I managed the entire detroitzoo.org rebuild process several years ago pushing desktop-minded stakeholders to think mobile-first.
In addition to assisting design team with prototyping and overseeing development with partners (in 2015), I took a lot of photos for the website, and oversaw assembling and re-rendering all photography for retina/high-IPS devices.
I helped DZS put the website to work with integrated digital marketing campaigns. A few of my photos from the website have also been used in print campaigns.
Behind-the-scenes all content is well organized, making heavy use of WordPress custom-post-types. Before, making content updates was a difficult process, now staff members are empowered to keep users informed with live updates.
- I worked with each department to do a full redesign: content strategy, UX, design, development, on through launch and continuous agile deployment of improvements through a Git-based CD workflow.
- Before I arrived the site was not mobile friendly or responsive, hard to update, and hard to navigate website. It had 250+ top-level menu items.
- Afterward, it was responsive, easy-to-update, and easy to navigate. Top-level navigation was reduced to under 30 menu items.
- It’s built on WordPress, easy for staff to keep guests up to date with live updates via custom post types.
- It used the WordPress REST API to automatically update the interactive map app.
Skills used: UI/UX design, prototyping, project management, GitHub code management, vendor management, proposal writing, vendor selection, product management, cross-team collaboration
Update
The Detroit Zoo did a FANTASTIC rebrand in July 2024. While the website has a new theme and features, I've noticed that a lot of the behind-the-scenes information architecture that I built remains. This is fun!
For example, the Animals and Events pages use the same Custom Post Types, custom taxonomies, information architecture, and REST API integration for the maps that I built the groundwork for. I’m super proud to be a tiny part of the ongoing legacy of our zoo!
