Web development for AI English conversation service "Aikaiwa"

Aikaiwa is a digital English-learning platform where students practice conversation with AI tutors — designed to solve the problems most learners face: limited time, expensive lessons, and too few chances to actually speak.

Their vision was explicit: a fresh, friendly, fun platform that still delivers an effective, personalized learning experience. We designed and built both the website and the app around it.

Users' biggest blocker was fitting traditional lessons into busy lives — compounded by the cost of private tutoring and the lack of real conversation practice. We designed around three solutions:

• Learn anytime, anywhere — flexibility unbound from schedules
• Affordable by design — pricing learners can sustain
• Realistic AI conversation — practice that builds fluency and confidence

The design strategy: fun, and highly functional. Inter typography for clarity and approachability; a palette of purple (creativity) and yellow (optimism) for a playful yet professional world; plus a dog character and interactive touches that make learning feel light.

We built the app in React Native for smooth iOS and Android delivery. At the core is the AI tutor: natural-language processing with speech recognition and synthesis, so the AI genuinely "hears" the learner and responds naturally.

A robust backend tracks learning data and progress in real time. The group-class feature — video chat synchronized with AI responses — was the hardest technical challenge, and it runs without perceptible delay.

Before launch we ran usability testing (is the UI intuitive on every device?), performance testing (does it hold up under load and slow networks?), and AI testing (does it hold meaningful conversations and give useful feedback?) — working closely with the Aikaiwa team to the end.