We crafted and evolved a digital platform for the UK’s lead agency in coaching, to help create an active nation inspired through great coaching.

About UK Coaching

UK Coaching, formerly Sports Coach UK, inspires and facilitates coaching courses. 

But they’re far more than this, they also collaborate with organisations and pool resources to make lasting improvements to coaching in the UK - from grass-roots through to elite performance levels. They inform the Government on policies that support coaches to have a positive impact on society and develop learning that helps coaches support the needs and dreams of the people they coach.

About UK Coaching.

About UK Coaching

UK Coaching, formerly Sports Coach UK, is primarily known for facilitating courses that inspire and support coaches around the country. 

However, it’s far more than this, UK Coaching also collaborates with organisations and pool resources to make lasting improvements to coaching in the UK – from grassroots through to elite performance levels. It informs the Government on policies that support coaches to have a positive impact on society, and develop learning that helps coaches support the needs and dreams of the people they coach.

Mobile checkout journey.

The Challenge

Our collaboration kicked off in 2017, where after a rebrand and as part of a wider redevelopment of its entire digital estate, UK Coaching commissioned Reading Room to redevelop its core website and digital services.

The original objectives of this project were to:

  • Become the go-to resource for information, guidance and resources about coaching
  • Clarify its mission across its digital presence
  • Put people's needs at the heart of this digital offering
  • Better support coaching to access support, training and guidance
  • Create an accessible online resources library
  • Replatform its CMS away from an end of life technology
  • Unlock existing content held in PDFs to make it search-friendly for the user
  • Refine, update, and migrate an extensive back catalogue of content
Happy smiling coaches.

Our Approach

To ensure the project ran smoothly, and to minimise risk, it was delivered as a phased approach, using Kentico CMS. Our experts delivered a powerful content editor experience, enabling a contemporary and responsive design.

Starting with a comprehensive project discovery, our team analysed core audience groups and engaged stakeholders from UK Coaching. This was achieved through a range of forums including user workshops, qualitative interviews, sector-specific research, and a review of technological architecture.

Informed by discovery and user data, we:

  • Created personas to represent the sites user groups
  • Built new Information Architecture aligned to user needs
  • Developed an onsite search function to surface the breadth of resources and content
  • Undertook a complete rework and redesign of the website, to position UK Coaching as a leader in its field

Furthermore, we implemented a number of technical features to help ensure the onsite experience was smooth for both UK Coaching and users.

We:

  • Implemented a Single Sign-On (SSO) mechanism between the main website and the LearnUpon Learning Management System (LMS) where courses are held
  • Created an API integration with UK Coaching’s workshop system, IRIS
  • Added a booking engine for courses held in the IRIS system
  • Introduced a subscription service allowing users to access enhanced content and wider benefits
What members say.

Evolving the platform

After the successful launch of the new platform, we have shifted our focus to ongoing iterative development. 

Working closely with the UK Coaching team we have created a sustainable digital roadmap underpinned by a user-centric and data-driven approach, which allows us to continuously evolve the platform and adapt to user needs.

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