BNHS
A digital evolution of BNHS’s 140-year conservation legacy
Founded in 1883, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) is a nationally respected institution advancing wildlife research, conservation action, biodiversity monitoring, and environmental education. Through its programs, publications, and training efforts, BNHS supports both scientific communities and the wider public in protecting India’s ecosystems.
Environment
Established institution
Website Discovery, Information Architecture, UX Design, UI Design, Product Flows, Visual Language Refresh, Content Strategy
The vision
BNHS needed a digital presence that could match the scale and soul of its mission. The goal was to create a modern, accessible website that invites citizens into nature, makes research discoverable, and deepens engagement across memberships, events, and conservation work. A platform that honours 140 years of heritage, yet feels ready for the next chapter.
The challenge
The old website held decades of content but lacked structure, clarity, and usability. Navigation was dense, visuals felt outdated, and critical functions like memberships, donations, events, and research access were fragmented across systems. The revamp had to serve everyone – researchers, students, nature lovers, donors, and citizens – while simplifying management for internal teams.
The solution
We partnered with BNHS to redesign the website end-to-end. It began with a comprehensive discovery workshop, then moved through a clearer information architecture, refreshed visual language, key product flows, and a scalable system for future digital experiences. Our previous work on their internal products, Jalchar and Avifauna, brought deep domain familiarity and on-ground context to the revamp.
A clearer structure for a knowledge-heavy platform
With decades of research, programs, library resources, and public events, the BNHS site had grown into a vast archive – hard to navigate and easy to get lost in. We mapped the content across the site with inputs from teams across BNHS, clarified key priorities, and rebuilt a cleaner, more intuitive navigation.
A visual language rooted in nature
We shaped the visual system around a simple truth BNHS lives by: no species survives alone. Animals and plants sustain one another, each part of a shared living network. We expressed this co-dependence through wildlife silhouettes infused with foliage and habitat textures, making ecosystems feel present across the site. The result is a warmer, more human interface that reflects BNHS’s hope that protecting ecosystems allows life to recover and thrive again.
Turning discoveries into shared knowledge
We created a community-driven knowledge hub that lets BNHS’s conservation work grow beyond institutional walls. Researchers and enthusiasts can contribute species information through structured uploads, strengthening conservation data while staying rooted in scientific credibility.
Streamlining membership, events, and contributions
Before the revamp, there was no dashboard to support members directly. Every action ran through one SPOC, making conservation support feel harder than it should. We rebuilt these pathways into welcoming, low-friction journeys, letting users move from interest to impact – join, register, adopt, donate, or contribute – in minutes.
