The Village of Sussex, located in the Milwaukee Metropolitan area in Waukesha County, is soliciting Requests for Proposals (RFP) from qualified, experienced website design companies to re-design the village website utilizing information on the existing website, as well as new content, products, and features. The Village wishes to enhance the user experience by designing a service-driven website that can serve as a digital town hall for residents while meeting high standards of design quality and visual appeal. The overall goal is to develop a new responsive website, structured around activities rather than departments, with a visual homepage and an “I want to” or “Resident Help Center” section to simplify navigation. The Village seeks the most cost-effective way to achieve the project goals. The re-designed Sussex website will be the public face of the Village government. The Village is interested in the respondents’ ideas for content and approach in achieving the goals listed in the Scope of Work section, and in respondents’ providing alternative solutions, not expressly listed in this RFP. The experienced company should have a team of experts who understand the local government to help us achieve our vision.
Background:
The Village of Sussex is located approximately 19 miles northwest of the City of Milwaukee and is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The village comprises 7.77 square and has a population of 11,047.
The Village is dedicated to maintaining its small-town atmosphere and preserving the high quality of life enjoyed by its residents by providing fiscally sound and responsive municipal services and delivering those services in an effective, efficient and professional manner. Ensuring an adequate supply of quality housing, attracting quality jobs and providing development and other economic opportunities for existing business owners and future entrepreneurs are top priorities.
The Village of Sussex boasts an active Recreation Department and park system, offering a variety of facilities and open spaces, such as neighborhood parks, a large community park, walking, biking, and running trails and conservancy areas. In addition, the Civic Center provides a wide variety of leisure, sports, social, nutritional, cultural, volunteer and leadership opportunities for community members of all ages through dynamic and innovative programming.
Scope of Work:
The Village of Sussex is seeking to enter into a professional services agreement with a qualified vendor to design and implement a new website, as well as host the website in a secure data center. The Village’s emphasis is on improving access to information, modernizing the design and features of the website, and ensuring ADA compliance. The Village has struggled with continuity of design, styles, and themes across pages in the past and is looking for a solution to address this challenge as part of this website re-design. We have also found that it is difficult for residents to find what they are looking for because of the layout, and perhaps too much information. The existing calendar isn’t issuer friendly and requires too many clicks to get to the relevant information. Lastly, the text editor has limited options for sizing and placement of images and isn’t always consistent.
In reviewing the websites of other municipalities, staff identified the following features/design components to consider for use in the Village:
• Icons and Calendar: https://www.oconomowoc-wi.gov/
• What’s New and spotlights: https://www.lenexa.com/
• Dropdown Menu: https://www.menomonee-falls.org/
• Staff Directory: https://www.wauwatosa.net/discover-tosa/advanced-components/list-detail-pages/staff-directory-list
The Village uses separate systems – SeamlessGov and PSN – for online transactions and intends to continue these partnerships unless the new website firm is able to offer an enhanced user experience at a lower cost.
Features
Required Features and Design Components
The information below represents the required functional capabilities on the new website. It is not all-inclusive; other functionality may be recommended or added. The Village’s new website vendor must be able to provide, at a minimum, the components shown.
• Design Continuity – Create a standardized format (font style and size, bullets, etc.) for all pages, thereby establishing a unified theme, but allowing a degree of individuality and/or functionality between Village functions and departments.
• Content Management System – Create a content management system that allows multiple non-technical users to have a responsibility in managing their information in an easy and complete manner. The Village will own all content on site.
• Secure – Provide a secure site that meets emerging industry standard guidelines on privacy and accessibility.
• Responsive Web Design – Create a fully mobile responsive design, meaning the site adjusts to the screen size of all devices it’s being viewed on. This includes calendars, forms, all pages, etc.
• Accessible – Incorporate design elements that make the website ADA Section 508 accessible, easy to navigate, appealing, functional and searchable.
• Alerts & Notifications – Display alerts prominently on the website with notifications sent via email and text messaging to subscribers. Periodic use of a pop-up box or similar function to display notices
• Browser-Based Administration – Update, delete and create content from any device with internet access, including mobile devices.
• Calendar – Update/publish events/meetings to the main calendar with the ability to sort/filter for specific categories such as special events, board meetings, etc.
• Content Scheduling – Set dates for content to automatically publish and expire.
• Directory for Staff and Functions – Ability for citizens to search for contact information for staff or specific functions/buildings (i.e. Public Works Garage, Public Safety Building, Engineering, etc.).
• User-friendly and Visually Appealing Home Page – Home page with a “Latest News” section, calendar, icons that link to frequently visited pages, navigation bar with a dropdown panel, search bar, picture banner, and footer with basic Village information. The information on the homepage must be easy for Village employees to change so that information, icons, and navigation bar may be rotated seasonally.
• Documents and Pictures – Storage capability for files up to 3GB. Back-end ability to search within published and unpublished documents and pictures. Ability to upload documents and pictures on individual pages.
• Bulk Mail – Ability to manage bulk mailings, including contact manager, message manager, HTML banners, and email reports. Users should be able to register for the mailing through then website. The message manager should be user-friendly and easy to customize for non-technical staff.
• Intranet/Extranet – Restrict pages by the login.
• Levels of Rights/Permissions – Allow system administrators to establish levels of rights for staff to update/manage/access content based upon roles. Allow at least 30 unique user accounts.
