CASE STUDY · GARDENS
More of the garden, for every visitor.
The RHS wants everyone to fall for gardening, and to garden in a way that’s kinder to the planet. At RHS Garden Wisley, HypaSpace helps on both counts: curated trails that lead visitors further, one map for the whole garden, and a clear view of where people really go.
- CLIENT
- Royal Horticultural Society
- The UK’s gardening charity.
- GARDEN
- RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey
- 240 acres, and 1.25 million visitors in 2025.
- TEAM
- The Visit Squad
- Charlotte Fitzgerald, Product Owner, and George Cox, Digital Executive.
01 THE MISSION
A lifelong adventure with gardening, for everyone.
The RHS is the UK’s gardening charity. Its mission is to be there for everyone on their lifelong adventure with gardening, and it has committed to being net positive for nature and people by 2030.
At Wisley, its flagship garden, that comes down to two things the Visit Squad cares about most: a better day for every visitor and a greener way to deliver it.
- BETTER VISITS
More of Wisley, for everyone who comes.
New visitors find their feet. Regulars find somewhere new. Everyone has a reason to come back.
- GREENER BY DESIGN
One map to keep current, and trails with a purpose.
Changes made once, digitally, and trails that bring greener gardening to life.
02 ONE GARDEN, ONE MAP
One source of truth for the whole garden.
Wisley has had apps, online maps and printed maps, each kept up to date on its own. Now the RHS keeps one lifelike digital twin of Wisley and its other gardens, and every visitor sees the same garden, before they arrive and once they’re through the gates.
It’s detailed enough to plan a whole day around, and it stops short of giving the garden away.
It gives people an accurate sense of what they’ll see when they come without actually spoiling the magic of when they arrive at the garden.
03 TRAILS THAT GO FURTHER
Trails that take visitors somewhere new.
The RHS wants visitors to reach parts of the garden they might not ordinarily go to, and to enjoy a curated version of Wisley along the way. Trails do exactly that.
George Cox builds them in HypaFlow. He plots the route on the twin, places each stop, then adds the words, photos and audio, most of it drawn from the RHS’s own archive. For the Then and Now Trail, he recorded the audio and had it live on the map within a couple of hours.
The best way that I would describe the experience of using our maps is like when you download a new video game for the first time.
04 GREENER BY DESIGN
A greener garden, and a greener way to explore it.
Sustainability runs through everything the RHS does. At Wisley, a sustainability trail brings it to life alongside the new Greener Skills Garden, a living classroom where people learn to garden with the planet in mind. When the RHS secured funding to encourage greener gardening across a local area of Surrey, the trail was part of the plan.
And because the twin is digital, a new trail or a seasonal change goes live without a print run.
05 INSIGHT ON EVERY VISIT
See where visitors really go.
HypaKnow shows the team where visitors go, where they linger and which trails perform best. George checks it regularly, and walks the team through the dashboard at the end of every sprint.
The heat maps matter well beyond the digital team, too. They can inform accessibility work across the RHS, and even how the garden itself is laid out.
On the trail We’re loving being able to get our hands directly on the insights and data available from the HypaSpace products, and it’s really fascinating to see where people are choosing to navigate to.
06 PART OF THE DAY
Built by the team, sprint by sprint.
When the RHS first saw HypaSpace, it was hard to imagine the team planning and delivering trails themselves. Today it’s routine. Charlotte sets the direction with teams across the RHS, and George turns it into trails, from route and content to photography and audio, then demos the results.
When they have feedback, it’s picked up and built in quickly.
With the software being so easy, it’s really felt that it’s just become an integral part of our day.
07 WHAT’S NEXT
More gardens, more voices, more to explore.
- RHS GARDEN BRIDGEWATER
A trail in two languages.
In English and Chinese, built as two versions so each audience gets a clean, simple trail.
- ACROSS THE RHS
Heat maps for every team.
Shareable heat maps, so accessibility and garden teams can plan from the same picture.
- ON THE GROUND
Volunteers and the map, hand in hand.
Wisley’s expert volunteers, helping more visitors discover the garden with the twin.
BOOK A DEMO
Love at first site.
A 20-minute walkthrough of a live garden twin, then a clear picture of what yours could look like.
FURTHER RESOURCES
The thinking behind the twin.
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ARTICLE Why a paper map is just a glorified souvenir We’ve spent centuries making printed maps better at representing places, but far less time asking whether representing them is enough. Read part 1 → -
COST CALCULATOR What are your paper maps really costing you? Design, print, delivery, reprints, waste. Add your annual print run and see the full cost in under a minute, alongside what a living map would save. Work out your cost → -
WHITE PAPER From broccoli trees to explorable photographs Why Gaussian splatting is changing what a digital map can be, how Apple, Google, Meta and Zillow are using it, and why HypaSpace has built its next generation on it. Read the white paper → -
WHITE PAPER Martyn’s Law: a plan everyone can see What the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act asks of UK venues and events, when it starts, and how a live map of your real site helps you plan, train and communicate. Read the white paper →