Maps for Aquariums and Zoos

Families and school groups move through a zoo or aquarium by clock and by path grade. Publishing exhibit pins, presentation times and step-free routes on one zoomable map keeps guests moving when an habitat closes or a talk changes time.

At ten in the morning, the crowd inside the gate splits into two groups. Half of the visitors head straight for the headline animal or the central tank. The other half stop ten feet past the ticket scanner, unfold a paper brochure or pinch a downloaded PDF on a phone, and try to figure out where the stroller ramp is and when the penguin feeding starts.

An aquarium or a forty-acre zoo is a timed venue disguised as a park. Guests organise their morning around fifteen-minute presentations, animal talks, timed entry exhibits and lunch before a child gets tired. When the map lives on one page and the daily presentation schedule lives on another, every family has to do the cross-referencing on their feet.

Anchor the day around timed presentations

New England Aquarium pairs its visitor map page directly with its daily presentations list because the two questions belong together: where is the tank, and what time do the divers go in. On a static PDF, that pairing stops at the download button. Once the PDF is open on a phone, the presentation schedule is back in the browser tab.

In Tasmap, each exhibit or theater marker carries its own article panel. The giant ocean tank pin can hold the morning and afternoon talk times right inside the marker note, and the main article in Story or Cards layout can walk visitors through a half-day loop keyed to those talks. When a veterinary check moves a sea lion session by thirty minutes, a staff member updates one marker and saves. Every guest scanning the QR code at the entrance sees the updated time.

Show the vertical and sloped connections

Aquariums stack exhibits across spiral ramps, escalators and split levels. Zoos spread habitats across hillsides where a path that looks short on an illustrated cartoon map is actually a steep climb pushing a double stroller.

The U.S. Access Board standards for walking surfaces set a 1:20 threshold before a walking surface is treated as a ramp with its own slope rules. Visitors with wheelchairs, walkers or strollers feel that difference long before noon.

Draw the step-free routes and the elevator connections with their own distinct line styles so guests can trace a continuous path from the entrance to the upper galleries or the far valley. On an outdoor zoo property, turning on 3D terrain and hillshading while editing helps staff check which paths climb a ridge and where a rest bench or shuttle stop deserves a marker.

Keep animal off-view notes honest

Animals go off exhibit for breeding, weather, seasonal temperature thresholds or habitat maintenance. A guest who walks twenty minutes to the furthest corner of the park only to find a plywood barrier and a laminated sign feels the trip was wasted.

A living web map lets guest services mark a temporary closure before the gates open. You can keep the habitat polygon or marker on the map, update its label or note to state that the animal is off view today, and point visitors to a nearby exhibit that is active. If an entire boardwalk closes for repair, hiding or restyling that route takes two minutes and requires no reprint.

Group check-in and quiet zones

School buses and camp vans rarely enter through the same turnstile as day-ticket families. They need a bus drop-off lane, a group check-in tent, a place to store lunch bins and a clear meeting spot before departure.

Quiet spaces and sensory-friendly rest areas carry equal weight. High-volume halls near touch tanks or indoor aviaries can overwhelm visitors quickly, and a low-noise courtyard or nursing room is only useful if someone can find it in thirty seconds. With Tasmap's built-in search and style filters, a parent can type quiet, stroller or restroom into the map search bar or toggle facility markers on and off without losing their place on the grounds.

Keep a print sheet for the gate

A browser map handles the live schedule, the search bar and the phone screen in bright sun. Some visitors still want a single-page sheet at the membership desk, and volunteers at the gate often keep a laminated copy on a clipboard.

Using the Classic layout in Tasmap, the same map that runs on the website exports as a 300 DPI PDF or PNG in standard paper sizes from A4 up to A0. You maintain one map in the studio, publish the live link for phones and QR signs, and export a fresh print file whenever a major seasonal exhibit opens.

References

Aquarium Map and Daily Presentations, New England Aquarium. Combining floor maps with daily presentation schedules for visitors.
ADA Accessibility Standards, 403 Walking Surfaces, U.S. Access Board. Slope thresholds, clear width and passing space requirements on accessible routes.
ADA Accessibility Standards, 308 Reach Ranges, U.S. Access Board. Forward and side reach standards for interactive kiosks, signage and public controls.