Designing Digital Data Foundations for AHPs
- Ellie Bates
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
How collaboration and user feedback shaped a healthcare e-learning programme with the CSP
We partnered with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP) to design and develop Digital Data Foundations: Practical Skills for UK AHPs—a programme focused on making digital and data skills feel practical, relevant, and grounded in everyday healthcare practice.
From the beginning, this wasn’t a traditional “handover and build” project. It was shaped through continuous collaboration and user feedback, which ultimately influenced almost every part of the learning experience.
Starting with real-world needs
Designing for AHPs means designing around real constraints—limited time, varying confidence with digital topics, and the need for learning to feel immediately useful.
So rather than making assumptions, we worked closely with users throughout.
This helped shape:
how content was structured
how complex ideas were explained
how much flexibility learners needed
The result was something far more grounded in practice than a typical top-down design.
Letting user feedback shape the experience
User testing wasn’t a single phase—it ran throughout the project.
Working closely with the CSP, we:
tested early concepts with real learners
gathered feedback on usability and clarity
iterated quickly when something didn’t land
Some early ideas felt too rigid or too content-heavy. Instead of pushing forward, we adapted.
That process led to a more intuitive, flexible, and engaging healthcare e-learning experience.
Design changes driven by what users told us
Several key features of the course came directly from user feedback.
Learners wanted space to reflect—not just consume content. So we introduced a custom reflection tool that helps them apply learning to their own roles and take away something practical.
Time pressure was another consistent theme. In response, we structured the course into 23 bite-sized “bytes”, making it easier to learn in short, manageable bursts.
We also heard a clear need for flexibility in how people navigate learning.
This led to the Byte Selector, allowing learners to move through content in a way that suits their needs, rather than following a fixed path.
From passive content to active learning
Feedback also shaped how content was experienced.
We moved away from content-heavy approaches and introduced more:
case-based scenarios grounded in practice
decision points and short activities
video to support different learning preferences
This helped shift the course towards active, applied learning—something users consistently responded well to.
Designing within a wider NHS learning ecosystem
Alongside user feedback, we worked closely with the NHS Digital Academy to ensure the course functioned effectively within their platform.
Because the experience isn’t linear, this meant thinking carefully about:
navigation and user flow
how learners track progress
how data supports ongoing improvement
It pushed us to consider not just the content, but how the experience works as part of a scalable NHS digital learning environment.
What this approach made possible
For us at EL Healthcare Education, this project reinforced something important:
The most effective healthcare learning is shaped through collaboration, testing, and iteration.
By listening to users and adapting throughout, we were able to create a programme that feels:
practical
flexible
relevant to real-world AHP practice
Every major design decision—from structure to tools to interaction—was influenced by user feedback.
Looking to design healthcare learning that works in practice? We partner with organisations to create digital learning and CPD that’s shaped by users, grounded in reality, and built for impact.
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