Due Daye: May 31, 2023
I. Project Description
Overview (Introduction and Scope of Project)
The City of Mukilteo requests a Letter of Interest and a Proposal from experienced website design firms to redesign, develop, and implement a new City website utilizing content on the existing website, as well as new information and features as suggested by the City.
The procedures for awarding this project will follow the guidelines outlined in RCW 39.04.270, Competitive Negotiations. The proposals will be evaluated on the criteria listed on page 7.
The City desires to create a professional, modernized website to serve as a positive first impression of the city, enhance user experience, simplify content management, and provide better information and customer service to residents, businesses, visitors, and the general community while meeting high standards for design quality and visual appeal.
Currently, the City has multiple staff members from different departments who work on the City website.
The City intends to continue this practice for the foreseeable future.
The City of Mukilteo seeks the assistance of a firm that can accomplish the functionality identified in this Request for Proposals and the capability of integrating additional features that may be needed in the future.
Some of the goals of the new website are to provide simple and intuitive electronic access to public services and information, serve as a public communications tool, and to streamline business operations with a responsive web design. Additionally, the City would like the redesigned site to minimize the repetition of content and better support e-government transactions such as online permits, online forms, applications, and digital public records requests.
The redesigned site should promote the city in a welcoming, friendly, and professional manner.
The redesigned site should be comprehensive, dynamic, interactive, functional, intuitive, easy to
maintain, expandable, consistent, and include a site map. The City seeks the most cost-effective way to achieve the project’s goals and is interested in the respondents’ ideas for new content and approach in achieving these goals.
An award of contract for the successful bidder is anticipated to take place on July 1, 2023.
We would like the redesigned website to go live by December 31, 2023.
The City also expects to work collaboratively with the selected consultant on this project.
Background
Mukilteo is a waterfront community situated on Puget Sound in southern Snohomish County,
about 25 miles north of Seattle. This scenic area has views of the Olympic Mountains to the
west and the Northern Cascade Mountains to the north and east.
The City provides police and fire services, street improvements and maintenance, community development services, general administrative services, and parks and recreation management.
The City also owns and operates a storm water utility.
Mukilteo, a Native American name that over time became known as “a good camping ground,”
is the site where the Point Elliott Treaty was signed by Governor Isaac Stevens and representatives of 22 Native American tribes in 1855. The first European settlement in the County was established on the northern point of Mukilteo in 1858. Pioneers to Mukilteo developed a trading post, lumber mill, cannery, and a port of entry for trading ships.
The City was incorporated in 1947 with a population of 775. In 1980, an area to the south of theCity boundaries was annexed, which was followed by the 1991 annexation of Harbour Pointe, a
master-planned community that included a shopping center and an award-winning public golf course. The Harbour Pointe annexation almost doubled the city’s population from 6,900 to 13,000 and increased the city’s area to 6.6 square miles.
Mukilteo is home to the historic 1906 Mukilteo Light Station, located within Lighthouse Park which offers an accessible beach, picnic area, and boat launch. The Light Station is available for touring and special events. The City is also a regional transportation hub for the Washington State Ferry System which connects Mukilteo to Clinton on Whidbey Island.
Today the City’s population has grown to over 21,000, and its diverse, multi-cultural residents continue to share a great sense of pride, history, and tradition of community involvement.
Mukilteo amenities include quaint shopping areas, restaurants, financial institutions, and several parks and open spaces for recreational opportunities. The City is also a neighbor to the Boeing Company, Paine Field Regional Airport, and other major employers along a technology corridor that reaches from northern King County through Mukilteo.
Whether a “good camping ground” or a place to call home, Mukilteo affords its citizens the opportunity to live, work, and play in a beautiful community of the Pacific Northwest.
Project Components – Scope of Work
The website design and development shall include the following elements and activities leading
up to final implementation:
• Development of a new website design with a simplified user-friendly format and layout that serves as a marketing tool for the city.
• Incorporation of new graphics and photos to produce an overall pleasing visual appeal.
- Initial design to be approved by City prior to full site content being developed.
• Create a consistent and standardized format and enhanced graphical look for all pages.
• Updates of information and content to website should be easily accomplished by nontechnical City staff and/or experienced contracted webmaster using non-complex interface software such as a Content Management System (CMS).
• Provide the capability of ‘user interactive’ features such as video streaming, picture slide show, user comment/question submittal, online form submittal, etc.
• Vendor will be responsible for maintaining web services and keeping the website up to date with changing standards.
• The following design elements and capabilities will be required for the website:
1. Professional and clean overall theme and layout, initial design to be approved by City staff.
2. User-friendly navigation bars and menus that are easily updated by non-technical City staff and/or experienced contracted webmasters.
3. Capable of incorporating video/picture streaming.
4. Simple non-complex Content Management System that can be updated by City and/or contracted staff.
5. Ability to post emergency notifications that show each time the site is entered.
6. Website design should follow industry best practices for security, be PCI compliant, and must pass vulnerability scanning tests.
7. Ability to publicly archive City news releases, newsletters, minutes, and any other Edocuments.
8. Allow for interactivity. Include e-mail response, surveys, feedback, online forms, online payments, inspection requests, and access to various event calendars. The designer must incorporate the ability for users to complete interactive online forms for such tasks as membership, event attendance, permit applications, and more.
9. Graphic and/or image files should be relative to the site. Design with simplicity to allow for quickest loading. Web pages should be tested to ensure compatibility with the major website browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, etc.), browser versions, and devices with varying load speeds (dial-up – fiber optic) to ensure each webpage can be accessed in a timely manner.
10. Compatible and accessible with most mainstream mobile/smart phone devices, RWD (Responsive Web Design), and W3C compliant.
11. Ability to embed social media posts from City Twitter, Facebook accounts, etc.
12. Ability to have functionality with third-party programs.
13. Provide detailed page-level analytics including traffic sources. Maintenance software which includes reporting functions would be valuable.
14. Form Printing. A number of static forms will be available for printing. Website may have links for opening and viewing these documents. Site should also have ability to use fillable forms and submit them through the website.
15. Website must comply with ADA standards. (Section 508 – https://www.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/)
16. Retain current site URL.
17. Although the City has some specific requirements, we are also interested in your ideas for content, and more specifically, your approach in redesigning the style of the City website. We encourage respondents to consider and propose alternative solutions, recommendations, and improvements.
18. Transfer relevant content from the existing City site to the new site. Archive any
remaining data.