Awarded to Bunnyfoot Ltd.

Start date: Tuesday 2 January 2018
Value: £60,000
Company size: SME

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Website Design work (RBGKEW/491)

18 Incomplete applications

16 SME, 2 large

21 Completed applications

19 SME, 2 large

• Published: Tuesday 17 October 2017
• Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 24 October 2017 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Tuesday 31 October 2017 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: Updating navigation/landing page designs, and on going iterative design improvements to kew.org
• Latest start date: Monday 11 December 2017
• Expected contract length: Approx up to 9 months
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Budget range: up to £60,000 exc. vat

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world-leading science institution with two beautiful botanic gardens. We receive funding from DEFRA, but are under pressure to deliver more income through fundraising and commercial products. Our website, kew.org, serves a number of different purposes, but is primarily a service for those who wish to visit the gardens. We launched a new website, built with Drupal 7, in 2017 but have identified significant usability issues, which we are now trying to resolve so that our website can support our organisational goals of increasing revenues and shifting perceptions of RBG Kew.
• Problem to be solved: We are looking for external support to develop and implement designs to support the revised information architecture, starting with redesigining the core navigational elements (header/footer/menu) and our homepage and top three landing pages, followed by an agreed number of days of 'implementation support' based on a capped T&M basis, to iterate and improve designs in response to user testing over the following 6-9 months.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: As a potential visitor to Kew Gardens, I need to find relevant information (such as price, opening times, main attractions) so that I can decide whether I want to visit.
• Early market engagement: We worked with a usability agency to develop the IA, and have had high-level chats with them to get a ballpark figure of costs for this work.
• Any work that’s already been done: Together with a usability agency, we have done user research and testing to come up with the revised Information Architecture. We are currently testing it with our users and will revise those initial recommendations accordingly.
• Existing team: The supplier will be working with the Digital Experience team at RBG Kew (Product Manager, Delivery Manager, Content team) in consultation with internal stakeholders (Digital Steering Group) to delier designs ideas that meet user needs and support our business objectives. We use an external development agency that the supplier will need to work closely with during implementation. We are currently recruiting a UI Designer who we hope will work with the supplier to deliver this work and will pick up ongoing improvements once the designs have been implemented.
• Current phase: Live

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE
• Working arrangements: Although we are happy for the supplier to complete certain amount of work remotely, we would like them to collaborate with the team at Kew throughout. It is expected that stakeholder workshops take place on-site at Kew, and that the supplier spends time with the Digital Experience. We would like the supplier to regularly 'show the thing' demonstrating progress and inviting feedback at an early stage. We have access to Kew's visitors for user-testing and would expect some of the user-testing to be completed on site. The supplier will need to be available to work with our external development agency.
• Security clearance: N/A

Additional information

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

• Essential skills and experience:
  • Proven experience of using user research/testing to design high quality digital products that balance user and business needs
  • Experience in responsive design and taking a mobile-first approach
  • Experience of developing navigation and page designs for a website built on Drupal 7, understanding the restrictions imposed by working within a coupled CMS environment
  • Understanding of and experience in addressing issues of navigation and information hierarchy on a complex website serving a variety of different 'types' of user
  • Proven experience of developing and implementing information architeture based on user feedback
  • Experience designing user journeys for a commercially focused organisation, where optimising conversions is a priority
  • Demonstrate a creative and innovative approach to designing solutions that meet user/business needs
  • Take an agile approach to design, with a commitment to ongoing iteration and improvement
  • Demonstrable experience in using user research and testing to define and validate user needs
  • Experience in building high-fidelity prototypes and testing them with users
  • Proven experience of taking an organisation's visual brand and translating it for digital platforms
  • Experience of working alongside a 3rd party development agency to implement design ideas
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Provide evidence of Experience working on large and compex information architecture roll-outs
  • Provide evidence of Experience working with a leading visitor attraction and/or similar public body
  • Provide evidence of Experience of guerrilla testing / a quick-turnaround test and learn approach to prototyping

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria:
  • Approach and methodology used
  • How does this approach meets user needs
  • How does this approach meets our business goals
  • Estimated timeframes for the work
  • How have you identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them
  • What is the Team structure
  • Illustrate value for money
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
  • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions
  • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes
  • Take responsibility for their work
  • Share knowledge and experience with other team members
  • Challenge the status quo
  • Be comfortable representing the importance of user-centred design in front of key stakeholders who may be more concerned about commercial priorities
  • Able to explain technical complexities to stakeholders in non-technical language
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Assessment methods:
  • Written proposal
  • Case study
  • Work history
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  50%

