And Then There Were Three Finalists
Last week, three Web firms were selected by the Vendor Proposal Review Advisory Group to come to campus on October 10 and 17 and on November 10 to present their Web redesign proposals in person. The presentations will be made to the advisory group as well as members of the college’s Administrative Leadership Group (directors from across the college).
We can’t express enough our gratitude to the advisory group for all their hard work in reviewing the seven vendor proposals submitted in response to the Web redesign RFP. Advisory group members had to be very familiar with the 21 page RFP and had to read through and score vendor proposals ranging in length from 50-60 plus pages. No small task to say the least given the technical nature of the RFP and submitted proposals.
The college was very fortunate to have such a competitive pool of redesign proposals to review. Putting together a proposal in response to an RFP is no small task for any company since it usually involves multiple staff and many hours of work to produce. So we are very appreciative of all the time and effort extended by each Web firm!
So not to delay any further, here are the three finalists who will be on campus in October and November for on-site presentations.
BigBad (Boston, Mass.)
www.bigbad.com
October 10
mStoner (Chicago & Woodstock, Vt.)
www.mstoner.com
October 17
BarkleyREI (Pittsburgh, PA)
www.barkleyrei.com
November 10 (tentative)
The on-site presentations will be open by invitation only. With that said, once a finalist is chosen for the redesign project, there will be plenty of opportunity for the campus to offer feedback and input. During the redesign’s discovery phase, the vendor chosen for the project will be on campus for several days meeting with faculty and staff from across the college.
We also invite you to use this blog’s commenting capability to leave your thoughts and feedback on items of particular interest to you relating to the redesign.
Web Redesign RFP Out the Door
Earlier today the Web Redesign Request for Proposal (RFP) was mailed to 12 vendors who have expressed an interest in submitting a project proposal. The deadline for responses is August 4. All of the vendors have worked on higher education Web sites and several have experience in multiple industries (tourism, health care, financial, among others).
An advisory group will assist College Communications and Marketing in reviewing the submitted vendor proposals and narrow the selection to three finalists. The finalists will then be invited to campus for onsite proposal presentations.
The following faculty, staff, and student will review the proposals.
- Adam Albina, CIO, Office of Information Technology
- Anne Botteri, Asst. VP, College Communications and Marketing
- John Dillon, Assistant Librarian/Head of Tech Services, Geisel Library
- Fr. Mathias Durette, O.S.B., Asst. Dean of Students, Student Affairs
- Nancy Griffin, Dean of Admission, Office of Admisison
- Doug Minor, Director of Web Publishing, College Communications and Marketing
- Prof. Jay Pitocchelli, Chair, Biology Department
- Laura Rossi, Web Producer and Editor, College Communications and Marketing
- Cory True ‘09, Politics Major, Student Representative
Listed below are many of the key elements included in the RFP
Redesign goals and objectives
- Provide a consistent look and feel across all newly designed pages
- Improve the design and navigation of the top level of the site, while representing the college in a consistent and compelling manner
- Information categories are consistent across similar pages
- Select and deploy a new content management system (CMS)
- Improve the user experience for all visitors with specific emphasis on prospective students and on-campus users (current students, faculty, and staff)
- Present a highly interactive user experiences (using current technologies, including blogs, podcasts, viral video, virtual tours, photo galleries, wikis, etc.)
- Improve the site’s “sticky-ness” to produce return visits and increased time on the site
- Enhance the student recruitment process
- Simplified maintenance of site for all content editors
- Search engine optimization for higher and lower level pages.
Site hosting, requirements, and functionality
- Site hosting can be done on a Windows, Linux, or Unix platform
- Site must adhere to currently accepted Web and accessibility standards, specifically follow W3C standards for XHTML transitional and accessibility requirements as outlined in U.S. section 255 guidelines and Section 508 standards, as well as WCAG 2.0 issued by the W3C consortium
- Server and CMS platform that integrates with current campus technology and systems
- CMS should feature cross-platform compatibility and browser-based editing
- Considerations should be made for the increase use of the Web from mobile devices
- Externally accessible, Web-based events calendar, that supports online submission of events, subcalendars, RSS feeds, iCal and Outlook posting capabilities, and content syndication or tagging for use across the site
- Consideration of how the site can leverage Web 2.0 approaches and technology: social networking, blogging, podcasting, viral video, content tagging, wikis, and additional interactive features.
Vendor deliverables
- Detailed production schedule with listed milestones
- Clearly defined Web redesign strategy
- A site audit of current site (including current information architecture and content inventory), college resources, and staffing
- Technology audit and technology strategy/technical specifications for hosting new CMS, non-CMS sites, database server(s), and multimedia content (audio, video, and digital assets)
- New design including original artistic elements, graphics, logos, wireframes, color palette, and three site design concepts
- Design standards and a plan for implementing them consistently
- Design and respective coding for homepage and interior, lower-level pages
- Design and coding for specialty sites: admission, NHIOP, academics, academic departments, athletics, library, Dana Center, Chapel Art Center, news, campus calendar, campus map, and virtual tour
- Style guide
- Redesign project/client site for tracking project deliverables, status, and reporting bugs.
Web redesign projects of this size are typically broken out into five stages
- Discovery - The “get to know us” phase. This phase is all about gathering data about the college as well as our current Web presence. The vendor will visit the campus for two or more days, meet with groups across campus, survey college constituents, gather any completed market research we’ve done, review existing print publications and college competitors, among other areas
- Strategy - The discovery phase informs the strategy phase. A comprehensive plan is put together outlining our approach to the redesign, including content, approaches to information architecture, technology, messaging, among other details
- Design - The strategy phase informs the design phase. During this phase, design comps are created for the home page and interior pages. Focus groups and acceptance testing are used to identify issues and opportunities with the designs
- Build - During the build phase, all the pieces come together: technology, design, information architecture (site navigational structure), and content (text, images, multimedia). Existing content from the current site’s CMS is migrated into the new CMS
- Testing and deployment - During this phase the site is run through quality assurance testing as well as usability testing to catch issues before launch. After QA testing is complete the site is publicly launched.