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Website design and development

Form of Employment: Home-based consultancy

Starting Date: 22 May 2023 

Duration:  22 May – 15 November 2023 


Background

Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit organisation registered in Berlin. DRI promotes political participation of citizens, accountability of state bodies, and the development of democratic institutions worldwide. 

DRI’s Digital Democracy team works to protect and promote healthy democratic debate online. Through our offices and projects around the globe, we monitor the effects of social media and other evolving technologies on public discourse; engage with governments, experts, and tech companies for effective regulation; and train citizen groups on how to assess their local digital environment and debates.  Our work touches on issues such as manipulated information, hate speech, coordinated sharing behaviour, platform design, and algorithms.

Objectives

DRI plans to rebuild and update the Digital Democracy Monitor website. The website will have a new responsive and full custom Wordpress theme and will include:

  • A landing page
  • 5 visual and interactive pages (that include the style of the following samples): 1. Toolkit to Monitor Social Media (English and Arab versions), 2. Risk Assessment, 3. Digital Policy (with sub-pages Knowledge Hub and Data Access), 4. Elections and 5. Services.
  • 2 informative pages on privacy policy and legal notice and a cookies disclaimer that includes the newest GDPR requirements for Germany.

To support this work, DRI is looking for a website development and design studio or sole trader to provide the services below.

Services to be provided

 The Web designer and developer will work directly with DRI’s HQ Digital Democracy team, performing the following tasks to support our project:

  • Select and build a new Wordpress theme for the website Digital Democracy Monitor. The end product should be dynamic, responsive and easy to navigate, including a simple front- and backend user interface with full control of main elements for DRI administrators.
  • Provide architecture documentation of the theme, manual and background information.
  • Provide integration of Google version 4 analytics and Tag Manager.
  • Migrate information and visual graphics from previous theme. The new version of the website should follow the design brand.
  • Create a landing page for the website.
  • Develop an interactive map of the European Union for the Knowledge Hub sub-page, design legend and four icons and connect it to the text sections (dynamic features can be changed by DRI Administrators).
  • Create sections, reorganise & redesign current pages (based on feedback and mock-up provided by DRI)
  • Make sound recommendations on the navigation, functionality and page-to-page flow of the website
  • Give recommendations for SEO optimisation based on WordPress themes

Requirements

  • Website should be in line with the currently live Digital Democracy Monitor website
  • Theme based in WordPress 6.0 and written in PHP 8.2
  • Graph data integration from local server POP OS to website
  • Website backend should provide functionality of creation, publication and editing of sections with different content types.
  • Be cross-browser compatible (latest versions of Chrome, MS Edge and Firefox)
  • Present content in a unified, visually compelling and easy-to-use interface, utilising templates for consistent branding and visual design.
  • Be flexible, agile and adaptive enough to carry through a product lifecycle of approximately five (5) years.
  • Be accessible to search engine spiders and be created with good on-page SEO
  • Changes and correction loops have to be accommodated as the website concept, design and development evolves.
  • Responsive web design that makes pages render well on a variety of devices.
  • The platform will provide detailed analytics and statistics of the visits to the website.

Timeline

Roll-out of the new website should be completed by 15 November 2023, in accordance with the deliverables below.

  • Research and design phase by 31 May.
  • Development phase by 30 June.
  • Landing page and the page “Toolkit to Monitor Social Media” developed and updated by 30 June.
  • Create the Digital Policy page, as well as the interactive map and redesign the “Knowledge Hub” page by 3 July.
  • Create the elections page by 10 August.
  • Create the data access page by 30 September.
  • End product by 10 October.

Qualifications of the bidder

The selection of the provider will be based on the following criteria:

  • Submission of the adequate quotation following the instructions outline below
  • Demonstrate a solid understanding of user-centred design principles and experience creating web designs incorporating user testing
  • Demonstrate excellent visual design skills and be up to date with trends in visual communication, especially web design standards, user interface patterns and data visualization
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the principles of responsive web design for delivering content to mobile devices, for example flexible grids, flexible images / media
  • Demonstrate the ability to integrate accessibility throughout design
  • Demonstrate proficiency with PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as XTML, XML and web user interface design (UI)
  • Demonstrate proficient experience with WordPress
  • Have recent experience with successfully performing similar services, preferably with international and governmental organisations
  • Key personnel with at least three-year experience in website design and development and certification in information technology, computer science, design or related field.
  • Be company or a consultant duly established either in Germany, the EU or any other region as long as it is established under the laws of the country of its incorporation and able to provide support during Central European Time (CET)
  • Guarantee availability of service and contact during CET business hours
  • Fluency in English (written and oral)

Information requested from bidders

If you are interested in this assignment, please send your application to [email protected] by 16 May 2023. The application should contain the following information and documents:

 Portfolio:

  • Proven experience and track record of projects of similar size and nature, to be demonstrated through portfolio of existing / past clients and incl. URLs of past work
  • Proven experience with development of a similar project using WordPress
  • Information about qualifications requested
  • References that include the names, contact details (phone number, email address) of organisations with whom the respondent has previously contracted to provide similar services

Financial proposal:

  • Quotation in line with objectives and deliverables (hourly/daily rate, with and without VAT)
  • Number of hours/days estimated for the development of the end product.

Profile:

  • Name, address, email, phone number, website
  • Years in business / years of experience
  • Form of ownership, any parent company or subsidiaries, no. of employees
  • CVs of the team members to be deployed in the project
  • Any relevant certification

Invoicing and payments

  • The service provider shall invoice DRI for its services only after delivery and formal approval and successful work acceptance by the DRI responsible staff
  • Payments shall be made in Euros (EUR)

Subcontracting

The service provider shall not subcontract without prior written authorization from DRI nor cause the contract to be de facto performed by third parties.

Submission of quotation

The potential service providers should submit their application in English not later than 16 May 2023, end of day CET with the subject line “Digital Democracy Monitor” to the email address [email protected].

DRI is committed to diversity and does not discriminate based upon gender (including pregnancy), race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, age, ability, socio-economic status, or any other status protected by the laws in the locations where we operate.

Organisation responsible for this tender:

Democracy Reporting International gGmbH
Elbestraße 28/29,
12045 Berlin, Germany
Tel +49 30 27877300
Fax +49 30 27877300-10

 Data processing of personal data in third countries will not take place. We process your data in accordance with the provisions of § 26 German Federal Data Protection Act. More information about processing your personal data: privacy policy.

Documents

2023-05-02_Request for quotations_Digital Monitor 2023 Download