Wildlife in the City

Website: http://www.wildlifeinthecity.org

Wildlife in the City is the place to get involved with Nottingham city's wildlife. The 'WinC' project belongs to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and is all about discovering urban wildlife and learning about the city's green spaces.

We were delighted when Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust asked us to develop the Wildlife in the City website with them as we had also designed and built their main organisation website and a site for Attenborough Nature Centre.

The brief was to create a fun, interactive web presence to reflect all of the activities and learning about urban wildlife across Nottingham and we certainly enjoyed creating this vibrant design.

Visitors can use the clickable area maps to find news, events and multi-media especially related to the city's nature reserves and local parks. Local residents can see where the green spaces are right on their doorstep and get involved with them through volunteering or joining in the many organised activities. Ask the Wildlife in the City team a question about urban wildlife and get the answer published online. Tell them about the wildlife you have seen in the city and find out where others have spotted wildlife too. Learn fascinating facts about the mammals, birds and amphibians you can find in Nottingham and download guides on how to make things for them.

Through the website, the WinC team encourages everyone in Nottingham to get involved. See the Youth Zone, Supporters Scheme and Take Action sections for lots of ideas and things to do. They also reach out to their audience with our branded Make Mail e-newsletter and mobile text alerts which visitors can sign-up for at the website. There is social media integration throughout and RSS feeds for news and events.

We implemented a content management system to allow the Wildlife in the City team to update and edit the website's text, pictures and other media. The system also hooks into YouTube and Flickr so that they can share their multi-media online across several platforms. We provided on-site training and written guidance on how to use the CMS as well as how to prepare and write content for the web. We also provide ongoing support for the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust team.

Wildlife in the City is wind powered by our very own Green Hosting.

Fox illustration above © Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

We are thrilled with our new Wildlife in the City website. We wanted a very visual, colourful feel for the site, that would engage new audiences including young people, as well as visitors who might be taking their first steps into finding out about nature. We were also asking for our project branding to be established throughout. The result was exactly what we had asked for, and more. The website is great - many have commented on how simple the site is to navigate, and how engaging it is. Make Hay's excellent advice and guidance made sure that we ended up with more than we expected, with interactive elements and excellent features. Our working relationship with Make Hay ensured that the process of creating it was as smooth as possible. Their professionalism and patience meant that our queries were answered promptly, with regular face-to-face progress meetings and email contact ensuring that mutual aims were met and that staff were fully trained in using the c ontent management system. We would not hesitate to recommend Make Hay to other customers.

Anna Williams, Communications & Marketing Officer