  Cultural fit

  20%

  Price

  30%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Q1. Can you confirm if you want to stay on Drupal or are open to migrating to other CMS ?: A1. Our website is currently built in Drupal 7 – although are planning to upgrade to Drupal 8 or an alternative CMS in the future, this initial work to improve navigation and information architecture does need to be implemented using Drupal 7 (working in partnership with our existing development agency).
• 2. Q2.Can you clarify if the scope is to work on design only, or also to provide support to front-end development for building the redesign into the website?: A2. We would like our chosen supplier to work collaboratively with our development agency to build the redesign into the website. Although our development agency do have front-end development capability, we would like our chosen design agency to be prepared to work alongside their front-end developers during implementation, as such a solid understanding of front-end development and a willingness to work collaboratively are a must.
• 3. Q3. (i)You mention that you have had “high level chats” with a usability agency to get ballpark costs – will they be bidding for this work?: A3. (i)We do not know whether they will bid for the work.
• 4. (ii) If they are, how will you ensure that they are not at an advantage?: (ii) We will score all proposals against the evaluation criteria as outlined in the requirements. One of the reasons we have decided to offer this work as ‘Capped T&M’ without stating the number of days included in the ballpark quote is to help us better understand the amount of days we will receive for our budget for each response – to enable us to better assess value offered by each potential supplier and not give any supplier a direct advantage.
• 5. Can you share any of the testing and research outputs from the usability and IA work you have been conducting?: We are undergoing an internal sign-off process for the revised IA, so are unable to share externally until key stakeholders have reviewed the proposed changes to site structure. We understand that it is difficult to estimate the scale of work without sight of the proposed structural changes – which is why we’ve gone for a Capped T&M approach, with a view that we work with the chosen supplier to develop and sign small statements of work as we go.
• 6. You state that you work with an external developer – is this for back-end development, front-end development or both?: We work with an external developer for back-end and front-end development, however we would like our chosen design agency to be prepared to work alongside the development agency’s front-end developers during implementation, as such a solid understanding of front-end development and a willingness to work collaboratively are a must.
• 7. Under working arrangement you mention user testing – is this part of the scope for us, or will you arrange that in-house/with a third party agency?: User testing of the proposed designs is part of the scope for this work – working closely with our in-house team to take advantage of the on-site access to Kew’s visitors.
• 8. Is the scope of work limited to the website, or also to redesign journeys through integrated fulfilment systems, for example, the online shop?: The initial scope of work is limited to kew.org (the main website) however the additional days of ‘implementation support’ may include some work to align third-party sites/microsites with the updated designs for kew.org.
• 9. What are the key use cases besides people looking to visit?: We have a number of different use cases for the website which include:; - Plan a daytime visit to Kew Gardens or Wakehurst (inc. ticket sale for Kew); - Book for a ticketed event such as Kew the Music or Christmas at Kew; - Become a member; - Donate to RBG Kew; - Buy something from our online shop; - Find out about our scientists and our science work; - Book a school visit
• 10. Do you have any targets for increasing revenues from any use cases? I.e. corporate venue hire, weddings, filming location etc: Targets for increasing revenues from online ticket sales are under review. It is likely that we will develop targets for other areas within the short to medium term.
• 11. You mention trying to shift perceptions. What perceptions are you trying to move from, and what are you trying to create?: Many people know RBG Kew for its beautiful botanic gardens. We want our audiences to understand that RBG Kew is a world-class scientific organisation with beautiful botanic gardens.
• 12. Is there a reason why you don’t have external hire or shop on the main landing page (outside the menu)?: One of the reasons we have drafted a new information architecture and are seeking additional design support is because we know that important user journeys (such as the purchasing something from the Kew shop) are not well facilitated through our existing designs.
• 13. What analytics tools/software do you currently have running on the website?: We use Google Analytics, and also have Hotjar, Google Optimize and Moz.
• 14. What are the current challenges with Drupal? Skills, tech or both? Please elaborate.: We haven’t identified any challenges with Drupal in the brief – the challenges we are facing are with the current front-end site design.
• 15. Can you share the key recommendations of your user research and testing of the Information Architecture?: We are undergoing an internal sign-off process for the revised IA, so are unable to share externally until key stakeholders have reviewed the proposed changes to site structure. We understand that it is difficult to estimate the scale of work without sight of the proposed structural changes – which is why we’ve gone for a Capped T&M approach, with a view that we work with the chosen supplier to develop and sign small statements of work as we go.