If you’ve never heard of Great Ape Trust, now is your chance to check out the fascinating science, research and conservation that this world-class organization has to offer.
Trilix recently partnered with Great Ape Trust on a website redevelopment project that allows users to experience Great Ape Trust in a whole new light. This latest version of the website has been nearly eight years in the making as Trilix and Great Ape Trust have partnered on various marketing communications efforts over that time – including the Trust’s original award winning website. The new site has allowed everyone involved with this project an opportunity to tell Great Ape Trust’s story in a captivating way like never before.
Great Ape Trust is a scientific research facility in Des Moines, Iowa, dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence, and to the preservation of endangered great apes in their natural habitats. The Trust is home to a colony of six bonobos involved in noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities. The Trust is also currently home to six orangutans.
With limited visitation to their campus, the Trust relies heavily on its website to provide visitors with the scientific research, photos, videos and conservation projects that encapsulate the efforts of the scientists and staff that work with these magnificent apes.
One unique challenge set forth during initial planning stages for the new site was to give the user a first hand look into exactly how the apes and scientists at Great Ape Trust communicate. Bonobos use lexigrams made up of 128 symbols per board representing various words. Trilix worked closely with Great Ape Trust to develop an Interactive Lexigram experience for users representing a replica of the current boards that would allow users to interact with nearly 400 words used by the bonobos.
An extensive look into Great Ape Trust’s conservation initiative in Gishwati, Rwanda – the Forest of Hope – is highlighted within the site with features such as a blog, team member profiles, an interactive magazine, chimpanzee cam and various facts about Rwanda’s geography, people, government and economy.
Great Ape Trust also uses their website as the hub for their communications with social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The new site allows for easy sharing and integration among these extremely valuable communication channels.
The most important element taken into consideration during development of this new site was Great Ape Trust’s need to be able to self administer a large majority of the sites content following its initial launch. This included scientist and ape biographies, photography, video footage, various resources, news releases and site features such as banners, buttons, breaking news and more. The new content management system will allow Great Ape Trust the ability to keep their site fresh and vibrant with the latest news and information as it happens.
Experience Great Ape Trust Like Never Before at www.GreatApeTrust.org.