Guiding Volunteers From Curiosity to Citizen Science: An Expedition Booking Platform for Earthwatch
Earthwatch places volunteers on field research expeditions alongside working scientists. The expedition is the heart of it, but every volunteer reaches the field through a long journey online first.
The work
“[Pare] far surpassed our already high expectations. We knew it would be a massive undertaking to overhaul our 7-year-old site while simultaneously launching an organizational rebrand. They helped to guide us through the entire process, providing the right level of objective, data-driven expertise to ensure we were implementing user experience and design best practices.”
The Challenge: A Decade of Websites Between Volunteers and the Field
Earthwatch has led the environmental movement for decades, placing volunteers on citizen science expeditions alongside scientists working on biodiversity loss, climate change and ecosystem health — in the Amazon Basin, in Uganda, on the Great Barrier Reef, a week at a time, far from technology. Since February 2026, the expedition program has run under a long-term licensing agreement with Natural Habitat Adventures, the conservation travel company, as Earthwatch Expeditions by Nat Hab. And every volunteer, then as now, arrives through a long digital journey first: discover, research, compare, book, prepare.
That journey ran across a decade’s worth of accumulated websites and custom applications, and the confusion it produced was a growth problem. Volunteers who hesitated did not book, corporate sustainability leads who could not find what they needed did not inquire, and the pre-expedition journey was costing Earthwatch the volunteers and partnerships that fund the research.
The Strategy: One Platform for the Journey Before the Expedition
Scope the work as experience transformation, not a redesign.
- Research before architecture. Users and journeys cataloged across every existing property, with interview sessions among engaged advocates, and Earthwatch staff learned to run the interviews themselves, so the listening outlasted the engagement.
- A service blueprint across both audiences, mapped end to end before anything was built, so one platform serves a volunteer and a corporate partnership lead without compromising either.
- Discovery and booking as e-commerce. Filter by scientific focus, destination, dates and difficulty; compare expeditions; see pricing and logistics without hunting.
- Corporate content built for inquiry. Outcomes, methodology, case studies and named partners, with routes to a conversation rather than a brochure that ends.
- A visual system for both halves of the brand. New colors, illustration and photography giving the scientific seriousness and the emotional pull of the expedition equal weight, built alongside the rebrand.
The Outcomes: One Journey Where a Decade of Properties Had Been
A decade of fragmentation became one coherent pre-expedition journey, delivered during an organizational rebrand — and in the client’s own words, the team far surpassed already high expectations.
The volunteer path runs discovery to preparation as a single experience, with expedition shopping that works the way the visitor expects: filters, comparisons, visible prices. Corporate content is structured for the inquiry a partnership actually starts with. And the rebuild took a Davey Award at Silver in Website / Science, third-party recognition in the category the work sits in.
The detail
Why it mattered
- A decade of accumulation. The previous architecture had grown into a fragmented set of websites and custom applications. Volunteers met confusion across the touchpoints, and no one had built the confusion on purpose — it was what a decade of additions produced.
- Confusion at discovery and booking is a Growth problem. Volunteers who hesitated did not book. Corporate sustainability leads who could not find what they needed did not inquire. The pre-expedition journey was costing Earthwatch the volunteers and partnerships that fund the field research the organization exists to do.
- Two audiences on different journeys. Individual volunteers move through discovery, research, booking and preparation. Corporate program leaders move through discovery, research and inquiry. One site had to serve both without making either walk through the other’s path.
- The rebrand was happening at the same time. A seven-year-old site and an organizational rebrand landing in parallel — so the digital expression of a brand that did not exist yet had to be built into the platform as it went.
The call and the build
- The scope was the rethink. A fundamental rethink of the digital journey that happens before the expedition journey. Earthwatch called for experience transformation, and the engagement was scoped as one.
- Research first, and the capacity left behind. The team cataloged users and journeys across a decade of properties and ran interview sessions with engaged advocates, surfacing patterns data alone would not have shown. Earthwatch staff learned to run the interviews themselves during the engagement, so the listening did not stop when we did.
- A service blueprint across both audiences. Mapped end to end before anything was built, which is what let one platform serve a volunteer and a corporate partnership lead without compromising either.
- Discovery and booking rebuilt as e-commerce. Search by destination, scientific focus, dates and other criteria; compare expeditions; understand pricing and logistics without hunting for them. The friction that had been losing volunteers in the funnel was removed structurally.
- Corporate content engineered for inquiry. The CSR architecture was rebuilt around what a corporate program lead needs to evaluate a partnership — outcomes, methodology, case studies and named examples — with clear routes to inquiry.
- A visual system for both halves of the brand. New colors, illustration and photography reflecting the scientific seriousness of the research and the emotional pull of the expedition at the same time, built in alongside the rebrand.
What it left behind
- One platform where a decade of properties had been. The pre-expedition journey became coherent and navigable, preparing volunteers for the field.
- A Davey Award, Silver, in Website / Science. Third-party recognition of the rebuild, in the category the work actually sits in.
- Expectations, surpassed. A seven-year-old site and a simultaneous rebrand — and the client’s own account is that the team far surpassed already high expectations.
Expedition booking platform questions
How do you redesign a nonprofit website during a rebrand?
Build the brand’s digital expression into the platform as it goes. Earthwatch’s organizational rebrand landed in parallel with the rebuild by Pare & Co, so the new colors, illustration and photography were designed into the platform while it was built — and in the client’s own words, the team far surpassed already high expectations, providing objective, data-driven expertise throughout.
How do you consolidate a decade of websites into one platform?
Map before building. Earthwatch’s users and journeys were cataloged across every existing property, interview sessions with engaged advocates surfaced what data alone would not, and a high-level service blueprint set the structure before anything was built: one platform in place of a fragmented set of sites and custom applications.
How should a travel brand sell expeditions and tours online?
Like e-commerce, because that is how the visitor shops. Expedition discovery, research and booking were rebuilt as a modern shopping experience: filter by scientific focus, destination, dates and difficulty, compare expeditions, and see pricing and logistics without hunting for them.
How does one booking platform serve individual travelers and corporate partners?
With a service blueprint across both journeys. Individual volunteers move through discovery, research, booking and preparation; corporate program leaders move through discovery, research and inquiry. Mapping both end to end is what lets one platform serve each audience without making either walk the other’s path.
Client leadership
Jack Hartman
Jack Hartman’s specialty is audience experience at institutional scale. He has led booking work where the gap between curiosity and commitment is the whole design.