Making life-saving skills engaging and memorable

Client:
• St John Ambulance / iDEA
Role:
• Head of Creative Design
• UI design
• Animation
Tools used:
• After Effects
• XD
Agency:
Digital Wonderlab
Project impact:

100,000+ learning minutes

8,500 badges earned
Overview:

St John Ambulance aimed to transform first aid education for teenagers (aged 12–16) into a vibrant, interactive experience. The challenge was to design a visually appealing digital learning environment that captured younger audiences' interest while remaining accurate and informative.

Working at the agency Digital Wonderlab, I led the UI design, contributed to the creative direction, and commissioned and animated illustrations to create a game-like learning experience. The platform featured interactive scenarios, quizzes, and badges to encourage exploration and retention of life-saving skills.
An illustration of an ambulance driver
An illustration of people in St John Ambulance uniforms
An illustration of a collapsed tennis player

Challenge

  • Make first aid education appealing and accessible for teenagers.
  • Develop a genuine, game-like experience without compromising educational accuracy.
  • Ensure seamless and responsive UI design tailored specifically for mobile use.

Solution

  • Designed a vibrant, engaging, game-inspired user interface optimised for mobile.
  • Commissioned custom illustrations to visually communicate first aid scenarios in an approachable and memorable way.
  • Animated the illustrations specifically to enhance user engagement and clarify crucial educational points.

Results

The project successfully achieved over 100,000 learning minutes and 8,500 badges earned shortly after launch. The high engagement metrics underscored the effectiveness of thoughtful, visually rich design and animation in educational contexts.

Reflections

Working on this project was a great reminder of just how much thoughtful design can truly bring educational content to life. Collaborating with talented illustrators and developers was great and the results showed how carefully targeted visuals can really boost engagement and help ideas stick.

It felt amazing to see our creative choices directly help young people learn essential skills. Projects like this are exactly why I love doing what I do!

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