The vendor is required to provide comprehensive website design, maintenance, and technical support for the city’s website.
- The city utilizes WordPress as its content management system (CMS) for the website and will maintain this choice.
- Identifying and resolving backend issues that are impacting website stability.
- Implementing permanent solutions to prevent recurring problems.
- Removing outdated or unstable widgets, menus, pages, and backend website design elements and/or coding that are unused, unnecessary, or cause the website to bog down or become unstable.
- Recommending and implementing new widgets or other tools that improve the functionality or stability of the website.
- Future-proofing:
• Recommending and implementing modern and accessible features, services, tools, and widgets that will make the website easier for city staff to manage, streamline updates, and improve staff efficiency.
- The city’s website homepage and department pages do not meet new ADA guidelines and need to be redesigned, particularly in color contrast and heading structure.
- Create a new homepage design:
• Complete redesign of the homepage to provide a new, modern design.
• Homepage to be designed so that city staff can make updates (homepage currently hardcoded).
• Addition of a “timely topics” or similar section to allow city staff to easily add important new items/links to the homepage for a temporary period.
- Create two (2) new city department webpage templates:
• This includes designs for a landing page and subsequent “inside pages” that will be used to serve most of each department’s website content.
• Pages must incorporate newer, modern design that adheres to ADA guidelines referenced above, are aesthetically pleasing, and can be easily updated by city administrative staff with little website experience (i.e. no html experience required).
• Both templates should be similar but provide city departments with some choices and avoid having every page on the city’s website looking the same; this could be accomplished by having a different ADA-compliant color scheme for each template.
• The two new department templates will serve as standardized layouts for the city to use for this website refresh; to reduce project costs, city administrative staff will be responsible for copying existing webpage text content into the new design template from the city’s existing website content.
- All deliverables (homepage, department page templates, “other” webpage designs and content) must adhere to WCAG 2.1 level AA accessibility standards, with a specific focus on:
• Color contrast:
1.Ensuring sufficient color contrast between text and background for readability by users with visual impairments.
• Heading structure:
1.Implementing a clear and logical hierarchy of headings (h1, h2, h3, etc.) to improve navigation and readability for screen readers and users with cognitive disabilities.
- Visual design updates:
• Color palette: ensure new color scheme aligns with city brand guidelines, including primary, secondary, and accent colors.
• Typography: propose new font(s) for headings and body text, ensuring readability and consistency across devices.
• Imagery: provide guidelines for image quality, file type, and size optimization.
• Layout and composition: adjust all page layouts, including header, footer, and content areas, to improve visual hierarchy, consistency, and ease of future maintenance
- Accessibility: all designs must comply with WCAG 2.1 level AA accessibility standards; this includes:
- Color contrast: ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background elements.
- Heading structure: utilize proper html heading tags (h1-h6) to create a clear and logical hierarchy for screen readers.
- Keyboard navigation: ensure all interactive elements are fully operable using only the keyboard.
- Alternative text: provide meaningful alternative text for all images and non-text content for non-department pages.
- Focus visibility: clearly indicate the element currently in focus for keyboard users.
• Design and branding:
- Homepage: design and build a new homepage that incorporates the city's logo adheres to the city’s official color palette.
-  Department pages: design two distinct templates for "department pages.” these templates should maintain consistency with the overall brand identity; city staff will use the templates to build out all department pages by copying current live website content into the new template design.
• Usability:
1. Clarity and conciseness: prioritize clear and concise language and visual hierarchy.
2. Navigation: ensure intuitive and consistent navigation throughout the website.
3. Responsiveness: responsive design for optimal viewing and interaction across various browsers and devices (i.e., desktops, tablets, and mobile phones).
• Plugin/widget review:
1. Evaluate existing plugins and widgets for accessibility, performance, and ease of use.
2. Recommend replacements or enhancements where appropriate to improve website functionality, stability and maintainability; this includes but is not limited to an updated, ADA accessible version of the “accordion” tool currently used to store content in collapsible “folds” on the website.