AIB FUTURE SPARKS

Investing in young people’s futures through the Future Sparks platform

We helped AIB turn its Future Sparks initiative into an interactive online platform that supports secondary students with real-life skills. The new site combines inclusive design with powerful learning functionality, giving young people the tools to thrive.

THE BRIEF

A new platform with powerful learning and communication functionality

AIB is investing in young people’s futures through the Future Sparks programme — an interdisciplinary initiative aimed at teaching crucial life skills. The programme teaches transferable life skills to students in 1st to 6th year, helping them transition smoothly through school and preparing them for a future career.

AIB needed a new platform to attract new users, along with powerful learning and communication functionality for the growing number of participants.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

A fully customizable platform

AIB needed a new platform to attract new users, along with powerful learning and communication functionality for the growing number of participants. We developed a two-part website to align with these goals:

General access: Public-facing WordPress brochure platform with promotional information about the programme, categorised for key audiences (teachers, parents, students, industry, media), as well as information on how to register.

Exclusive access: A fully customisable platform created in Moodle where students and teachers can register, log in and access documents — all while building a vibrant social community through online interaction and sharing content.

Key features

Creative and custom-designed Moodle platform with high brand recognition;
User-generated content for optimum engagement;
System actors defined and developed;
Extensive online research library (expert and user-generated content in multiple; formats, games, PDF, worksheets, quizzes etc);
Refinement of the brand for online accessibility.

The goals

Future Sparks needed a digital home that felt alive — a platform designed to motivate students, support teachers, and bring life skills into everyday learning.
The key goals were:

Develop an online platform that makes learning fun for young people — and teaches them the value of real-life skills
Create an inclusive and vibrant site that attracts and retains students and teachers
Present information about Future Sparks intuitively, with the right messaging to target groups
Build an engaged online community that’s connected through collective learning and achieving life goals

PROCESS

Clarity, collaboration and flexibility

Building Future Sparks required clarity, collaboration and flexibility to create a platform that could grow with its audience from day one.

Design-thinking methodology and content strategy combine for a dynamic and exciting new learning platform
Detailed UX discovery process to map out client goals and scope of the project
Sitemap and wireframes created and finalised with client
Fully bespoke Moodle CMS, with supplementary training to key AIB stakeholders for updating the site in future
Launch of new site, after extensive QA process

IMPACT

A vibrant, high-performing platform

Future Sparks has become a vibrant, high-performing platform that supports real learning and connection — with growing engagement, national visibility, and lasting impact for AIB.

Engaging, inclusive messaging and bold colour scheme to attract younger users;
High-profile launch generated considerable media interest;
AIB Future Sparks team empowered through CMS training with Matrix developers;
Higher number of users and interactions reported since launch.

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