Come behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Today we profile the Web Team based in National Office.
The Team
DOC’s Web Team
Laura Honey: loves to get behind the camera and has made several short documentaries. She also worked on a few TV sets – the strangest would have to be Kiwi Pro Wrestling.
Bev Bacon spends most of her annual leave cycle touring. She’s explored New Zealand, France, the USA and Norway on two wheels, and heads to Iceland this year.
Benhi Dixon’s name comes from the Vietnamese words ‘be’ and ‘nhi’ – together meaning ‘little baby’. Her brother, three years old at the time she was born, kept calling her that and it stuck.
Melissa Reid doesn’t get into the great outdoors very often – she’s more of a city girl and has just visited Tokyo and Seoul. But somehow she’s agreed to walk the Routeburn Track this summer.
Ligs Hoffman loves getting away to her bach at Waitarere Beach for walks, bike rides and attempts at catching dinner. The marine team can sleep safely though as she rarely catches anything.
What are your team’s favourite things?
We love satisfied website users, DOC staff who are committed to the website, plain English, gorgeous imagery and video.
Bev on Sognefjellsvegen – the highest mountain road in Norway
Hard at work
What’s your team’s role at DOC?
We manage the DOC website and help DOC staff communicate effectively to the 4.9 million people who visit the site each year.
Our role is to create a site that inspires people to plan their next adventure, discover our places, species and history and learn how they can make a difference. It’s about telling DOC stories.
Laura filming for a doco in Marlborough Sounds
How does this help DOC achieve its goals?
The website is DOC’s primary point of contact with the public. We have a huge reach which we can use to help inform, engage and educate.
The website is critical for connecting people to conservation. People go online to find news, what’s important and the issues they should care about. We can reach new audiences through our web and social media channels.
Constraint drives creativity – true in our jobs and also when needing egg cups in a campervan
What guides you in your work?
DOC’s organisation goals and feedback from our users. We’re also guided by the New Zealand Government Web Standards.
What’s the best part of your job?
Making content come to life and sharing with the outside world. Our ultimate aim is creating a great user experience. This is ongoing because a website is a living thing – it’s never ‘finished’. We love looking for ways to improve the site every day.
DOC is full of treasures, our people, places and stories. We get a huge amount of joy spreading the word about them online.
