The engine behind McMaster Training. Training documents go in, packs and pathways come out, customers buy them through WooCommerce, run them in the room from a phone, and train their teams online under their own brand.
Role
Design, architecture, development
Built on
WordPress plugin, WooCommerce, PWA
Users
Admin, dash owner, customer, learner
Payments
Payfast, once-off and monthly
McMaster Training / library overview
McMaster Institute sells complete, facilitator-ready training: manuals, facilitator guides, workbooks, slide decks, assessments and certificates, across pathways from Foundations to executive level.
Every document was a Word file, formatted into the house style by hand. Buyers received a download and were on their own. There was no way for a company to train its people on the material, see who had finished a workbook, or run a session without a pile of printouts.
The brief: one place to build the library, sell it and use it, with every page in the McMaster house style.
I designed the platform screen by screen in a clickable prototype with Shelley, then built it as a WordPress plugin that sits behind the McMaster Training website.
The problem
Why the library could not grow.
Formatting by hand
Every manual was retyped and restyled in Word before it could be sold.
Files, not a product
Buyers got documents, with no way to train a team or track progress.
Paper in the room
Facilitators juggled a printed guide, a timer and a register during every session.
The design
Documents, then packs, then pathways.
The same three-step flow sits at the top of every library screen, so the dash owner always knows what is built, what is waiting to publish and what is selling.
McMaster Training / documents
Document editor. Every document renders as a true A4 page in the McMaster house style. Styles are locked, so editing changes the words, never the look.
McMaster Training / packs
Packs. Each pack is one level: documents picked from the library, an audience, and the WooCommerce product that unlocks it.
Trainer mode
The whole session in one hand.
An installable app for running a session from a phone or tablet. It reads straight from the facilitator guide, so there is nothing extra to prepare.
Run sheet with a timer for every step, and what comes next
Script and questions in large text, with smaller and larger controls
Flash cards and checklists for openings, debriefs and setup
Head count and register that work offline until the signal returns
Presenter mode for an audience-safe screen in Teams or Zoom
learn.bluegum.co.za
White label. The same platform in the customer's brand. Their learners see their logo, their colours and their own web address.
McMaster Training / sales
Sales. Packs, bundles and team plans, month by month and by pathway, with every order and its status.
One house style
Covers, tables, lists and page breaks follow the McMaster spec on every page. Nobody can drift from it.
Built for the room
Big tap targets, big text and offline registers, because sessions happen in venues with weak signal.
One role at a time
The owner builds and sells, customers manage their team, learners just learn. Each sees only their own menu.
The engine
From a Claude export to a paid, branded course.
The platform is a WordPress plugin that reads WooCommerce for everything it sells, and a structured document format for everything it shows.
Import from Claude. Documents arrive as structured JSON (mcm-doc/1) and render as A4 pages
Packs, bundles and team plans are WooCommerce products linked by SKU and paid with Payfast
Team plans carry learner seat limits, progress and certificates
White label adds the customer's name, logo, colours and web address
Versions. Updates are saved as drafts and published to everyone who owns the pack
Send me a WhatsApp with what your team does every day and where it breaks. I'll tell you honestly whether a dashboard fixes it, and what it would take.
