Comprehensive Website Redesign Services

The vendor is required to provide for a comprehensive website redesign project focused on creating a highly student-centered and intuitive online experience.
- The website will primarily target prospective students from diverse backgrounds (and their families) while effectively serving secondary audiences, including current students, alumni, current and prospective employees, employers, school counselors, donors, and the public.
- Create a website that is:
• Student-centric: prioritizes the needs and experiences of our diverse student population
• Pathway-focused: clearly outlines education and career pathways, guiding students towards their goals
• Accessible: meets or exceeds WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards
• Fully responsive: provides an optimal viewing experience on any device
• User-friendly: features intuitive navigation for easy exploration and a positive user experience
- Core areas, which should be comprehensively addressed in the proposal:
• User research and discovery
• Content strategy and development
• User experience and visual design
• CMS integration and development
• Accessibility compliance
• Search engine optimization
- Discovery:
• Gain a foundational understanding of college’s strategic objectives.
• Perform comprehensive research and engage diverse stakeholders to gather insights into needs, behaviors, and perspectives.
• Understand key target audiences and their unique needs, goals, and online behaviors to ensure a student-centric approach.
• Conduct a thorough audit of the existing college website, evaluating content, functionality, and user experience.
• Analyze current website traffic data and user behavior analytics to uncover trends and areas for improvement.
• Assess current content management systems (CMS) and practices, as well as overall web governance, to identify efficiencies and areas for refinement.
• Analyze peer institution, competitor, and exemplary college websites to understand market positioning, identify strengths/weaknesses, and leverage best practices.
• Develop detailed user journey maps illustrating student interactions with the college online, identifying pain points and opportunities. 
- Content strategy, design, & user experience:
• Develop detailed user personas representing key segments to guide design and content decisions.
• Develop a comprehensive content strategy outlining themes, messaging, tone, and a plan for guiding students through their educational journey with prominent calls to action.
• Integrate robust search engine optimization (SEO) best practices into the content strategy and website architecture for high visibility.
• Create a clear and intuitive website structure, including a detailed sitemap, ensuring logical organization of content.
• Develop intuitive navigation systems and menu structures (including breadcrumbs) for clear and easy access to information for diverse users.
• Define key content areas and design flexible, user-friendly page layouts/templates that support rich content and an excellent user experience.
• Develop a modern, inviting, and highly appealing visual design that resonates with college's student demographic.
• Seamlessly integrate and reinforce college's brand guidelines (logo, color palettes, typography, and imagery).
• Ensure the design is fully responsive, providing an optimal viewing and interaction experience across all devices and screen sizes.
• Design the website to meet or exceed WCAG 2.2 AA web accessibility standards to ensure an optimal experience for all users.
• Design a welcoming and engaging homepage that prioritizes key content and prominently features news updates and emergency alerts.
• Create templates and provide copywriting for high-level landing pages, career path/program pages, news pages, and other key content areas.
• Provide copywriting for the homepage and high-level landing pages.
• Develop a user-friendly interface for users to explore education and career paths, featuring job market information, local salary data, required skills and education, and the college’s relevant offerings.
• Ensure the website includes integrated functionality for translating all content, with a primary focus on Spanish.
- Implementation & support:
• Recommend and configure a suitable content management system (CMS) that aligns with college's budget and meets its needs for accessibility, ease of use, scalability, security and state-ramp compliance.
• Develop the website based on approved information architecture, content strategy, and visual designs, utilizing modern web technologies and best coding practices.
• Plan and execute the migration of existing essential content and/or the creation of new content into the new CMS.
• Conduct comprehensive testing, including functional, cross-browser, mobile responsiveness, performance, and usability testing.
• Provide thorough training for college staff on how to manage, update, and maintain content within the new CMS.
• Execute a seamless website launch plan, including domain redirection, analytics setup, and public announcement.
• Provide post-launch support to address any immediate issues and ensure a smooth transition.
- Contract Period/Term: 1-3 years
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: July 16, 2025