NatureCanada.ca
Websites & Custom Software
Nature Canada partnered with Point Blank in 2018 to refresh their website. By prioritizing persuasive content and a compelling user journey, we created a site designed to service core members while attracting new audiences. Nature Canada meets its visitors at all stages of engagement, gently guiding them from discovery and education to volunteering and donation commitments.
Portfolio ViewNature Canada is the oldest national nature conservation organization in Canada, working to protect Canada’s biodiversity in the face of unprecedented threats such as climate change. Over the past 75 years, Nature Canada has helped protect countless species in over 63 million acres of parks and wildlife areas. Nature Canada provides a voice for 60,000 supporters and over 350 nature groups across Canada. In Ottawa, they advocate for change at the national level.
To grow support and better serve the needs of their members, it was time to refresh Nature Canada’s outdated website. Nature Canada needed a website that could spur action. Visitors could be encouraged to donate, volunteer, contribute content, sign petitions, and receive newsletters. Unsurprisingly, members wanted to see more great content—beautiful photography, well-researched articles, and tips for supporting conservation in their day-to-day lives.
Point Blank worked with Nature Canada to balance their organizational needs with the varying (and sometimes contradictory) needs of their audience. What emerged was a user journey that reflects the real-world path of many conservationists. Beginning with a moment of discovery (Discover Nature), visitors then spark interest in more ways to get outside (Enjoy Nature) and ultimately foster a desire to preserve and protect (Defend Nature). While visitors may begin their journey at any stage, the design focused on optimizing the Discover Nature articles as a point of entry.
The articles under Discover Nature use big photos, headlines, optional pull quotes, and magazine style intro treatments to draw readers into the content. Long articles are broken into more digestible pieces with a Read More button. These breaks help mitigate overload when articles get long, while allowing keen readers to carry on without significant interruption. Breaking up the content also provides an opportunity to gently interject with a well-timed/related action or additional content. Flexible “Get Involved” boxes can be added to any article encouraging readers to sign a related petition, attend an event or simply sign up for Nature Canada’s newsletter to receive similar content in the future. Our visual refresh also included an updated treatment of their logo, new colour palette, and prominent feature of their beautiful photography collection. Ladders of engagement are omnipresent throughout the site, guiding the user gently from newsletter signup to donation ask.
As a direct result of the new website, Nature Canada has seen significant increases in audience support and engagement. Within a few months of launch, newsletter signups through the website nearly doubled. The number of guest contributors also doubled, with new inquiries continuing to rise. Armed with new web-based tools, Nature Canada was also able to increase their campaigning activities. They saw high levels of engagement on petitions, including thousands of dollars in new donations over the same period last year.
