Universe
built around real journalism, vocabulary, and deliberate practice.
The Concept
Not a language app.
A learning environment.
Clarity over noise
One focused interface. No streaks, no badges, no distractions.
Consistency over hacks
Daily reading practice. Deliberate vocabulary acquisition.
Depth without intimidation
Real German texts, adapted for three proficiency levels.
"Learn German by writing, thinking, and returning daily."
The Problem
Existing tools are either
too childish or too academic.
Feature 01
German news articles
at three reading levels.
Every article is available in Easy, Medium, and Advanced German — editorially adapted, not machine-translated. Learners switch levels as they progress.
- Audio playback per language level
- Comprehension questions with feedback
- Commentary cards for politics articles
- Critical-thinking prompts + community comments
- Filters: category, region, political leaning, agency
- Author profiles with journalistic background
Level Switcher
Categories
Political Framing
Political articles show leaning and agency level — helping learners read with critical awareness.
Feature 02
An AI-powered editorial layer
for learner engagement.
Comment Proofreading
Learners write German comments in response to articles. Before posting, an AI proofreads their German — checking grammar, relevance, and tone. The corrected version is shown alongside feedback.
Automatic Moderation
Every comment is scored in real time: trolling likelihood, AI-generated text probability, and on-topic relevance. Comments requiring review are flagged automatically before appearing publicly.
Powered by OpenAI GPT · Sanity CMS · Structured schema validation
Feature 03 · Research
Political leanings
of AI models.
A research tool that surveys major AI language models — GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini — on a standardized set of political questions. Results are stored, visualized, and available for comparison.
Standardized Questions
Political compass–style questions across economy, society, and governance — translated into multiple languages.
Model Comparison
Side-by-side views of how different AI models respond to identical political prompts.
Editorial Relevance
Directly relevant to newsrooms adopting AI tools — surfaces hidden biases before deployment.
Feature 04
Flashcard decks
designed to be kept.
Vocabulary decks organized by CEFR level (A1–C1), theme, and grammar category. Cards feel like collectibles — not exam prep.
Study Modes
- Swipe Study — fast recognition practice
- Cloze — fill-in-the-blank sentence context
- Noun Gender — der / die / das training
- Spaced repetition built into the review flow
Access Tiers
Commerce layer for premium deck access built into the platform.
Features 05 & 06
Crosswords. Research.
A complete learning system.
German Crosswords
Editorially crafted vocabulary crosswords — each clue a definition, a sentence, or a grammar hint. Available by CEFR level, playable in the browser.
Research Section
Beyond practice tools, Library Universe hosts a dedicated research area: AI political bias surveys, flashcard efficacy studies, and article comprehension analysis.
Architecture
Built for scale.
Designed for longevity.
Frontend
Backend & Data
AI & Quality
Infrastructure
Editorial Infrastructure
Sanity CMS as the
editorial backbone.
All editorial content — articles, authors, flashcard decks, crosswords, political survey data — lives in Sanity. The app queries it via GROQ, a typed query language purpose-built for structured content.
- Structured multi-language fields per content type
- Author profiles with bio and article references
- Portable Text rendering in React
- Real-time comment writes via Sanity API
- Image pipeline with Sanity image transforms
Content Types
Query language
GROQ — typed, projection-based, safe. All queries are validated with Zod schemas on the server.
For Media Companies
Why this work is
relevant to you.
Multilevel content delivery
The same article at three reading levels is a model for editorial accessibility — reaching readers of different literacy, language background, or age group.
AI editorial tools
AI-assisted comment moderation, proofreading, and bias detection are technologies every digital newsroom will need to evaluate — I have already built working versions.
Headless CMS & GROQ
Sanity is widely adopted in media. Understanding structured content, editorial workflows, and API-driven publishing is core to modern digital journalism products.
"Library Universe is editorial technology applied to language learning — the same problems newspapers solve every day: content at the right level, for the right reader, with the right tools."
Brand Identity