www.newcollege.ac.uk website design refresh

Tender description

Summary of the work New College Swindon seeks a refresh of our website design for www.newcollege.ac.uk. The project must incorporate audience/stakeholder research to help inform website architecture, functionality, usability and design. We require the new website to meet key accessibility (e.g. W3C compliancy) requirements. The scope of work covers: Design, SEO and Site Strategy. Latest start date 01/11/2016 Why the Work is Being Done New College Swindon is seeking to commission a refresh of our website design for www.newcollege.ac.uk. The New College website does not currently meet the expectations or needs of its online audience and is not vibrant enough to appeal to our younger audiences and attract mature students and corporate audiences. Problem to Be Solved Problems fall within three main areas: Design - The user experience on the site is poor and inconsistent. Finding information, searching, viewing and applying for courses is not easy on the current website. We don’t have any user feedback or market research to inform the necessary design changes to improve the user experience. Site Strategy - The current website has approximately 14 separate sites promoting various courses and initiatives. We would like to evaluate whether to merge these with the main website, or for them to remain separate. Search Engine Optimisation - is under-utilised and we have limited experience in-house. Who Are the Users Y11 student - I would like to find out about life at New College and why I should choose it over sixth form. Also, which courses should I study in order to have a career in Journalism. Adult learner - I would like to know if you offer cookery courses and how I make an application (online or finding a time when I can come speak to an advisor). Prospective HE learner - I would like to find out more about fees and funding Parent of prospective student - I would like guidance on choosing A Levels with my son/daughter. Existing Team The supplier will work with internal New College teams: Marketing team, IT Web and Development team, other internal New College teams as appropriate. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Have experience designing websites • Be capable of producing mobile-first, responsive design. Meeting W3C accessibility criteria. • Have experience with SEO • Be able to carry out user research and testing • Be able to carry out client engagement meetings with key stakeholders, the organisation, and current users. Nice to Haves • Experience designing website for Education. Specifically Further and Higher Education • Experience of delivering a design using a living style guide – a library of patterns and components. Work Location New College Swindon, New College Drive, Swindon, SN3 1AH Working Arrangments For project initiation, client engagement meetings, and progress meetings we would expect you to come to our main campus - New College, Queens Drive, Swindon, SN3 1AH. After this design work can be done offsite. The cost of attending any meeting or performing tasks on New College premises shall be borne exclusively by the supplier. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 4 Proposal Criteria • Technical solution • Approach and methodology • How the Approach or solution meets user needs • How the Approach or solution meets the organisations goal Cultural Fit Criteria Work as a team with our organisation Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 45% Cultural fit 10% Price 45% Questions from Suppliers 1. Could you provide an estimate budget range and contract duration? We didn't originally set a budget range as we wanted to get as full as range of quotes as possible. The tentative budget for this is £25k and is already in place. However, where appropriate, for the right solution this could be extended.We would expect the work to be completed by 31st March 2017 2. Good morning - do you have a budget in mind for this project? and do you have a timeframe for the project must be completed in? We didn't originally set a budget range as we wanted to get as full as range of quotes as possible. The tentative budget for this is £25k and is already in place. However, where appropriate, for the right solution this could be extended.We would expect the work to be completed by 31st March 2017. 3. Do you have a budget already in place for this work? And if so, can you please share what the range that this is? We didn't originally set a budget range as we wanted to get as full as range of quotes as possible. The tentative budget for this is £25k and is already in place. However, where appropriate, for the right solution this could be extended.We would expect the work to be completed by 31st March 2017. 4. Is this project phase include development/build of the website as well, or would that be a separate phase/budget/timeline? There are two options we would like included in any proposal. Both are included within the same project, timescale and budget.Option 1High-fidelity design for the Website which will be built, implemented and integrated into CMS by our in-house development team. No front-end code is expected to be delivered. Delivered using Photoshop files, including assets, or a similar approach.Option 2High-fidelity design for the Website. Front-end code and assets delivered using a living style guide or pattern library. Implementation/integration carried out by our in-house development team. 5. What is the current technology and CMS used? Do you have any preferences for technology platforms (e.g. CMS, other systems that need to be integrated)? We don’t require any consultancy on our backend technology stack or CMS, as this is a design and frontend project only. We are not looking to change our current CMS. Any integration with other systems will be implemented by our in-house development team. The current technology and CMS is as follows:Linux server, with the classic LAMP stack, Apache, MariaDB and PHP.The College uses Craft CMS as our CMS solution. Information is available here, https://craftcms.com/Themes are developed in-house and based on the Bootstrap CSS framework. 6. 1. What decision making process will New College follow for evaluation and approval of designs and final deliverables? 2. Who will be involved in that process? And who will have authority for final approval? We would expect prospective suppliers to outline their approach to the design process and how they would ensure it would meet user needs and organisational goals, the approach and methodology used is one of the criteria against which suppliers will be evaluated. We would expect the design process to be evolved and refined through a series of client engagement meetings where key stakeholders will be represented. Final sign off of the design and approval will rest with the College's Head of Marketing. 7. 1. For SEO, our assumption is the supplier is to provide the HTML that will be helpful with SEO optimisation. Please confirm. 2. We assumption the VLE portal is not part of the scope for this re-development. Please confirm. 1. We would expect the SEO work to be a strategy and best practice guide, focusing on how to maximize SEO when creating content. This shouldn’t focus on HTML markup which as we understand it has a lower weighting in search engines.2. It will be the main www.newcollege.ac.uk website. There are additional sites beneath this, and whether these are included within the work will be decided when the project is scoped. The VLE portal is not part of the scope for this re-design. 8. Do you have an existing HTML/CSS Style Guide for your website that we will need to expand on, or will this be an entirely new deliverable? This will be an entirely new deliverable 9. Do you require any new HTML/CSS to be built on the Bootstrap CSS framework, or are you looking for our recommendations to ensure the most maintainable HTML/CSS code for your website. We would be open to any suggestions or recommendations you may have. 10. Did your internal development team build the original website in Craft CMS, or was this done by an external agency and your development team simply maintains it? What level of expertise does your internal development team have in Craft CMS and HTML/CSS in general? The internal development team built the original website on Craft CMS. They also maintain it. They are highly proficient at Craft CMS and expert in HTML/CSS. 11. Approximately how many key stakeholders do you have at New College Swindon, whom we will need to interview as part of this project. Exact groups and numbers will be confirmed when the project is scoped. We expect there to be two main groups:External users – current students, Y11s in schools, parents, etc.Internal users – marketing, student services, customer services and a general group made up of representatives from other college departments.