The Development of ElephantSeal.org

Because the audience for this website is international, the website needed to be translated into multiple languages. The demographics of the visitors ranges from school children to highly-informed researchers, so the content needed to be accessible to many types of people. This entailed dividing all of the information into intuitive categories so that it was easy to find and understand. Much of the content is highly scientific, so we created a Kidz Zone that offered the ability for younger visitors to find information that was easy to understand and allowed them to dive deeper into the content if they wanted more information.

One of the main requirements of the site was the creation of the online store. Previously, people were only able to purchase merchandise in person at the San Simeon Elephant Seal gift shop and the ecommerce site was meant to be a welcome source of income that would fund the educational programs of the Friends of the Elephant Seal.

Another main requirement was the creation of a membership micro-site. Members used to have to mail in their checks and receive all information from the organization through the mail. The new site allows people to donate, join and fill out docent applications online and all of these options give them access to a special members-online section of the website, as well as discounts in the online shop.