The =mc decisionscience team set up a series of related activities to get a rounded view of what had to be done. We:
- Spent some days on site exploring how visitors moved through the Zoo where they stopped, what they looked at, what they passed by.
- Organised a series of in-depth interviews with visitors, with long term higher value supporters, with volunteers and, of course, with staff.
- Undertook research on other Zoos tacking the same issues and made a specific scoping visit to the Bronx Zoo in NYC, famous for its engagement.
- Ran a series of interactive workshops with staff from across a range of Zoo departments and functions.
In the middle of all this work the coronavirus epidemic hit the Zoo… and it had to close.
Undeterred we produced some ideas on journeys through the site, with new signage and suggestions for interactive engagement with visitors to be introduced post lockdown.
This work focussed on some classic decision science areas: key messengers, offering visitors agency, the potential for loss of species, and on making the need for conservation salient.
Over a period of some weeks during the lockdown we also worked with Zoo specialists on a behaviourally informed digital engagement strategy involving creating personas for the keepers, making a series of website changes including developing a feeding programme proposition and building links to live webcams.