The vision is to have an attractive, easy to navigate website that will be intuitive for new students and their families to use and that will encourage engagement. Secondarily, current students will be able to easily locate the information and services they require; donors, potential donors, and alumni will quickly access pages important to them; and employees can navigate services and resources they need. The new site will reinforce the University’s visual branding and identity guidelines. Additionally, the new site will provide administrators with the ability to monitor and track analytics on viewers’ behaviors. All website solutions are welcomed for any required functionality or features. The ideal web platform solution is an open source software. The existing SE website is built on WordPress.
Background:
Southeastern is a public four-year university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees delivered in both the traditional classroom setting and through online courses. The design, navigation and programming of our current site is outdated. Southeastern seeks to overhaul the design, structure, and functionality of its website to be responsive on multiple devices and screens, including desktop, tablet and smartphone. The vendor will develop a new website with the primary goal of increasing enrollment. In addition to graphic design, navigation, and CMS integration, the vendor will provide guidance and assistance throughout the entire process, including concept development, gathering stakeholder input, construction, migration of content, testing, training for key website content editors, and implementation of maintenance methods.
Scope of Work:
The scope of work requires a complete overhaul of the existing website. The need is a full and complete redesign from discovery to launch. The project proposal should include everything that is necessary for the delivery of a website that is visually attractive and functions well. These are a few things we expect to see addressed in the vendor response: process for finalizing the visual design, specific technology/development (front-end and back-end), information architecture, user experience, content strategy, content organization, content development (such as copy, photography, and/or video production), content migration/uploading, and more.
The final product will include the following features:
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Database Driven Website
- Contact Form(s) (custom code or third-party application)
- Multimedia Integration (graphics, photography, video, etc.)
- Scheduling/Appointment Software (embed/link out to legacy software)
- Events Calendar (one central calendar, customizable for multiple departments)
- Directory
- Short URLs (this is not to include sub-domain names)
- Interactive Campus Map
- RSS feed for breaking news and alerts
- News/Press Releases
Design and Navigation
The website needs a modern, visually-pleasing design appropriate for an institution of higher education that includes, but not limited to:
- Ease of use and intuitive navigability
- Consistent and logical organization of pages and use of nomenclature across all pages
- Functionality for online and mobile course registration, online and mobile admissions and scholarship applications, and mobile-friendly calendars
- Integration of the University’s primary social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram into its web presence
- Responsive design for functionality on mobile devices
- Creative integration of SE’s visual branding and identity guidelines
Search Engine Optimization
Ensure University website exposure by adhering to the latest search engine optimization best practices and submitting page and sitemap information to all popular search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Safari, etc.) while allowing integration with social media platforms.
Due Date:
September 30th
Address:
Shift Communications and W2O Group are worth considering.