech-works from DDM Academy.
Mmadubuike called on other students to follow the footsteps of the UI/UX students, stressing that tech-hub is the powerhouse of DDM.
The presentations and address by Mmadubuike were followed by a question-and-answer session.
When asked when the app will be ready, he said that DDM, being an inclusive brand, and with DDM movies just birthed, the students will still take time test-run the app.
With the test-run, they hope to improve on the works already done.
He also stated that DDM would also have to get more movies as no brand pushes an app with just two products.
According to him, the app is but a work in progress and soon everything will be put in place.
Then the students and any other interested persons would likely come up with stronger app to meet the desired needs of the prospective users.
DDM Chief Operating Officer, Tim Elombah
DDM Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Tim Elombah, in his address to the students and staff of DDM, urged the students and every other person connected with DDM to do well to know all about DDM.
For the graduating students, he advised them to take a tour round the branches of DDM to know much about the company.
He listed the departments in DDM as follows:
- Publishing,
- Broadcasting,
- Technical,
- Tech hub,
- Academy,
- DDM Movies, and,
- Admin
These, he said, are the seven departments of DDM built on four pedestals—DDM MEDIA, TECH-HUB, DDM ACADEMY and DDM MOVIES.
Mr. Elombah commended the soon-to-graduate students and encouraged all to be determined in their quest for greater heights.
He encouraged all to dig deep into that reserve inside us when it appears one has reached a crossroad.
He also advised all not to put the cart before the horse as celebration comes after and not before hard work.
Lastly, he thanked all for coming and the day came to an end with a prayer by the Senior Finance Officer, Mr. Chekwube Okwuonu.
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