Aufleben Natur: building biodiversity one step at a time

The association “Biodiversity. Now!” wants to bring biodiversity back to our urban areas in collaboration with an alliance of numerous partner organizations. Each of us can contribute to biodiversity in our own gardens or even on our windowsills by creating so-called stepping stones that provide food, shelter, and connections for plants and animals. The problem is that many people lack awareness and the necessary practical knowledge. The Aufleben Natur competence and participation platform closes this gap and offers its visitors inspiration, knowledge, and opportunities to make a difference right on their doorstep.

How can I create nesting aids for hedgehogs or bats? How can I promote biodiversity on company premises? In the knowledge section of Aufleben Natur, visitors can discover blog posts and possible actions that they can save in their watch list. An integrated glossary and tooltips for terms marked in green help with understanding. When visitors are ready to take action, the stepping stone designer helps them create enhancement projects tailored to their available space and keep track of all measures and instructions.

The AI-powered Aufleben Assistant will work with users to find out where they are on their biodiversity journey, which topics are relevant to them, and how they can best contribute to the Revival goal—tailored to their personal environment and level of knowledge. It will also help users find relevant content and offers and create email templates to encourage more people to get involved.

With its playful and lively UI, Aufleben Natur builds a visual bridge between the screen and the garden. It encourages visitors to linger and explore, providing easier access to a topic that often seems complex and intimidating at first glance. With the charming scrollytelling feature, a butterfly takes new visitors on a short journey that raises awareness of the importance of stepping stones and shows them their role in the Aufleben goal.

A flower meadow color scheme derived from native flowers is reminiscent of the diversity of nature, while animations bring life and movement to the UI. Our personal favorite detail: sprite animations of ladybugs, hedgehogs, and other animals crawling across the screen.

Aufleben Natur should be able to continue to grow and flourish unhindered in the future. The MACH architecture ensures scalability and flexibility, so that the best solution can be used for each problem. Content editors as well as the partners of "Biodiversity. Now!" benefit from DatoCMS, which makes it easier to enter and manage editorial content and configure the stepping stone designer, while Django comes into its own for user management, logins, and the offer database. A fluid component-driven design without fixed breakpoints enables an organic look and feel and additional flexibility—while ensuring that the layout remains consistent at all times.