St. Louis Digital Media Agency RFP Issued

About The East-West Gateway Council of Governments

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments – The Council is the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and the regional Council of Governments (COG) for the bi-state, eight county St. Louis Region – is seeking a digital media agency. As the MPO for the St. Louis Region, the Council is responsible for developing and adopting plans related to the Region’s surface transportation system.

Goals & Objective

The Council’s goal for this project is to have a new website with content and features that allows the Council to maintain its ability to communicate with and provide information to its stakeholders. The Council serves many constituents who utilize the agency’s website to obtain important information regarding the agency’s activities. For example, many people use the Council’s website to find information about the Transportation Improvement Program, download maps and other reports, and the location / date of important meetings. The Council’s website is the main repository for the work products developed by the agency throughout the year. These work products include: plans, reports, data, maps, presentations, and work program. Additionally, the website is used for meeting announcements, grant applications, and solicitations for goods and services.

Council’s departments, significant projects, as well as reports, documents, and other materials that the Council will make available on its website. The Council intends to review this information and the corresponding content (e.g. text, logo, images) with the Consultant and for the Consultant to make recommendations about needed revisions and the best way to arrange and display the information in order to maximize user experience. The Consultant’s recommendations must be based upon user experience (UX) best practices.

Scope of Work:

• Task #1 – Project Kick-Off, Management & Administration
  The Consultant will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project. The Consultant will meet regularly with the Council throughout the project period. The Consultant submittal must include a proposed project schedule.
• Task #2 – Project Initiation, Planning & Design
  • (a)  Project Initiation- At the beginning of the project, the Consultant will meet with the Council staff in order to ascertain the Council’s needs and objectives in terms of information to be presented on the website, functionality / user features, and the different users of the Council’s website. A
  • (b)  Planning- Based upon the initial meetings and review, the Consultant must provide a project plan that describes the recommended work flow and design process for the project, a description of the facilitation process that will be used for putting content onto the new website (i.e. how will the Council get the Consultant the content it needs for the website? what format should it be in, etc.?), and a description of the process the Consultant will use to put content on the new website.
  • (c)   Design- After the Council and the Consultant have agreed upon the project plan, the Consultant will implement the design, which will include, at a minimum:
    • Sitemap and navigation options.
    • Wireframes that demonstrate content, functionality, special features, and user flow.
    • Recommendations for various elements of the website, including, at a minimum:
      • a color palette, and
      • a theme that reflects the Region’s diversity (e.g. urban / suburban / rural, ethnicities, MO/IL, our rivers, roads, bikes).
• Task #3 –
  • Website Production
    The Consultant will be responsible for developing, testing, and launching the Council’s new website based on the elements approved by the Council in Task 2. The Consultant must also develop and provide a design guidelines document for the website.
  • Website Development
    This task includes the development and finalization of the website templates and layouts. The Consultant will be responsible for populating the new website with content.

Proposal due by July 22, 2016 by 1pm to:

“RFP – #072216-WBDSGN”
c/o Mr. James M. Wild Executive Director
East-West Gateway Council of Governments
1 S. Memorial Drive, Suite 1600
St. Louis, MO 63102-2451

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