Chester Zoo's new website
The conservation charity relaunched its website in March as part of a new identity that it has been phasing in since last year
Organisation: Chester Zoo
Agency: Code Computerlove
Spend: £17,000
Chester Zoo, the north-west conservation charity and visitor attraction, relaunched its website in March as part of a new identity that it has been phasing in since last year.
Development
Visitor feedback from online surveys showed that the old site was working well in terms of user experience but did not match the organisation's new brand identity. The charity therefore wanted to refresh the look and feel of the website to communicate its brand values while retaining what was working well on the website already. It also wanted a site that supported its need to offer information to two target audiences - families looking for information on a day out and people wanting to know more about its conservation work.
Design and content
Chester Zoo wants to increase online bookings and enable more flexibility for publicising campaigns. The bespoke, hand-drawn font devised for the redesign is used throughout the site, giving it a less corporate and more informal look. Twee cartoon characters were used liberally on the old site but have been replaced by more photographs of animals.
Special features
The design uses bright colours, which seem particularly targeted at children and families. The site includes more than 1,000 pages of content as well as better links to the zoo's social media channels. Its desire to push online sales is backed up by two buttons for booking tickets online on the home page.
Chester Zoo says:
"The new design offers flexibility for campaigns and will enable us to easily emphasise key messages, seasonal events and news."
Score:
Navigation: 4
Accessibility: 3
Innovation: 2
Content: 3
Total: 12 out of 20
