Japi's Blog: Houston Zoo Launches New Web Experience

Recently the company where I work, Schipul - The Web Marketing Company, engineered the re-design, build and launch of the Houston Zoo’s new Web site.

The site looks fantastic... with beautiful Flash banners and an interactive map (designed by Stemulus).

The banners have a sublte yet striking movement. Be sure to look for my personal favorite - the Lion banner (watch the birds flying from the tree). The other banners are also beautiful (a Clown Fish, Macaw and Rhino among them).

The site was designed by our creative director, Tim Newton... but it was definitely a team effort.

Kim Lange, the project manager, has been working with the Zoo for nearly a year. Kim provided the zoo with social media consulting in the form of the creation and maintenance of a Houston Zoo blog, Youtube videos and Flickr group to help launch a new online brand for the Houston Zoo.
Katie Laird and Ed Schipul advised the zoo on ways to effectively communicate their message online.
Kerry Gayle and her production team worked on the technical aspects of launching the Web site.
Jenny Qian and the programming team are still working to create new modules in Tendenci to meet the Houston Zoo's needs.
Annisa Chan's search engine marketing expertise will help the Zoo's long-term ranking in Google and Yahoo.

The new Web site uses Schipul's Tendenci software for content management, calendar of events, e-blasts, posting of podcasts and press releases, a job board, RSS feeds and quite a lot more.

Personally, these are the areas of the site that I like the most:

The Houston Zoo Podcast, which currently has information about the Grizzly Bear
The Interactive Map which allows me to see the layout of the zoo to plan my next visit, listen to short audio files to be informed about the different animals and see the schedule of keeper chats.
Some of the most useful tools on the site are the traffic update and maps & directions sections.

I am very excited about this new Web site. I'm hoping it will help launch the Houston Zoo to national (and even international) prominence.