Digital RFP Issued For Bay Area Air Quality

Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued an RFP for a digital agency to do a Website Redesign for Spare the Air.

Background

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District was created by the California Legislature in 1955 as the first regional agency to deal with air pollution in California. The Air District jurisdiction includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, southwestern Solano and southern Sonoma counties. Air quality in the Bay Area has improved dramatically since the late 1960s, due in large part to the success of the Air District’s industrial program and California’s strict tail-pipe emission standards. However, the region still experiences excesses of the federal ozone (smog) and particulate standards, and continues to exceed the more stringent health-based California air quality standards.

The Spare the Air program was established by the Air District in 1991 to educate residents about the effects of air pollution, encourage actions to improve air quality in the Bay Area, and provide notice when a “Spare the Air Alert” is in effect. The Air District declares Spare the Air Alerts on days when air quality is forecast to be unhealthy.

Scope of Work:

Current Website Audit and Assessment

Assess the existing Spare the Air website, including content, information architecture, design, usability, and accessibility.

Deliverables include formal presentation of the following:

• Analysis of current website and definition of metrics for measuring success.
• User profiles and audience analysis
• Sitemaps, wireframes, and other information architecture documentation
• Development of project requirements and creative briefs.

Complete Site Redesign

Design a public-facing website that provides a creative, compelling, engaging, and consistent design. New design should significantly improve the user experience. Deliverables include:

• Formal presentation to the Air District team of a minimum of three variations of design comps in draft and approved phases.
• Develop corresponding front end templates and resources (HTML, CSS, JS, etc.)

Detailed Description of Components and Functionality Requirements

• Reorganization of the information architecture to improve site navigation and usability. This includes redevelopment of the strategies and methods of content delivery as well as providing for a fully functional and streamlined user experience.
• Implementation of a new user interface design and page templates that promote engagement, ease of navigation, and consistency. Includes design components and coordination for graphic and (non-stock) photographic assets.
• Redesign of existing components including but not limited to: Air Quality Index (AQI) visuals for 2-day and 5-day forecasts with either (a) determination of user location based on user entered zip code or (b) new geo-targeted functionality (this project task will require an initial phase of analysis for required technicalcomponents of geo-targeted data and end user location correlated with the Air District’s air quality zones), rotating news, alerts, and widgets. Design for dynamic components must be completed within the parameters of the existing frameworks.
• Improved standardization of content to comply with web standards, accessibility, multi-browser compatibility, printer-friendly views, and multi-device compatibility. Documentation of site standards should include a style guide and technical design document.
• Implementation of landing page and microsite functionality, to allow for ongoing campaign development and management. Includes (1) an initial phase of analysis for the tool(s), (2) specification of requirements and an implementation plan, (3) the design of modules to allow for streamlined creation of ongoing campaigns, and (4) collaboration with the Air District and maintenance vendor to enable the components and functionality in the Sitecore CMS that manage microsites and landing pages. Scalability and extensibility of the Spare the Air website as well as subsequent microsites and landing pages is important.
• Improved integration and redesign of features/components including, but not limited to: more visual components / icons and a reduction of text, prioritized content and content tagging, community specific pages, strong social media integration, improved multimedia integration and syndication, mobile app integration, integration of existing mapping components (as-is, with no design / interface changes to the current source content), preliminary work on integration of existing real time air quality data (as-is, with no design / interface changes to the current source content), third-party integrations, and other site features as identified through project execution.
• Design for front end handling of translated content. The Air District has the necessary technical integration and translation vendor services in place and in use on the baaqmd.gov website – the Air District would like to extend this functionality to the Spare the Air website.
• Continuation of existing Amazon based sales services integrated into the new design and website structure.
• New event display functionality. This project task will require assessment and recommendations from the selected vendor, plus scope definition and integration with the CMS.
• Corresponding email blast design to match the new Spare the Air website within the parameters of the existing email blast system which utilizes Exact Target and a modular template framework within Sitecore. The Air District will provide wireframes and documentation for the existing framework.
• Improved performance to minimize website response times for uploading and downloading content.
• Improved analytics and reports.

Due Date: May 30, 2017

Address:  Helen Le, Office Assistant II

Bay Area Air Quality Management District

375 Beale Street, Suite 600

San Francisco, CA 94105

Strong San Francisco PR firms include Shift Communications and Burson Marsteller.