RSPB Ynys-hir is a nature reserve on the Dyfi Estuary and one of the best bird watching sites in Europe. It is a beautiful 800 ha site of mixed habitats and holds a number of special designations as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area, Special Area of Conservation and holding RAMSAR status. It sits within Wales’s only UNESCO Biosphere reserve.

The RSPB are developing the reserve as a hub for visitor and community engagement with nature and to showcase the RSPB’s conservation work, offering a wider range of accessible and engaging public offers across the physical and digital spaces. They have ambitions to increase visitor numbers in terms of both overall numbers and diversity.

Emily Smith Associates were commissioned by RSPB to undertake a digital feasibility study offering recommendations as to the ways that digital engagement can help RSPB Ynys-hir achieve its aims of increasing audience size diversity and engagement and the development of prototype content.

ESA undertook a series of site visits, an infrastructure review, desk research, stakeholder interviews, and produced sector case studies which formed an initial look at what might be possible on the site. These assumptions were then tested and augmented through in-depth interviews with visitors and non-visitors taken in Machynlleth and Aberystwyth, focus groups with RSPB volunteers, residents at a local sheltered living accommodation in Aberystwyth. Digital questions were also posed in the parallel Audience Insight Survey and Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) non-visitor and non-visitor focus groups undertaken by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre.

The in-depth audience research offered valuable insights as the kind of content and stories that would work well to engage visitors both on and offsite. ESA developed a set of prototype digital experiences including a wireframe for an ideal virtual tour, giving both visitors and non-visitors the opportunity to download audio guides, and maps of the reserve and enjoy webcam footage of areas of the reserve they may not be able to reach given the extreme topography across the reserve.

All the research carried out across different groups pointed to the powerful role that digital interventions can play in reaching and encouraging new visitors to RSPB Ynys-hir and providing content that can make visit planning easier for visitors, especially those with a range of access needs. The ESA digital feasibility study gave recommendations as to prioritisation of activities and provided a costed ’blueprint’ for delivery as part of the overall redevelopment programme.

‘We really enjoyed working with Emily Smith and her team on this project. Their detailed and thoughtful conversations with our internal teams and volunteers unlocked some new ideas for us. They undertook some thorough research in the local towns which gave us fantastic insights as to what would and wouldn’t work for our target audiences. Their experience in digital and understanding of mission driven organisations was invaluable and combined to deliver a solid evidence base and inspiring prototype content to support our funding bids ’ Sam Yates Senior Project Manager RSPB