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From Screens to Classrooms: Exploring UX/UI Needs for Teaching Spanish to Pre-Readers

When it comes to digital education, especially in early childhood, functionality meets pedagogy in very specific ways. One of our recent collaborations explored just that: the real-world usability of common videoconferencing platforms when used to teach Spanish to English-speaking children aged 4 to 6 who are in the early stages of learning to read.
July 12, 2025 by
From Screens to Classrooms: Exploring UX/UI Needs for Teaching Spanish to Pre-Readers
Kathia Ramos

Our Role in the Field

We were trusted with managing the entire fieldwork cycle for this qualitative research-action study. This included:

  • Recruitment of 10 highly experienced Spanish teachers from various Spanish-speaking countries.
  • Coordination and facilitation of in-depth interviews focused on their real-world teaching experiences using Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet.
  • Observation setup and contextual monitoring of 3 teachers during their live sessions with children.
  • Verbatim transcription of all interview and observation data in Spanish.
  • Qualitative analysis, including pattern identification, functionality mapping, and thematic coding.
  • Report writing, with structured insights and recommendations used to inform a prototype UX/UI redesign for a new virtual classroom platform.


Key Takeaways 

This study uncovered eye-opening contrasts between platform design intentions and how teachers actually use these tools with small children. Our analysis provided concrete evidence for which interface elements support learning—and which ones get in the way. These findings laid the groundwork for a UX/UI redesign tailored specifically to early-stage language learning.

This project is a strong example of how linguistic expertise, cultural understanding, and human-centered research practices can shape the future of digital education tools. And that’s exactly why we love what we do.

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