Redesign Fast, Ship Faster: Large eLearning Platform Case Study
A small team, a massive pivot, and design work that helped learners boost their income by $8,500 on average. SeaLab's year with a large eLearning Platform!
Introduction
In 2024, SeaLab dove back in with a familiar partner: a Principal Product Designer we’d worked with previously, now at a workforce development sub-brand of a leading global eLearning company. Our mission? Enhance their digital product design and build scalable systems for future growth. We were hand-picked by a design leader who had previously collaborated with SeaLab to align the sub-brand’s interfaces with the parent company’s broader system, while still allowing the product to stand confidently on its own.
We were asked to:
* Create a brand-specific design system that harmonized with the parent organization’s broader system
* Establish mobile-first guidelines
* Build and implement light/dark theme palettes
* Stay nimble as roadmaps, goals, and business models evolved
By the end of our engagement, the product was stronger, smarter, and more scalable. Learners benefited, too: according to the client, program graduates saw an average salary increase of $8,500. That’s the kind of outcome we love to design for.
Problem #1: How to explore, test, and deliver results quickly amidst rapidly changing roadmaps and business model updates.
Problem #2: How to manage, create, and update design system guidelines while delivering products in a small, three-person design team.
To comply with our confidentiality agreement we have omitted and appropriated confidential information. These designs are a reinterpretation of the original.
Project Challenges
Efficient user testing with time constraints
We needed to validate solutions before shipping, but time wasn’t on our side. That meant leveraging tools like UserTesting.com to get high-quality insights fast — using pre-screened users and internal testers to speed up cycles without sacrificing value.
Rapid iteration amidst tight schedules
Early Q2 presented a huge pivot to redesign the lesson experience, and just three weeks to ship the solution — from ideation to implementation. The added complexity of working with a third-party content vendor made it a high-stakes, no-room-for-error sprint. In the end, SeaLab’s design was chosen, implemented, and used in stakeholder demos to sell the idea across the org.
Adaptability to changing priorities
This wasn’t a roadmap — this was whitewater. Features moved, priorities shifted, and sometimes completed work was shelved. We kept everything documented in Trello, communicated constantly in Slack, and held quick huddles to realign in real time.
Design system management with limited resources
With no dedicated systems team, we developed components between sprints, in the margins. We set up a sandbox Figma file to test and document elements as we went — creating a usable, extensible design system that’s still in use today.
Avoiding redundant efforts
We worked alongside designers newer to Figma and systems thinking. That meant part of our role became mentorship: teaching design tokens, Figma variables, and how to use light/dark theming to avoid duplication and future-proof designs.
Leveraging agile user testing platforms
Using UserTesting.com with tailored user segments gave us rapid feedback on everything from color palettes to interaction patterns. A standout insight? While the brand’s original orange-forward palette was familiar, users overwhelmingly preferred a light gray interface — calling it more modern, clean, and easier to read — a great reminder to never assume.
Time-boxed collaborative design sprints
We ran structured design sprints within our team to quickly generate and evaluate ideas. That focused energy helped us move from exploration to execution in record time — especially during the Q2 lesson redesign crunch.
Robust communication and documentation practices
We relied on Slack, Trello, Figma, and weekly team syncs to stay in lockstep. One-on-one calls helped us unblock teammates fast, and clear documentation ensured devs had what they needed even as the roadmap shifted underneath us.
Incremental design system development
The design system grew iteratively, always grounded in real product needs. We used Figma variables to implement light/dark themes and documented patterns as we built them — so nothing got lost and everything stayed usable. We also supported the internal design team by walking through best practices and teaching how to apply system thinking to new work.
Close collaboration with development teams
Throughout the theming process and design system integration, we stayed in sync with developers — ensuring everything from components to color tokens translated smoothly from Figma to production.
AI-driven design with user trust at the center
Initially, the product used AI mainly to answer questions. But the roadmap shifted, and we explored ways to build AI into lesson grading and mentorship. What we learned: users don’t fully trust AI in those roles. So we pivoted — designing features that used AI for skill reinforcement, memory refreshers, and self-testing instead. The result? A more engaging, trustworthy learning experience.
Conclusion
The collaboration between SeaLab and this global eLearning leader delivered meaningful results across the board:
A redesigned, production-ready lesson experience, shipped in just 3 weeks
A unified design system tailored to the workforce development sub-brand, built for scale
User-tested interface themes grounded in accessibility and focus
Light and dark modes implemented via Figma variables
AI-integrated features designed with user trust and clarity in mind
Internal team mentorship, elevating design maturity and tooling fluency
Extended Engagement — What started as a 3-month contract turned into a year-long partnership built on trust, transparency, and great results.
Most importantly, the work made an impact where it mattered most: with learners. According to the client, graduates of the program saw an average salary increase of $8,500 — clear evidence that thoughtful design can create real, measurable outcomes.
And maybe the most rewarding part? This wasn’t design that sat in a Figma file. It shipped. It shaped how people learn, how teams collaborate, and how the product continues to evolve today.
“Collaborating with [SeaLab] has been invaluable… not only filling in gaps, but helping shape the broader design ethos with best practices and high-quality output. [SeaLab is] first on my list if we need help again.” — Anthony R., Principal Product Designer, Workforce Development Sub-Brand of Global eLearning Platform