STUDENT STORY
From Waiting on Developers to Building Her Own Solutions
How Nelma turned curiosity into capability, unlocking new freedom in her design career
Meet Nelma Ferreira
UX/UI Designer. Communicator at heart. Beer-at-the-beach enthusiast.
Nelma spent over a decade in communication design before pivoting into UX/UI. At 36, she worked full-time at a fast-growing tech company when she enrolled in “Desenvolvimento de Software SEM programação”, a program delivered through a partnership between Santander Open Academy and NoCode Institute. She wasn’t looking for a career shift—she was looking to break out of a creative bottleneck. Oh, and she was also a new mom managing it all like a pro.
"Basically, this is it." That phrase became the unofficial slogan of our final projects—because even when we thought our work was “basic,” the outcomes were impressive. Real. Market-ready. We surprised ourselves with what we could do.
Nelma Ferreira
Student from “Software Development without Coding” 2024
Behind the scenes
Favourite tool
Airtable (“Now I want to database everything”)
Favourite mission
Final project week—despite only having 5 days to build
Biggest challenge
Balancing the course with work and parenting
Most valuable learning
“Done is better than perfect—and it’s still powerful”
What's next for Nelma
Nelma is using her new skills to add value to freelance projects and pitch more confidently at work, and she plans to lead her own design team one day. She didn’t take the course to change careers—she took it to expand her toolbox. And that’s exactly what she got: Confidence. Capability. And the ability to say, “I’ve got this".
Project Highlight
In the final stage of the Cohorts, students have the opportunity to create a Capstone Project to showcase what they have learned across the journey. They have the liberty to use whichever tool they want or even explore new ones, promoting their critical thinking and proactivity. Always with the support of our Mentors.
Nelma loves to organize things, but she has a hard time keeping the maintenance necessities in her home up to date. When the Capstone Project arrived, she decided to create HomePlanr: an app designed to help users keep track of their home inventory and schedule regular maintenance tasks.
“I started this to manage my own home and insurance info. Turns out, a lot of people need this.”
Features included
✅ Inventory Management: Log and categorize household items.
✅ Maintenance tasks: Set and receive reminders.
✅ Resource Center: Access home maintenance tips.
Built with: Figma, Airtable, Softr, Gumroad, BravoStudio.
