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2014 · US · Startups · Websites · Mobile · EdTech

Communicate Forever — a learning and networking platform for communication skills

A learning + social-networking platform pairing a self-teach communication-skills curriculum with in-app groups, discussions and communities — deliverable in classrooms, email, video calls or lunch-and-learn formats.

Startups Websites Mobile EdTech
Communicate Forever — a learning and networking platform for communication skills

In one breath

  • Web + mobile platform combining a self-teach curriculum with social-network mechanics
  • Designed for plural delivery — in-person classes, email, online meetings, lunch-and-learn
  • Groups and communities form around skills, not around a single course
Web + iOS + Android

Platforms

4

Delivery modes

Curriculum + Social graph

Product shape

01 · The challenge

What was broken, what was at stake

The founder had an ambitious mission — teach simple, effective communication skills at scale across cultures. A traditional course product couldn't do it; a traditional social network couldn't do it either. The platform had to be both.

02 · The approach

How we thought about it

We designed the curriculum and the social graph as two interlocking systems. Individuals self-teach through the course; the course surfaces communities of people learning the same skill; the communities sustain the practice after the course ends. Delivery had to be format-flexible — classrooms, email, GoToMeeting, lunch-and-learn.

03 · What we built

The actual solution

A combined web app and mobile app. The curriculum sits at the core with structured skill modules. On top, a social layer — groups, discussions, sharing — connects learners to each other. Content designed to be distributed across multiple delivery formats without forcing a single channel.

04 · The results

What shipped, what changed

A platform where an individual could teach themselves, a classroom could run the same content as a shared experience, and an online group could form around any skill — all from one product.

Timeline

Phase by phase.

  1. 01

    Discovery

    3 weeks

    Curriculum taxonomy. Social-graph design. Delivery-mode mapping.

  2. 02

    Design

    3 weeks

    Parallel web and mobile UX. Course structure + community mechanics.

  3. 03

    Build

    10 weeks

    Web, iOS, Android and backend in parallel. Weekly demos.

  4. 04

    Launch

    2 weeks

    Content seeding, moderator training, store submission.

Stack

Tools and tech used.

Web (responsive)iOSAndroidCommunity / messaging backend

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19 years · 10M+ lines of code · 240+ mobile apps · IKEA · ABC News · DaVita · SBM Industries