Hamilton Zoo Website

When we helped Hamilton Zoo refresh their website in 2018, our aim was to enhance the visitor experience and amplify the impact of the zoo’s work by creating awareness and inspiring conservation actions in the community.

From family outings to educational experiences, Hamilton Zoo is an iconic destination and a memorable adventure enjoyed by thousands of people each year. 

With a stunning brand refresh and significant improvements to the physical visitor experience at Hamilton Zoo and Te Kaaroro Nature Precinct, we were given the opportunity to elevate the website to align with their enhanced physical spaces and visitor experience.

To make meaningful and measurable improvements, we first needed to revisit what website users value and find hard. We need to ensure the Zoos online experience doesn’t just look great, but also helps users easily find the information they need. While at the same time, educating visitors about the many experiences and conservation efforts happening at the zoo.

Because we had an existing website designed with User Experience in mind, we had a solid starting point. 

Now we had an opportunity to delve even deeper into our users objectives. We knew the existing zoo website preformed worse than other visitor destinations when it came to ticket sales - but was the website under performing? Or was there more under the surface.

Our discovery uncovered the need to conduct:

• IA Tree Testing: To ensure the menu structure we deliver helps users navigate quickly and includes easy-to-understand labels.
• Exit Intent Survey: To understand why people leave the “Buy Tickets” pages without completing their purchase.
• Customer Survey: To learn about customers’ digital purchasing habits for zoo passes.
• 1:1 Customer Interviews: To understand what factors people consider when buying passes and how they evaluate their experience.

We gained many insights from our investigation, but here are a few key points that drove some of our most important interface design and website architecture decisions:

• We learned a lot about the different types of visitors to the zoo, and how we could enhance their experience as they planned their visit. From people from out of town with a group wanting to book ahead, to those who didn’t see the need to pre purchase but discovered and could be prompted to book an encounter. 
•  Lots of people wanted relatable personal information about the animals at the zoo; names, personalities, likes/dislikes, etc which could inform comms plans and nurture campaigns for repeat visitors
• The new Zoo website was a great opportunity to introduce and give context to the greater Te Kaaroro precinct as it's new and unfamiliar to the audience. Giving it presence and context was an extra benefit and gives the HCC team a great foundation to work with when rolling out their comms strategy.

Finally - our most significant insight was a huge finding that helped us prioritise our time optimising how we presented the visitor experience, over working to increase ticket conversion rates. 

Most people visiting the zoo liked the flexibility of purchasing their ticket on the day. Even more surprising, they expected it. People visiting from out of town however liked the option to buy online, but did not see it as a necessity, nor was the experience a barrier to purchasing online.

Armed with this knowledge, we were able to design an experience that highlighted the destination and put everything the zoo has to offer on display.

The new website has been designed to highlight the animals and experiences. Showcasing the many reasons to experience the Zoo and Te Kaaroro nature presinct. With contextual prompts for buying online as a "new normal" for those who hadn't considered buying tickets to the zoo online as an option before.

Here is a showcase of some of our highlights, and why we love them so much:

The home page: Most visitors to the Hamilton Zoo website land on the homepage, so our design focuses on helping people find the information they need quickly. It's dominated by easy-to-understand labels, clear headers, and vibrant imagery.

Meet the animals: Animal information really appealed to the "infotainment" audience who liked to research the animals they were going to see. Animal pages are formatted and designed to be more engaging and optimised for SEO while making it easy for people to browse who they'll get to see, who's available for an encounter, and who's off display (to avoid disappointment).

Animal Encounters: With limited spaces available and set times, these have to be pre-booked. This makes them great for promoting as gifts and a catalyst for buying zoo passes online. It really appeals to the nature-lovers and gives even regular visitors and Annual Pass holders a reason to return.

Buy Tickets: We integrated roller to Increasing the accessibility for purchasing tickets, passes and experiences was an important part of the rebuild. We loved this because it gave the Zoo team better visibility of customer purchasing habits leading to smoother purchasing at the gate, as well as more opportunities for the Zoo team to nurture their audience.

Te Kaaroro Nature Presinct: Along with the new website for Hamilton Zoo, we designed and developed a microsite for the team to showcase the combined experiences this wonderful part of Kirikiriroa have to offer. Waiwhakareke, Hamilton Zoo and the Hamilton Observatory. 

Check it out here

Hamilton Zoo’s new website is optimised to help people have an amazing experience before, during, and after their visit. By putting users first, we delivered an experience that enables visitors to get the most out of both the Zoo and the wider Te Kaaroro Nature Precinct.

The new website not only enhances the Hamilton Zoo visitor experience before they even walk through the gates – it also enables the zoo to improve the way they create awareness and inspire conservation actions in the community.