Terms of Reference for Website Development

1. Background

Dóchas connects, strengthens, and represents a network of international development and humanitarian organisations who have a shared a vision of a just, sustainable, and equal world. Dóchas unites 54 organisations, ranging from small specialist charities to large international NGOs with worldwide presence. Our members are committed to human rights, justice, and the eradication of poverty, and demonstrate this through their work in international development, healthcare, protection, humanitarian assistance, sustainability, education, and inclusion.

We seek a service provider to make recommendations and propose options to update the information architecture, user experience and visual design of our website Dochas.ie

The current Dóchas website was re-developed in 2019. However, the site is not fit for purpose to clearly and succinctly demonstrate the breadth and impact of our work and to meet the needs of our audience, and is difficult to manage from the back end.

We expect the successful service provider to take a strategic approach to creatively developing the Dóchas site to support our organisational strategy and brand development. We further expect that the successful provider will recommend innovative approaches in order to make our website more effective in reaching and engaging with our stakeholders.

2. Technical Details

2.1 Server Details

The website uses Silverstripe and is hosted on a Western Tec server. However, we are open to other offerings on any new website design. Dóchas has a full brand in place, and any new vendor would be expected to work within our branding guidelines. This will be provided to any successful applicant.

2.2 Membership Portal

In our current strategic plan, we aim to further develop a strong and dynamic network that enhances opportunities for connection, coordination and collaboration. As part of that, we are creating an increasingly innovative and inclusive space to stimulate and facilitate exchange and reflect on complex challenges. We are currently in the process of developing a membership portal, which will need to be integrated into the new website design. Previous work on websites that have a membership portal would be desirable.

3. Vision

The current website follows a "mobile-first" style that is built around the idea of scrolling and clicking on boxes, similar to social media. However, as the website is a repository of knowledge from the sector, a lot of important information currently gets buried in this design.

We envision a new, flexible design that gives users the ability to navigate through the website, using drop-down or design that makes our many resource hubs easily identifiable and user-friendly.

The website should be the outer-facing offering for the wider public, that compliments the member portal, which will be member-only. The portal will be integrated into the design, but does not require any design work.

Any new design must have the ability to maximise the use of video and dashboards to bring our content to life and be adaptable to any future innovations, and should be easy to manage from the back end to add or change content as needed.

4. Scope

4.1 Outline

The service provider will lead on a re-examination of the website information architecture, user experience and visual design.

Dóchas staff will provide an audit of the current website and will indicate what content is to be migrated to the new website. The purpose of the service provider will be to redesign the website so that current information can be changed and used in a more constructive way.

It is critical that the new version of the site is designed to be agile, with iterations examined and implemented once the initial redesign is live to avoid a 'boom and bust' cycle of development, deployment and redesign.

The service provider is not leading a rebranding of Dóchas - all new designs must respect our style guidelines and logo (a branding guide will be provided).

4.2 Feature Requirements

Some key features the website will need to include are:

• Seamless integration of the portal to the website design
• Homepage to have revolving news/pictures at the top
• Drop down menu that easily guides users to each section
• A spotlight section that highlights 3-4 semi-permanent resources
• Ability to integrate video and dashboards seamlessly to the home page and other pages

4.3 Deliverables

• An initial kick-off meeting between the vendor and the Dóchas team project leader
• Implementation (build, design, content, all technical requirements)
• Usability and accessibility requirements
• Brief staff user manual
• Project signed off by both parties upon completion

4.4 Target Audiences

Our target audiences include:

1. Dóchas members

These are members of our 54 organisations, a diverse group from junior to CEO level. In general, they will come to the website for the following:

• To access the new portal, especially around Dóchas working groups and events
• Use the Dóchas  resources, such as our Worldview data, our ethical communications guide and our safeguarding charter
• To access our Wednesday News newsletter, an important and popular publication in the sector.

 2. Other stakeholders

These include Government departments, politicians, the media, researchers, and students. They would come to the website for the following:

• To use our publicly available research and resources
• To access any news or press releases
• To access the Wednesday News newsletter

4.5 Usability

1. Users

Users will be able to 

• Easily find content from a drop-down menu at the top of the homepage
• Find the most important new information in a revolving news-style banner towards the top of the page
• Access important semi-permanent resources in a spotlight format on the homepage
• Easily log in to our members' portal (if the user has a login)

2. Dóchas Staff

Staff should be able to: 

• Access the back end of the website to add, edit, and delete content as appropriate

5. Tender Process

Submissions should be sent by e-mail to the address below, to be received no later than May 12th at 9am.

The proposal should include:

1. A proposed cost and cost breakdown for the project, including a range of options based on cost / value for money
2. A proposed timeline
3. Three case studies to show the experience of delivering similar projects
4. CVs for the proposed team to be involved in this project 

 6. Timelines

An initial meeting will take place at the end of May.

The project timeline will be approximately six weeks. 

Contact

Niall McDonald, Head of Communications and Media, Dóchas 

Email: niall@dochas.ie