Zoo Websites

Hey Al

- the website is well layed out (especially with the drop down menus along the top)
- the search bar is displayed well
- enewsletters are always a good thing (as long as they are actually sent, unlike Chester's non-existant one)
- good use of images and colour
- Animal profiles are "bitesize" making it easier to process the information

Overall its a quite comprehensive, well designed website, but the only thing i'd say is that it is lacking something which identifies it as "Belfast Zoo" (Belfast is only mentioned in small font in the logo)
 
the new belfast website looks great lots better than the one before keep up the good work
 
At last a website worthy of this great collection, very easy to use, and the home page is well laid out.
I particularly like the animal info and the history section on the zoo. Good to see an up to date zoo map too.

In an ideal world every zoo website would have a blog such as the one Edinburgh has introduced to regularly update the hardened zoo fan with collection news, rather than the media friendly pulp spewed out by most zoos.
 
Belfast's New Website.

Much more attractive and 'serious' presentation than previous one but a little less eyecatching as a lot of the colour has been lost? I prefer this though...

Seems very easy to use from the drop down menu.

Good information on most departments. I like the detailed 'Conservation' information.

News items are easy to find but I would still like to see updates with perhaps more detailed and frequent information(like Colchester)

a-z of animals works fine. Information is a little thin for some species though. No info on the zoos own stock of each species- but I know this avoids having to change information when there are changes to the zoo's own stock. But it impersonalises the collection too.

One point- 'Belfast Zoo' as a title has been lost in favour of 'The Zoo' with Belfast written & hardly noticeable underneath. Seems a bit odd though I appreciate as Northern Ireland's main zoo its a rather different situation to anywhere elsewhere in the UK.
 
Belfast's new website is great. There is no comparison with the old one. It is packed with useful and relevant information which is easy to access using the drop down menu.

I was pleased to see that the zoo map has recently been updated however the a-z list of animals hasn't been updated in ages. Species including emperor tamarin, white - lipped tamarin, goeldis monkey, nile lechwe, blesbok and the more recent tree roo, giant anteater, crowned lemurs and capybara do not feature.
Like Pertinax, i would also like to see the news item more regularly updated - perhaps a bi-monthly update?
I would also like to see more photos of the animals present within the collection.

Finally, the virtual tours are fantastic as they show the outstanding views, seen from all over the 55 acre site making Belfast Zoo unique ( along with the fantastic collection of course!):)
 
The Belfast Zoo's new website is a huge improvement on the old one, with the drop-down menus a key component of the new appearance. I particularly like the zoo map, the list of animal species (although that could be personalized to fit the zoo's collection), and the opportunity to have an e-newsletter sent to me. The conservation page is also quite neat, although the history page could be broadened to be more specific and include a year-by-year breakdown. Overall I am quite impressed with the site, although as pointed out by others on this thread I'd also like to see the words "Belfast Zoo" illuminated much better with either different colours or a particular logo.
 
I think the new website is great, much better and has a lot more info than the old one. It's also easy to use and pretty bright and eye-catching. Great :)
 
Belfast Zoo`s new website what can i say its better than the old one which wasn`t that bad any way,infact i think its very much the ideal way to lay out a zoo website as everything is easy to find from the menus,would suggest other zoo website designers take a look and see because they could do know worse than to copy it.
 
Just a few details/observations concerning the Belfast web page:

I like that you immediately find the map of the zoo, right at the front page!

I love "360 degrees-photos" (in lack of the proper English word for this) that you can spin around/up and down, zoom into etc. This web page has three of them, but when I clicked on the one that I was most interested in (elephants and giraffes) I got one of the other two. You might want to have that corrected. But add more - the more the better!

Lots of videos - that is always a treat! However, when I visited the web page I could not upload them except in the Apple-video format (whatever it is called - Quick Time?) and that took AAAAAGES... Now, I am not a computer geek and it may be that my computer is old and lack the latest version of this or the other software, but... I just thought that I should mention this. Might be of interest to the people who run the page?
 
As something related to this thread, I'm interested to get opinions on what people would like to see as regards profiles of individual animals on zoo websites. Where should the emphasis be - anecdotes, facts, character, favourite pass-times, background, etc - or a mixture?
 
Panthera Puss said:
As something related to this thread, I'm interested to get opinions on what people would like to see as regards profiles of individual animals on zoo websites. Where should the emphasis be - anecdotes, facts, character, favourite pass-times, background, etc - or a mixture?
Click to expand...

The Columbus Zoo website actually has individual animal profiles. They are kind of interesting (although I know all that stuff already - a visitor would see that as a gold mine)! I think for the US San Diego has the best website. I really don't like a lot of other zoos websites but again we (ZooChatters) look for different things in a website than visitors do.
 
Basically, all I want to know (and can rarely find out) is exactly which species the zoo displays. On that basis I will decide if the particular zoo is worth visiting.
 
i think this is what a zoo website should have

-a clear zoo map

-animal info files
(including indervidual profiles)

-History of the zoo

-masterplan map and future plan info

-pictures of the animal exhibits

-360 zoo cams

-web cams

-contact info (email is what i mean)

-where to eat sit ect

ill think of more later
 
I agree, I always want to see a zoo map, yet I can never easily find one on a zoos website. Belfast's was quite easy to find though.
 
I find local tourism groups to blame in the case of Dudley Zoo website. They have given them an award for the 4th year running claiming it is updated regulary. It is but with what I see as not very interesting news. There is no map of the zoo & no where can you find anything that tells you what animals they have there. It is a good site for general tourism but if you are there for the animals you may be a little stuck for info.
 
I think Adelaide & Monarto Zoos new website is quite good, it seems to be updated fairly regularly, has maps, and info on a fair few of the animals some of which include info on individuals
 
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