Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Project summary
Promoting bumblebee conservation with AR
What’s that bumblebee is an interactive AR app that helps people identify and explore the eight most common bumblebee species of the UK in fun ways, like bringing a 3D bumblebee to the living room using augmented reality.
We designed and developed the app from scratch for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. It helps people learn about the fascinating creatures in detail, identify and compare various species and share pictures.
The app promotes bumblebee conservation in the UK. It is a free educational app available for both Android and iOS smartphones.
Key features and highlights
Explore the What’s that bumblebee app
The app serves as an interactive platform with information like species distribution, habitat and timing to explore along with 'how to identify' guides to locate the species in a garden or local park.
Users can bring bumblebees to a place of their choice via augmented reality (AR). Users can scale, rotate and walk around the 3D bumblebees, and further take photos, save them and easily share them.
From kids to wildlife enthusiasts, anyone can identify bumblebees, explore detailed information of a species for various aspects like scientific name, tail-colour, banding and more.
Users can select different bumblebee species and compare them for aspects like caste, species distribution, time to spot and habitat. The app also provides some interesting facts about different species compared.
Augmented reality experience
Increasing awareness using AR
The app takes bumblebee awareness to the next level by allowing users to bring the bumblebees into their worlds to study them in 3D, click pictures and share their version of the blended reality.
Client review
We didn’t have a lot of experience with apps, so they held our hand and helped us navigate between iOS and Android. Our initial numbers are promising. Based on the number of people who generally interact with us, we’re pleased with engagement. The response on social media has been very positive. People are excited about it and it clearly works.
Andy Benson
Education Officer
Results
Winning Lottery Project of the Year Award
Pollinating the Peak is a project by the Trust under which the What’s that bumblebee app was created with an aim to reverse the terminal decline of bumblebees in the Peak District area.
It was recently presented with the National Lottery Project of the Year Award. The app has helped spread awareness digitally among people of all ages as part of the award-winning project and continues to do so.
The app is part of a wider effort to raise awareness about the importance of these vital pollinators and the need to protect them.
