We built an e-learning platform with substance and style

Time for an exciting upgrade

We’ve worked with Royal Caribbean for many years, and they remain one of our most valued partners. Around eight years ago, we designed and built Royal Caribbean University for their North American market — a well-loved elearning programme that saw more than 1 million course completions every year. But eight years is a long time in tech. It was time for a platform upgrade that would keep Royal Caribbean exactly where they want to be: first.

Our brief was to build on the elearning platform we’d already developed for their sister brand, Celebrity Cruises, and deliver a digital experience worthy of one of the world’s most recognisable travel brands:

• • Create a first-class digital experience that was easy to navigate, intuitive, and interactive
• • Bring their new brand guidelines to life through bold colour and vibrant imagery
• • Support the rollout of the platform into international markets, including language versions required for legislation such as the Quebec Bill

Royal Caribbean University is a substantial training programme, with more than 90 courses available to users, making this a major undertaking.

An immersive brand experience

Online learning doesn’t have to be boring. Royal Caribbean’s brand is playful, bold, and energetic, so the platform needed to reflect that throughout.

We created a vibrant design system that carries Royal Caribbean’s visual identity across the entire experience. With such a strong bank of imagery, we also wanted the platform to feel fresh every time a user returned. The homepage dynamically serves different hero visuals and colour palettes on each visit, creating a slightly different experience when the user returns.

With such a large volume of content, clarity was critical. We built a simple, intuitive user journey, with progress tracking placed front and centre throughout the platform.

Language versions that translate themselves

As technology evolves, there are now smarter ways to support multilingual platforms without the overhead of traditional translation costs.

Royal Caribbean wanted to offer language options across their user base in a way that also worked efficiently for their internal teams.

We built an API integration with their in-house translation tool, allowing the translation of course content directly within the platform at the click of a button. This dramatically reduced the time and cost involved in managing multilingual training.

We also developed an automatic update tool, so when English course content is updated, any language versions of the same course automatically refresh, too.

The site also offers:

• • Bite-sized learning content and interactive components
• • Live reporting dashboards for instant access to key metrics
• • Downloadable reports and bespoke analytics for deeper performance insights
• • Fully WCAG Level AA compliant, with the exception of a small number of optional games
• • A powerful, intuitive CMS
• • Seamless integrations with the client’s CRM, and SSO to allow smooth access from other key platforms

A successful launch

The new Royal Caribbean University launched successfully, delivering a faster, more engaging learning experience for users across the platform.
 
In the last five months alone, more than 825,000 courses have been completed, alongside a significant increase in overall platform usage. The new experience has driven stronger engagement from users, while giving internal teams a more efficient and scalable platform to manage.
 
Most importantly, the response from both users and stakeholders has been overwhelmingly positive — a result that reflects the ambition behind the project from day one.