Birkenhead Park
We were delighted to be given the task of completely renovating and redesigning the website for Birkenhead Park. One of the first public-funded parks in the world and the template for Central Park in New York, Birkenhead Park is an important and historical landmark on the Wirral. Our brief was to design a fully-functional and interactive website that could act as a central hub for the park, providing essential information and updates for visitors.
Videography
Birkenhead Park’s bid for UNESCO World Heritage status marks a significant milestone in its journey to recognition. As a pioneering urban park, its influence extends globally, notably inspiring Central Park in New York City. Frederick Law Olmsted’s praise for its democratic ethos underscores its enduring relevance.
Our seasonal video, shot over four seasons, showcases Birkenhead Park’s timeless charm, reinforcing its status as a beloved community asset. While the road to UNESCO recognition is long, our commitment to this endeavor remains steadfast. Just as Joseph Paxton engaged the community in the park’s creation, we draw upon their support to propel this ambition forward. Join us in preserving Birkenhead Park’s legacy for future generations.
Design and Custom Build
The Birkenhead Park team wanted a brand-new, custom website designed a built from the ground up.
Our design team put together a low fidelity wireframe map to show how the final layout would work, along with user flow and process diagrams to demonstrate how the site would be navigated. This required a high-level of collaboration with the park’s representatives.
Once these had been agreed, they created a functional specification to ensure our client received everything they wanted from their initial brief.
We knew that most users would be accessing the site from their phones or other mobile devices, so we ensured that it would be optimised for mobile use. Since the park team would be updating the site with their own content, we used Advanced Custom Fields to build a flexible layout system that allowed them to do so with minimum hassle.
Much of the park’s appeal is in its natural beauty, so we used optimisation tools to allow large clear images to be used with optimal download speeds. We also enabled HTML 5 video across the site to make the most of video footage.
Since the site is to be a community hub for the park, we included widgets to update the site from the park’s social media platforms, and an upcoming events page with an easy-to-use calendar.
DESIGN AND CUSTOM BUILD
The Birkenhead Park team wanted a brand-new, custom website designed a built from the ground up.
Our design team put together a low fidelity wireframe map to show how the final layout would work, along with user flow and process diagrams to demonstrate how the site would be navigated. This required a high-level of collaboration with the park’s representatives.
Once these had been agreed, they created a functional specification to ensure our client received everything they wanted from their initial brief.
We knew that most users would be accessing the site from their phones or other mobile devices, so we ensured that it would be optimised for mobile use. Since the park team would be updating the site with their own content, we used Advanced Custom Fields to build a flexible layout system that allowed them to do so with minimum hassle.
Much of the park’s appeal is in its natural beauty, so we used optimisation tools to allow large clear images to be used with optimal download speeds. We also enabled HTML 5 video across the site to make the most of video footage.
Since the site is to be a community hub for the park, we included widgets to update the site from the park’s social media platforms, and an upcoming events page with an easy-to-use calendar.
Site Build
The site was built by our web development team, populating the site using the uniquely designed sections described above. All the existing blog content was transferred to the new site using a new design format. We also designed and added events posts that will pull through from an event calendar on the website, as well as a fully-functioning contact forms (with built-in spam filters), and an historical timeline page. Since we knew the site will be updated by the park team, we created a set of easy-to-follow video tutorials to show them how to do so.
SEO
There’s no point having a beautiful new website if nobody can find it. For this reason, the Birkenhead Park site was built with SEO and UX in mind. Technical tweaks were made to improve loading times for the many images of the park and its surroundings, as users and search engines alike prefer sites that load quickly. A detailed keyword and competitor analysis was performed to get effective keywords for our copywriter to include in the on-site text. Since the site was launched, we have seen major improvements in all key metrics, including visitor numbers which have more than quadrupled.
Copywriting
Birkenhead Park is almost 175 years old and a well-known landmark both here in Merseyside and across the world. This means there is a lot of information about the park online. Our copywriter’s job was to create engaging, readable text that would score well in Google’s search results, so that visitors would find the new Birkenhead Park website first. The park has its own style guide, which we had to follow, carefully balancing Google’s expectations for effective SEO and the language the client wanted us to employ on the site.
Birkenhead Park is a beautiful place and we wanted to capture that. Our photographer engaged in a three-day shoot spread over summer and autumn. Birkenhead Park is known as the People’s Garden, and that’s what the client wanted us to capture – shots of the people of the park, with its iconic elements acting as a backdrop. Since the park has been open to all since its very inception, they wanted us to be as inclusive as possible, featuring people from all walks of life.
We used a number of lenses (mostly wide and mid lenses) and overexposed our shots from a brighter style to give them a light and dreamy look.
Illustration
Part of the brief was to create a bespoke map for the website. Our designer researched other maps of the park, from the original 19th century concept drawings to the most up-to-date versions. He also visited the park to get a sense of its layout and key features. The new map was drawn using Adobe Fresco to create a consistent, hand-drawn style. This was then transferred to Adobe Illustrator to tidy it up for the final product and add road names and a key.
Whether your business or organisation is large or small, Be Bold Studios has the tools, skills, and experience to make a difference. Call us today on 0747 688 7743, or send an email to hello@be-bold.co.uk to arrange a free consultation.