Reid Park Zoo

2014 Gold ADDY Award Winner + Best in Show

May 2013 / reidparkzoo.org


When redesigning the Reid Park Zoo site we made it a point to focus on a rich experience for visitors. We wanted folks to visit the site and feel like they’d known the animals for ages and were part of the family.

Open Simplicity

One of the first things we did was get rid of the boxed feeling of the old site. Pages extend from edge to edge now, giving visitors a feeling of a more open and free flowing site. But we wanted to make sure that visitors were engaged with the site while also giving the impression of a more lively and active place. For that reason images now hold a much bigger place on the pages with less information being displayed around them.

We wanted to make sure it was easy to find anything on the site, whether it be a specific type of animal, or just the hours the park is open. The meet the animals page is a great example of this. As oppose to the old bulleted list, users can find an animal by just clicking it’s image, no need for long reading lists.

Social media integration

With things easier to find and the site being more visually appealing, we had to give visitors a way to share not just with their friends, but with the zoo itself. Social media sharing widgets were integrated throughout the site making it easy to share pictures and information on sites like Facebook and Twitter. We also made it easy for visitor to share their pictures of the zoo animals by allowing them to easily navigate to the zoo’s flickr group and share a photo.

Responsive Design

Making the site responsive was a no brainer. If we were going to make the site an extension of a zoo goers visit, they had to be able to not just access the site, but navigate it on any device. The new zoo site is completely responsive to any size screen and device that it’s accessed on. This includes things like viewing pictures, signing up for membership and just browsing the site.

zoo_home
zoo_phone_scene
zoo_animals

Animal pages with photos, videos, related posts and a live web cam Zoo Lion

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