Richmond, VA – Dec 8, 2014  Timmons Group, in partnership with SRRN Games, was recently awarded the contract to develop an interactive mobile application for the Oregon Zoo’s new Elephant Lands habitat.  The zoo, committed to elephant advocacy, conservation and education, is home to a wide range of animals, from African lions to polar bears, and offers exhibits for numerous interests and educational purposes.

At the new elephant exhibit, the zoo saw an opportunity to digitally connect and educate 1.6 million visitors a year on the importance of animal welfare and conservation. The zoo — home to 8 elephants spanning 3 generations — is in the process of expanding its elephant habitat from 1.5 acres to 6.25 acres, incorporating multiple types of terrain to build a home that is as natural for the elephants as possible. 

Brent Shelby, exhibit design project manager of the Oregon Zoo, states, “Our visitors are continually evolving into tech savvy consumers.  With this application we will be able to connect to them while they are at the zoo and it offers us a way to interact with them outside of the zoo as they continue to share with us through social media.”

Timmons Group and SRRN Games presented their application development and gamification expertise to the zoo and its governing agency, Metro, for this application development opportunity.  The Elephant Lands Application will be developed as a game and educational tool used to guide visitors through this vast exhibit.  The main features of this application are prioritized based on feedback from past visitors and will include features for elephant identification and exhibit research tasks.  The application will also encourage visitation through social media integration as various challenges / level “badges” have been achieved. 

“We have been working with clients that focus on wildlife conservation for decades. We want the visitors of the zoo not only just walk through the exhibit but to also take away valuable information and have fun while doing it,” said Lowell Ballard, Director of Geospatial Technology at Timmons Group.

About Timmons Group
Timmons Group is a leading provider of geospatial, information architecture and engineering services focusing on developing intuitive, enterprise geospatial and GIS web applications, highly-usable, cross-device mobile applications, and integrated, geospatially-enabled enterprise solutions. Timmons Group develops solutions across multiple platforms, including JavaScript, HTML5, and native mobile operating systems. Timmons Group is a privately held ENR 500 company and maintains a strong business partner relationship with Esri. Timmons Group has been a recipient of both the Esri Business Partner of the Year award and the Esri Foundation Partner of the Year award. For more information, visit www.timmonsgis.com.

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