Helping to protect vital members of our global ecosystem
Why it’s amazing
The ARC website provides engaging, educational content detailing the vitally important work ARC is doing to help protect and preserve reptiles, amphibians, and the habitats they depend on.
The Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy (ARC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on identifying and conserving the highest priority places for amphibians and reptiles in the United States. In those areas, they develop dynamic conservation programs that recover priority species, improve habitats, and ultimately restore ecosystems.
Our biggest challenge was creating a final product that was educational while also being approachable and engaging. Reptiles and amphibians are often maligned and misunderstood, despite being vitally important members of our ecosystems. Through our design and implementation, we sought to capture the wonder so many of us experienced when we were young and first encountered one of these animals in the wild, before we were told they should be feared.
It was imperative that we present these animals in a positive light, driving home their importance in a way people could easily understand, making it easier for site visitors to connect with ARC’s mission .
We collaborated with Anonymous, LLC. to bring their design for the ARC site to life, incorporating rich animations and interact-able elements so that the final product both educates and entertains. The site is fully mobile-responsive, and encourages rich interactions with the content through engaging animations and hover effects.
We implemented a homepage which incorporates a promotional video produced by ARC which highlights the work they do in an immersive and engaging way. As the user scrolls, the landing page text disappears, and the video gradually grows to be fullscreen.
To further draw visitors into the site, we implemented rich text animations across the site, both to drive interaction—encouraging users to interact with the logo, menu items, and buttons—and also emphasize key parts of ARC’s message.
All of the photos of reptiles and amphibians on the site zoom and pan responsively on mouseover, as well as having unique scroll aniamtions. Because ARC places an emphasis on educating the public, we pitched the use of image “hotspots” sidewide which reveal fun facts about each species on mouseover, making the final product functional (and fun!) as well as beautiful.
Use of these image hotspots throughout the site allowed us to provide educational information about each species featured.
As a nonprofit organization, donations are vital to ensuring that ARC can continue to to the great work they’re committed to. We created a donation page which, in addition to allowing individual and recurring donations through a third party donation system, also emphasizes why dontation is crutial, how donations are used, and ways individuals can take action “in their own backyard.”
ARC’s work focuses on the habitats (“PARCAs”) and “priority” species which are under the greatest threat. We emphasized these sections with interactive elements: a map displaying PARCAs around the United States, and a custom slider displaying priority species with specialized, “fun” sorting options in addition to the standard alphabetical options. Each of the photos in the priority species section also makes use of the image hotspots we have used throughout the site.