Aurore Early Learning Canada - education website design for a Toronto-led preschool network

Aurore Early Learning Canada is a Nordic-inspired preschool and daycare network with 14 campuses in six provinces, from Kitsilano to Westboro. It builds on the US edition, as Canadian English does, then changes what matters: Canadian spelling (colour, centre, but -ize), provinces and postal codes, CAD tuition with GST/HST shown before tax, PIPEDA and CASL, and provincial childcare licensing and subsidy.

Project facts

• Client: Aurore Early Learning Inc. (fictional)
• Sector: Early childhood education · Preschool & daycare
• Markets: Toronto plus 13 campuses in six provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Early learning website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 15 page templates shared with every Aurore Early Learning edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Close to American, but unmistakably Canadian

Canada sits between the US and the UK, so the edition starts from US English and applies Canadian spelling automatically. Then the content changes: the Distillery District instead of the Pearl District, Kitsilano instead of Park Slope, provincial licensing and subsidy instead of state childcare rules, a CASL-compliant consent line for email, and tuition in CAD with GST/HST labelled before tax.

Designing for Canada

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: Founded in Portland, Oregon · Canada: Founded in Toronto's Distillery District with twelve children
• Spelling - US edition: color, center, neighborhood · Canada: colour, centre, neighbourhood (with -ize kept)
• Campuses - US edition: 6 US states · Canada: 14 campuses in six provinces, from Kitsilano to Westboro
• Tuition - US edition: USD per month · Canada: $1,750–$2,150/mo CAD, before GST/HST
• Search - US edition: ZIP code, state · Canada: Postal code, province
• Application - US edition: SSN, state forms · Canada: SIN, provincial health plan, $75 CAD refundable fee
• Legal - US edition: State privacy, US email consent · Canada: PIPEDA + Quebec Law 25, CASL, AODA accessibility
• Look - US edition: Oat, clay, ochre, moss, spruce; Fraunces · Canada: Cool greys, sage and deep spruce with one restrained red; Source Serif 4 + Inter

Brand adaptation

The same Aurore Early Learning, with a local accent

Sage and deep spruce carry the interface; a single restrained red is used only for emphasis, so the palette reads Canadian without leaning on the flag. Source Serif 4 and Inter give a crisp, civic, highly legible feel. The Early Learning descriptor stays.

Homepage and key journeys

A sunlit Kitsilano character home opens the site; the hero counts 14 campus locations in 6 provinces. The locations directory filters by region (Atlantic, Central, Prairies) into campus pages such as Aurore Distillery District and Aurore Westboro. The most distinctive flow is the four-step application: child, parents, program, confirm, with the $75 CAD refundable fee and provincial subsidy noted before the success state.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Privacy policy under PIPEDA, with Quebec Law 25 noted for Quebec residents and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as the complaint route.
• Express consent for commercial email, as CASL requires.
• Accessibility statement under AODA (Ontario), with WCAG 2.2 AA as the build target.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For an early-learning provider with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 15 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 22 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board