Design, UX, and user testing of the Discover Uni Beta website to support prospective HE students

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The Office for Students manages the Discover Uni website on behalf of the four UK higher education funding and regulatory bodies. We are seeking to make improvements to the beta to incorporate new data and content, as well as enhance existing design and functionality in response to user feedback. The core data-design development work needs to be completed, informed by user testing, by mid-April 2020 Problem to Be Solved We need to: 1. Make it easier for users to take away key messages from the data on courses pages, and to incorporate a new graduate outcomes dataset 2. Make the home page, search and content landing pages, more visually appealing (e.g. introducing colour while retaining visual simplicity) 3. Revise the information architecture and design to incorporate additional content (clearing, course transfer) 4. Improve the course comparison facility. The design and testing for the first three need to be completed by mid-April 2020. We also require 2-3 days per month design resource for small enhancements to call off as needed Who Are the Users As a potential applicant to higher education courses in the UK, I need to be able to easily navigate the website information, engage with a range of data insight, to understand what it is telling me and how it can help me compare courses, so that I can make informed course choices. OfS needs to be confident that the information and data insight prospective students access on the Discover Uni website is easier to take key messages from, with reduced potential for misinterpretation Early Market Engagement User-feedback identifies the need to retain the simplicity of the overall design and the introduction of more colour. Users want to be able to better compare multiple courses and to more easily understand the data-based insight provided (the data-based insight is evolving). The design ideas (e.g. infographics, page layout options) need to achieve more meaningful presentation of the data and will need to be researched/tested.   User-feedback indicates a need for advice on information architecture, user-journeys and tracking/monitoring user-journeys. Guidelines mean designs must fit house style, accessibility guidelines (we are WCAG 2.01 AA compliant) and be responsive/suitable for mobile use, and page-text needs to appear consistently in Welsh language version. Designs for data presentation need to be researched/tested with users reflecting a mix of demographics and other user characteristics from across the UK Work Already Done User-centred research and testing informed the Discover Uni beta website launched in 2019. Time constraints meant work on website design, look and feel and presentation of data insight was not completed as planned. Findings from previous user research and feedback and guidance on parameters for the design work will be provided, along with some design assets for reference/as potential starting points for testing/designs. Designs need to be provided in suitable formats required by the website developers. Existing Team The OfS will provide product ownership, analyst and content management roles to work with the team. Development is outsourced and some liaison with hosting and development supplier may be required. Some resource/facility for user-surveys will be available Current Phase Live Work Location No specific location, supplier can work remotely. Office for Students is based at Nicholson House, Lime Kiln Close, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8SR Working Arrangments The supplier is expected to work closely with OfS team, undertake some travel and conduct user research/testing off-site (potentially across UK). There is no separate budget for travel costs or expenses so this should be included in the overall project costs Security Clearance None applicable Additional T&Cs None Skills & Experience Experience of designing services which present complex data sets and insight in an engaging and informative way to users with varying levels of interest and understanding of statistical information (35) Experience of research with users, ideally focused on the target student audience (20) Be able to deploy the effective, experienced team members with the range of UX, design and user testing skills to start work no later than 23rd March 2020 (20) Able to bring information architecture skills/experience to optimise content engagement and user journeys (15) Experience of designing and developing digital services and meeting the WCAG 2.1 and Digital Service Standard (10) Nice to Haves Experience of working with the UK education/higher education sector Experience of digital design for HE pre-applicant/applicant audiences Experience of user testing/research and designing for school leavers (16-18-year olds), mature students and teachers Able to provide expertise/skills to support continued improvement using Google analytics, user journey analytics and user feedback Understanding of student data and HE information Evidence of successfully using video, images and other media to enhance websites No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria How the approach meets our needs and those of our users (30) Previous experience and work designing for data-based insight presentation (15) Costs and value for money (20) Team structure, knowledge and experience (10) Proposed timescales for the work (15) Ability to carry out research and testing with a broad range of users on a UK-wide basis (10) Cultural Fit Criteria How they work as a team and collaboratively with our organisation and other suppliers where necessary Shares knowledge and experience with clients, is transparent and collaborative when making decisions and solving problems Takes responsibility for delivering to agreed timescales and for the quality of their work Able to demonstrate the value of their approach and understanding of the importance/value of data insight and analytics Able to demonstrate they understand the importance of impartiality and clarity in the provision of information and advice for users Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range £40k to £60k inclusive of vat