• Live Edit – Add, edit, and move content on the site without the need to utilize or be trained in writing HTML or CSS code
• Multilingual Support – Using Google Translate or similar to translate content.
• Printable Pages – Print-friendly function.
• Request Tracking – Citizen request system that has an automated workflow and ability to escalate the issue if not completed in the established timeframe. This feature should include exportable statistics and reports.
• RFP/RFQ/Bid Posting – Allow for easy posting of bids to the site along with supplemental documents.
• Rotating Photos/Banners – Slideshow capabilities with a user-friendly interface that allows text to be added to the pictures. The pictures should link to other pages with more information.
• Site Search – Internal dynamic site search engine and log of search terms include the ability to search OCR PDF files.
• Search Engine Optimization – Follow best practices for search engine optimization. Work to address any search engine linking issues from the website transition.
• Web analytics – The Village intends to use Google Analytics for this purpose. The successful design company will need to work with the Village to ensure this is working properly.
• Sitemap & Breadcrumbs – Automatically generated and updated sitemap and breadcrumbs.
• Custom Mobile App – Citizen-facing mobile app that displays the latest news, calendar, and other frequently visited pages on the website. The ability to rotate the information and icons available on this app without assistance or re-design by the website developer. An optional feature would be the ability to send push notifications through the app.
• Online Job Postings – The ability to post position information and applicable attachments such as job descriptions on the website and link to job application materials.
Optional Features
The features below are not required by the Village at this time, however, please include information and availability of integration now or in the future.
• Online Job Postings and Application – Applicants can create an online profile, fill out the application, and attach additional documents. This information is easy to navigate by Village employees in a database on the backend and can be downloaded. The ability to track the status of recruitments and specific applicants (interview, hired, etc.) is preferred. The Village would also like to establish permission levels for employees that could change based on the recruitment. For example, the hiring committee can only access the materials for their recruitment and not all recruitments or all information in the database.
• Frequently Asked Questions – Ability to post FAQs and categorize by department or page. These FAQs should be easily searchable.
• Agenda Management – Upload existing, create new, categorize, approve, and manage agendas. The ability to add an electronic signature when approved is ideal.
• Citizen Sourcing Tools – Allow for citizen idea submission, discussion, voting, etc.
• Recreation Management Software – A recreation management software that has the capability for online customer enrollment in programs and facility rental, facility/room management and master calendar that interfaces with Outlook, event enrollment (including ticketing abilities), POS module, league management, and export data entry to Excel and InDesign. Ideally, this module would also address the Village’s needs for day camp including, the ability to create counselor groups, bus lists, track allergies/medications, etc.
• Video Center – Live streaming video capabilities.
• Online Forms – Create unlimited customizable forms, track and export results.
• E-Communication platform – Create unlimited subscriber lists, and communicate over multiple channels – website, email, text, push notifications, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Nextdoor, Instagram) from a single point of access. Ability to customize the messaging based on the platform.
• Administrator Mobile App – Mobile app to access CMS features which allows the administrator to easily add information to the “Latest News” section of the website.
The Village is interested in receiving information about other content and/or feature options your company can provide that are not included in the list above. The Village encourages respondents to submit their ideas for content, their approach for re-designing the site and style of the site and to propose alternative recommendations.
Content Components
Content will come from existing webpages, as well as new information provided by staff and/or developed with the assistance of the selected consultant. A broad range of information will be accessible through the Village website, including, but not limited to the items listed above. It is critically important that these features are easy to manage and update by non-technical staff at the Village without assistance from the selected consultant. Firms should include in their proposal the full cost to migrate information, pictures, documents, etc. from the existing website to the new website.
Design Components
The design includes the conceptual development for the look and format of the site and the scope of information and identification of how pages will be accessed. It includes accessibility, interactivity, search capabilities, ADA compliance, and is to be developed as a content management system so that the Village of Sussex can update and change content easily. The Village strives for the highest degree of professionalism and the best possible use of current technologies in the design of the site. Included in the design phase of this project will be regular meetings and updates with the Village of Sussex designated staff, which may be conducted remotely. The following basic design components should be incorporated:
1. Use of unified or common themes.
a. The basic design package will include scrolling latest news information, drop-down banner, logos, icons, and menu, action buttons for the main page design. These features will be adaptable for each subsequent page on the site.
b. The site will have a unified graphics theme and a consistent and unique color theme throughout the entire site.
c. It is important that it is apparent that it is the Village’s website on every page, but this has to be balanced with the desire for each page to have a certain amount of flexibility to meet its specific needs.
2. Provide a user-friendly site.
a. The site will use logical and intuitive navigation and links.
b. The site should be designed for use on major web browsers and mobile devices.
c. The site should not overwhelm the user with visual clutter.
d. The design should be accessible to all individuals.
e. The site design must be useable, offering a quick and easy way to locate information, without requiring the user to understand the government structure or organization.
f. Web pages should be tested at various modem speeds to ensure each webpage can be accessed in a timely manner.
3. Content management.
a. The site must have a cloud-based content management system, where authorized staff can update web pages from individual workstations and mobile devices, without requiring additional software.
b. The content management system must be hierarchical, allowing certain supra-users and various permissions for sub-users who can update certain pages, but not publish without review and other pages where the same sub-user may have the ability to directly publish content.
Due Date:
August 7th, 2019.
Address:
kmcelroy@villagesussex.org and copy lniswonger@villagesussex.org
Agencies worth considering include Hunter PR and Small Girls PR.