Overview
I-LABS had spent years translating cutting-edge research on the power of bilingualism in early childhood into a proven curriculum for children ages 0–5. Their first digital pilot lived in WordPress with a learning plug-in: it was hard to navigate, visually dated, and not flexible enough to support growth, multiple age tracks, or a mix of English and Spanish. The long-term vision was to license SparkLing to large childcare organizations and use the revenue to fund further research. However, the existing product was not robust or user-friendly enough for that kind of scale.
The challenge
I-LABS had spent years translating cutting-edge research on the power of bilingualism in early childhood into a proven curriculum for children ages 0–5. Their first digital pilot lived in WordPress with a learning plug-in: it was hard to navigate, visually dated, and not flexible enough to support growth, multiple age tracks, or a mix of English and Spanish. The long-term vision was to license SparkLing to large childcare organizations and use the revenue to fund further research. However, the existing product was not robust or user-friendly enough for that kind of scale.
Training and lesson plans must live in both English and Spanish, with fluid switching. Materials must be printable, since many centers do not allow tablets in classrooms. Family engagement needs to be considered from day one.
What we did
Substantial was asked to understand the real-world needs, constraints, and workflows of early childhood bilingual teachers using or piloting SparkLing. We needed to recommend the right product architecture to support scale, multi-language content, and future features like a community of practice. We redesigned the end-to-end teacher experience so it felt intuitive, engaging, and respectful of teachers’ expertise, and built a platform that I-LABS’ non-technical team could update themselves without relying on developers for content changes.
Conducted a 5-week discovery sprint: immersed in existing curriculum, research, and the original prototype; mapped the full user journey from marketing site through certification and lesson plans.
Interviewed 12 bilingual early childhood educators across multiple states to understand their context, tech comfort, and day-to-day classroom realities.
Ran a collaborative workshop with I-LABS to distill four design principles: meet teachers where they are, activate a desire to learn, respect lived experience, and inspire confidence in the research.
Designed wireframes for key touchpoints: dashboard, program overview, training detail pages, interactive activities, and lesson plan tools. Introduced a two-pane training layout that teachers immediately recognized and felt comfortable with.
Conducted a technical investigation into multiple LMS and CMS options. Ruled out off-the-shelf LMS options and recommended a hybrid architecture pairing a modern LMS API with a flexible CMS for bilingual content.
Implemented a CMS that I-LABS staff can safely edit themselves without requiring code, so they can refine content based on ongoing research, teacher feedback, and pilot results.
The results
Cohesive digital product for bilingual educators
SparkLing is now a purpose-built platform with an experience designed specifically for bilingual early childhood educators.
Strong teacher validation
In research sessions, teachers consistently said the new flow felt clear, familiar, and genuinely useful, and many expressed strong interest in taking the full certification themselves.
Team can iterate independently
The I-LABS team has already been able to substantially revise and shorten training content on their own after piloting it with teachers, using the CMS without fear of breaking the system.
Platform built for scale
The platform supports separate tracks for ages 0–3 and 3–5, bilingual content, and richer reporting. This positions SparkLing to be adopted by large childcare organizations and to measure its impact on language comprehension over time.