Municipal Website Redesign and Related Application Services
The City seeks qualified vendors to provide professional website redesign,
development and related implementation services for its http://www.bouldercolorado.gov web
presence. This redesign work will be the primary focus of this engagement, though the city is
simultaneously seeking information on "a la carte" vendor offerings covering content
management solutions and related application components, as well as other turn-key
application offerings of interest to municipalities like Boulder (e.g. mobile applications, etc.).
The City reserves the option to include additional related services (e.g. Intranet
redevelopment, etc.) in the resulting vendor contract. A more detailed description of the
desired deliverables is provided in the following sections of this document.
The City will consider proposals from single vendors or from multiple vendors working as a
team, though a prime contractor is highly desired in the case of the latter. The ideal vendor
will have excellent technical and creative depth in areas of interest to the City under this RFI,
and must be highly-effective communicators, particularly in translating technical concepts to
non-technical audiences. They will have significant experience with public sector
organizations, having worked with municipalities both larger and smaller than Boulder.
Consistent with the flexibility inherent in a "Request for Information" (versus more formal
"Request for Proposal") process, the City is employing this procurement method to both
explore the costs and logistics of procuring the described "baseline" services, while also
evaluating alternative mixes of additional products and service offerings from a diverse
vendor community. As such, the City reserves the right to reject any and all proposals or any
part thereof, to waive any formalities or informalities, to award the contract to the most
responsive and responsible respondent(s) as deemed in the best interest of the City, or to
suspend the procurement if the desired outcomes are not achieved.
It is noteworthy that the City plans to entertain proposals from other government entities
interested in providing web design services and related applications to other jurisdictions.
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Redesign Objectives:
We seek a partner to help us create a next-generation website that will serve as our key
customer information and service delivery portal -- drawing people in and making it
immediately obvious that the website is the best place to get information about the City of
Boulder, its services, projects and programs.
Based on the chosen partner's work, the website will have a design that makes it stand
out among cities on both a regional and national basis. It will be inviting, easy to use, and
will reflect Boulder's unique, multi-faceted, internationally-recognized character and
identity. This will be accomplished through the following design characteristics:
Creative design that incorporates custom design elements with the most important
information easily accessible from the homepage.
Consistent branding through a professional design theme.
Fast site navigation and page loading by effectively optimizing graphics for a positive
experience regardless of visitor's connection speed or browser technology.
Intuitive navigation controls and easy to use drop down menus making it easy for
visitors to quickly understand navigation and focus on the information important to
them. The same time, because they are able to quickly scan navigation, users will find
additional helpful information.
Automatic conversion of pages to common mobile device interface standards. The
conversion will present an optimized mobile view of the website and allow the user to
visit the standard version if they prefer.
Powerful and intuitive search capabilities that will scan both HTML pages and
proprietary document formats such as Adobe PDF files and Microsoft Word. It will
return accurate results and in precise order of relevance to users. It must support full
Boolean key word searches. And, it will highlight the search key words within the
pages returned in the search.
Reflects the City's diversity and inclusivity goals by being accessible to individuals with
disabilities, multilingual needs, and multiple generations of web access technologies.
Effectively and securely hosts both existing and new web-based applications included
with current and future City business system implementations (e.g. on-line bill
payment; utility account inquiry; recreation class registration; GIS map viewing, etc.).
