Aspen Institute's Weave Learning Center
Designing Digital Learning to Elevate Human Connection
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project needed a new digital infrastructure to scale its impact, without pulling its community of Weavers deeper into screen time. We partnered with their team to redesign the Learning Center and Community experience from the ground up, selecting a new platform, reimagining the learning strategy, and prioritizing real-world connection over online engagement. Through a human-centered, collaborative approach, we set a vision for the future, identified the right technical platform, upgraded priority courses, built internal capacity, established a marketing strategy, and launched a cohesive content and community strategy. The result is a powerful online ecosystem that helps Weavers quickly gain clarity and confidence. Ultimately so they can get back to the critical work of rebuilding trust in their communities.
THE CHALLENGE
How do you deepen learning and strengthen human connection, without tethering people to their screens?
The Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project, founded by prominent journalist and author David Brooks, was growing into a national movement. "Weavers" are people who work to rebuild trust in communities across our very divided country. The number of Weavers was increasing and The Aspen Institute needed a more scalable, sustainable way to support and grow skills across the network.
The original Learning Center was a static content library rather than a transformative learning environment. It was disjointed, text-heavy, and disconnected from the broader community experience. With the support of a $17 million donation, Weave was entering a critical phase of scaling: launching microgrants across the U.S. and expanding its national impact.
But from the beginning, we knew: this was never about increasing screen time. The goal was to get Weavers offline faster. We aimed for them to spend just enough time learning online to gain confidence and clarity, and then return to the vital, real-world work of weaving relationships in their communities.
The challenge was to build a digital experience that elevated human-to-human connection, instead of replacing it.
Learner-Centered Future Vision
THE WORK:
1/ Set a future vision with hand selected team of experts
We began by assembling a cross-functional team of designers, educators, marketers, and technologists from a trusted network and designing an efficient but collaborative program integrating Aspen's Weave team.
The team began with stakeholder, partner, and learner interviews to understand the current landscape and co-create a vision for the future. We developed personas to capture understanding about the learners, and built long-range scenarios to help steer near-term decisions.
2/ Reimagined Learning to Respect People’s Time
We conducted a full audit of all courses and, using insights from interviews, reimagined the learning experience to work with people’s busy schedules instead of against them.
The new strategy emphasized:
Clear, consistent, and concise course formats
Asynchronous learning designed for short bursts of screen time
Downloadable tools to bring learning into meetings, events, and community circles
Flexible participation models (solo, cohort, or just-in-time)
This wasn’t about maximizing screen time—it was about minimizing friction so learning could happen quickly, then get out of the way.
Old Learning Center
New Learning Center
3/ Selected a New Technical Platform
Aspen and Weave asked for support identifying a more engaging platform for the Learning Center. We collected requirements and explored multiple options.
Originally, Aspen’s plan was to migrate the Learning Center first and move the community months later. Instead, we pushed for a unified experience, knowing that asking members to migrate twice would reduce participation and fragment engagement.
We recommended Mighty Networks, which combined course functionality and community tools in one lightweight app. It allowed members to learn, connect, and apply knowledge, all in one place.
Our partners at Aspen were thrilled with the results, "It was so much better to rip the Band-Aid off and move community and learning all at once." — Maria, Weave Program Lead
4/ Content & Community Strategy to Fuel Real-World Action
Weave’s mission is rooted in rebuilding social connection, so our learning approach mirrored those values. We didn’t just design content, we designed for human interaction.
That meant:
Creating weekly rhythms and signature events like "Community Hour"
Highlighting member-generated content to encourage co-ownership
Structuring the community to invite offline action and storytelling
To ensure long-term success, we also provided staffing models to support community engagement and job descriptions for new roles.
5/ Upgraded Priority Courses and Built The Aspen Team's Capacity to Scale
After aligning on strategy and platform, we began the course migration process. To save Weave and Aspen costs and build internal ownership, we:
Fully redesigned and migrated 3 priority courses
Developed a Course Creation Playbook for future use
Coached and trained the Weave team to independently migrate and design the remaining courses
This capacity-building approach ensured long-term adaptability.
6/ Created a Robust Marketing Strategy and Launch Plan
To support a successful launch and long-term engagement, we developed a comprehensive content marketing and communications strategy rooted in clarity, humanity, and action.
The strategy included:
Audience-specific messaging frameworks
Onboarding flows and rhythm-based engagement strategies
Ideas like monthly course highlights and featured Weavers
Platform-specific guidance for using tools like events, discussion prompts, and groups
Marketing asset support across email, web, and social media
We also defined success metrics to help the team track impact and improve over time. Our approach emphasized inviting, not selling—positioning the Learning Center as a living, evolving ecosystem centered around real human connection.
THE IMPACT:
The new Learning Center and Community launched in November 2025, and within weeks had:
500+ members rejoin, surpassing year-end goals
30% adoption of the mobile app, increasing flexibility and participation
High engagement in community-led events and forums
Improved feedback citing ease of use, clarity, and stronger sense of belonging
Most importantly, the redesigned platform now actively supports Weavers in their real work offline. Learning and connection happen just enough to spark action—then continue in neighborhoods, faith communities, libraries, and local parks around the country.
Why It Matters
This case study isn’t about digital learning. It’s about human learning.
It’s about designing a system where digital tools amplify human connection instead of replacing it. Where online content supports offline courage. And where Weavers can learn what they need and then get back to what matters most: rebuilding trust, community, and belonging in the real world.