Recently, the problems attributed to teaching object-oriented design (OOD) have been likened to those encountered when applying it. The current waterfall approach to teaching OOD adopts a "lecture, apply and assess" curriculum that leaves little scope for feedback using iterative and recursive mechanisms touted by object-oriented techniques. This paper reports on a learner-centred approach to teaching object technology at the University of Nottingham, UK. The differences between object-oriented and teaching methods are amplified and our solution expressed in the form of quality enhancing techniques. Here, design heuristics are employed to pinpoint design anomalies and suggest reparative mechanisms to enhance product quality. A prototypical tool that implements the current catalogue of automatable design heuristics is outlined and progress towards it given.