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A seasonal website for
OmVed Gardens

Moving from Squarespace to a bespoke low carbon website: the new digital experience for OmVed Gardens, a green space and learning centre in North London.

2024

85
out of 100
Eco Design Level
See our Environmental Declaration for more info on our calculation methodology
58%
lighter
compared to
industry average websites
Page weight: 819.33kb

According to HttpArchive (an open-source project that tracks how the web is built) the average page weight on desktop is 2,484kb
Powered by
renewable energies

OmVed is an urban greenscape nestled behind Highgate High Street in London. Until recently, a wounded and tarmacked wasteland, it is being transformed into a diverse eco habitat with a wildflower meadow, an orchard and a vegetable garden. Through collaboration with artists, architects, chefs, musicians and horticulturalists OmVed Gardens is exploring the nature of the relationship between people and our connection to the environment. They reached out to us to design and develop an new and low-carbon version of their website that was at that time build and hosted on Squarespace.

Where we began

To kick-start our redesign project, we conducted an initial workshop to gather valuable insights from stakeholders. This collaborative session helped us identify key pain points with the existing website, as well as areas of success that could be built upon.The findings from this research phase directly influenced the creation of wireframes that provided a clear visual representation of the proposed website structure.This structured approach allowed us to pinpoint problematic pages, prioritize improvements, and establish a solid foundation for the redesign process.

A reflection of the changing colours of the garden.

Our team brought the beauty of OmVedGardens to life online by adapting its new visual identity to reflect the changing seasons. A dynamic design featuring rounded shapes, a clean aesthetic, and a unique color palette was created to evoke the moods ofspring, summer, autumn, and winter. This seasonal approach allowed the website to evolve with the garden's natural hues, inviting users to explore and engage with OmVedGardens in all its seasons.

An immersive loop

We used a creative video solution to bring the website to life and provide a more immersive overview of the garden. By looping a short 5-second clip and using good compression techniques, we were able to reduce the file size of the video to that of a high quality image, ensuring that this element was in line with our goals of enhancing the personality and user experience of the site while limiting its environmental impact.

A versatile backend

To empower the OmVedGardens team to manage the website, we built upon a robust backend system using Kirby CMS, paired with a versatile page builder that enables them to create new pages as needed. To streamline event management, we seamlessly integrated TicketTailor's ticketing system into the website design, providing an efficient and centralized platform for clients to manage all their ticketing needs.The results of this redesign are a website that is not only lighter and less polluting, but most of all easier to use and navigate.

Results

We reached out to Hey Low to help develop two new low carbons websites for OmVed Gardens and Where the Leaves Fall. The old websites were difficult to navigate and update so we wanted a smoother experience for our website users.
From the start working with Hey Low was a dream, their level of expertise and organisation was incredible. We were so happy with the end result - beautiful, easy to navigate websites that are less polluting for the planet.
Joanna Ayre
Marketing and Communications at OmVedGardens
→ omvedgardens.com
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