Website Redesign Services

The Vendor is required to provide to redesign the current public-facing (internet) website and develop a framework to improve and maintain content designed for prospective students, current students, and community users.
- Creating a user-centric digital experience with an intuitive navigation structure, updated content strategy, modern design standards, and an agile technical deployment that can adapt to changing user needs.
- Must be fully compatible with and deployable within the WordPress (WP) content management system (CMS) and hosted on the WP Engine WordPress hosting platform to meet or exceed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and federal and state compliance requirements for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- Current Agency Website Background Information and Problem Statement:
•    Unclear Governance: It is important to establish an inclusive shared governance structure to update outdated web policies, set priorities that align with college wide goals, and clarify roles and responsibilities to ensure we are efficient and effective in our work.
•    Too BIG: The austincc.edu domain houses 300 websites and 270,000 web pages, creating redundancies and confusion, and making it difficult to maintain and ensure ADA compliance.
•    Confusing: Navigation, design, and content are inconsistent in places, often designed for the office/department instead of the end-user. This creates a disconnected, confusing experience; redundancies; and/or gaps of information.
•    Systems Misalignment: The College’s website has multiple systems that require unique journeys and processes, creating a complicated user experience, misaligned data, and potential security concerns.
•    Separation of Intranet and Internet Lacking: There is not a clear distinction between public-facing (external) and private (internal) web content—mixing public and private information adds to user frustration, minimizes marketing efforts like search engine optimization (SEO), and increases security risks.
- Improve Functionality and Security
•    KPIs must include, but are not limited to, the following:
o    User testing and satisfaction scores show positive change compared to pre-design baseline.
o    Search engine optimization (on-page and off-page SEO) performance.
o    Reduce user error rate.
o    Faster page load times.
o    Reach 100% responsive design and testing practices.
o    Increase conversion rates (visitors taking desired action), such as clicks to calls to action (e.g., learn more, apply now, request information, etc.).
o    Reduce overall security incident rate.
o    Retain compatibility with approved in-house developed plugins and tools.
- System Functionality Requirements:
•    Systems integration (forms, events calendar, interactive campus maps, really simple syndication [RSS] feed, etc.),
•    Filter functionality (events, categories, departments),
•    Searchable,
•    Supports images, video, and interactive “shopping experience” for programs,
•    Refresh presentation for interactive displays, such as charts, video, testimonials, award plans, and career salary information,
•    What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editing capabilities,
•    Retains support and developer-focused tools for approved in-house plugin and tools development projects (both current and future), and,
•    Domain Name System (DNS) entry request procedures and notifications.
- Content Strategy and Sitemap Requirements:
•    Content strategy and information architecture,
•    Sitemap and user journeys,
•    Assist with rewriting, reorganizing, and transitioning content,
•    Content templates, guidelines, and deployment planning,
•    All content meets or exceeds web content WCAG 2.2AA accessibility standards,
•    On-page SEO strategies, including metadata, heading hierarchy, alt text for images, and uniform resource locator (URL) structure optimizations for improved performance, and,
•    Recommendation on linking promotional program pages to instructional department pages.
- Design and Wire framing Requirements:
•    Designs for review and approval as hypertext markup language (HTML) and cascading style sheets (CSS) instead of portable document format (PDF) images,
•    Design services (user-centered, data-driven design),
•    Content development prioritizing clarity, ease of use, intuitive navigation, and agency values-centered guiding principles,
•    Visual design with a cohesive look across pages that adheres to brand guidelines,
•    Design page layouts and templates that are fully responsive, optimized for mobile devices, tablets, and desktops,
•    Wireframes for all major page types and interactive prototypes for stakeholder review and usability testing,
•    Advise and assist in the development/deployment of a site-wide reusable design system that incorporates an updated web style guide specifying typography, color palette, button styles, forms, iconography, reusable user interface (UI) components, and other website components,
•    Updated style guide, and,
•    Final content entry and formatting.
- Development and Testing Requirements:
•    Thorough quality assurance (QA) testing across devices, browsers, and user types, including functional testing, accessibility testing, and user acceptance testing and reports,
•    Review and recommend action plans centering on WordPress content management system (CMS),
•    Technical guidelines for accessibility compliance and other legal requirements,
•    Review and recommend plans for incorporating artificial intelligence (AI),
•    Back-end accessibility, and,
•    Usability and design testing throughout the redesign process.
- Web Analytics and Reporting Requirements:
•    Web performance reporting (tracking, collecting, and analyzing data),
•    Analytics tools, methods, heat-mapping, and metrics, and,
•    Tagging and taxonomy.
- Technical Requirements:
•    Website deployment meets Core Web Vitals standards and ensures compatibility with common analytics tools and services, including Google Analytics 4,
•    Final site deployment must be browser-independent,
•    Section 508 WCAG 2.2 AA compliance,
•    Design for the end user first and foremost,
•    Inclusive, collaborative process with stakeholder engagement,
•    Delineate between public-facing and internal-facing content,
•    Logical website taxonomy,
•    Responsive (mobile-first) design,
•    Increase brand awareness with cohesive design/content/voice,
•    Content/journeys that are 1) current student, 2) prospective student, and 3) community-focused,
•    Easy, logical, and quick navigation,
•    Intuitive design/content that is easy for the user to follow and understand,
•    Robust SEO,
•    Robust internal search engine functionality,
•    Tagging to align with marketing and web analytics goals,
•    Systems UI to ensure seamless user experience (application, RFI, course schedule, catalog, Chatbots, etc.),
•    Salesforce-CRM interoperability,
•    Event calendar platform compatibility,
•    Interactive campus map(s) integration,
•    Emergency alert notifications,
•    Multilingual translation technology,
•    Chat technology integration,
•    HTML/CSS/JavaScript will be converted to the templating format to be used within the CMS / WordPress and other existing system-compatible themes and user interfaces,
•    Web standards/guidelines, and,
•    Web component library.
- Solicitation Conference Date: July 31, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: August 1, 2025