Chester Zoo Chester Zoo - new website

Pygathrix

Pygathrix

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
New style website up this morning. More colourful with a few extra sections. There are a few of those annoying ice lolly "Funny Faces" popping up though

Chester Zoo - Home
 
I cannot currently view the website. :(

EDIT: Having tried a few times, the website has uploaded. To be honest, I really dont like it. Who are the little characters??? And there seems to be way to much colour! I do not believe this website represents the UK's top Zoological attraction, I would prefer for Chester to have sticked with the original website!
 
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I'm not sure if the whole website is live yet, I can't get some of the links to work.

I'm seeing if I get used to it, but it looks a little bit too CBeebies to me
 
Too slow, too much scrolling, menus not as intuitive as they could be, and a bit too much of an assault on the retinas. At least the important bits of info such as the map, opening times etc are always to hand.
 
Pygathrix said:
I'm seeing if I get used to it, but it looks a little bit too CBeebies to me
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Without sharing an opinion, I will say that all versions I've seen prior to the launch had the little cartoon characters. If you take those along with the first large image being a child on a slide, I think it's fairly clear who the target audience is.

Hopefully more of the old content will re-appear, for example, I couldn't find a single mention of the baby elephant, and you'd think that would be headline news at the moment.
 
The website has improved slightly, information is now easier to find, the browser if much faster now. Although the stupid colours and characters are still there.
 
SMR said:
Without sharing an opinion, I will say that all versions I've seen prior to the launch had the little cartoon characters. If you take those along with the first large image being a child on a slide, I think it's fairly clear who the target audience is.

Hopefully more of the old content will re-appear, for example, I couldn't find a single mention of the baby elephant, and you'd think that would be headline news at the moment.
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Yes I agree it's obviously aimed at bringing in the family audience, which is where the money is. The problem for all zoos is reconciling the money-making entertainment side of things with the serious scientific aspects.

What we need is a good web designer who is also a nerdy zoo enthusiast, I don't suppose you know one? ;)
 
The animal info pages are not great lot of the animals not even listed hopefully they will add the rest
 
zooman1 said:
The animal info pages are not great lot of the animals not even listed hopefully they will add the rest
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I said exactly the same thing on the facebook site. I listed just some of the mammals they were missing, and the post was massive.
 
Javan Rhino said:
I said exactly the same thing on the facebook site. I listed just some of the mammals they were missing, and the post was massive.
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Ah yes but the last one wasnt a full list of all species kept at Chester. Im pretty sure Rodents eg, Gambians Pouched Rat, Acacia Rat, Spiny Mice, African Pygymy Dormice have never been listed on the website, amongst others.
 
Paix said:
Ah yes but the last one wasnt a full list of all species kept at Chester. Im pretty sure Rodents eg, Gambians Pouched Rat, Acacia Rat, Spiny Mice, African Pygymy Dormice have never been listed on the website, amongst others.
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I know, but that was a problem I had with the last website anyway. I think Edinburgh's site is the best for a complete (or near complete) list.
 
Javan Rhino said:
I know, but that was a problem I had with the last website anyway. I think Edinburgh's site is the best for a complete (or near complete) list.
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I agree, to be honest, I believe Edinburghs is the best UK Zoo website at the moment! If Londons had a greater amount of information, I would like it, but there is a lack of information.
 
Paix said:
I agree, to be honest, I believe Edinburghs is the best UK Zoo website at the moment! If Londons had a greater amount of information, I would like it, but there is a lack of information.
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I like the new animal pages on Chester's website (I don't recall the last one talking about their animals as individuals, whereas the new ones talk about each one with names, habits, ages etc. My only gripe is that there are too few.
 
There is supposed to be a full species list on Chester's site, but I believe it's been a question of getting all the various departments together to plough through all that information. Hopefully it'll happen fairly soon. There are other developments in the works too, such as a dedicated section for members that is likely to provide more detailed information on animal movements, births etc.
 
SMR said:
There is supposed to be a full species list on Chester's site, but I believe it's been a question of getting all the various departments together to plough through all that information. Hopefully it'll happen fairly soon. There are other developments in the works too, such as a dedicated section for members that is likely to provide more detailed information on animal movements, births etc.
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Ahh, that will really improve it in my opinion, and I hope this does happen. It'll also make it even more worthwile me becomming a member (a brilliant deal as it is).
 
Argh, my pic of Iznee & Latifah is in the gallery but the proportions are wrong so they're squished.
 
I can't get my uploads to work :( (but this was the case on the last site as well). It tries for a few moments before coming up with some error page :S.
 
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