DrupalSouth Website Design: Request for Expressions of Interest

Thursday 25th February

DrupalSouth is a volunteer-led organisation responsible for facilitating Drupal conferences and supporting the regional Drupal community in Australia and New Zealand.

The website at https://drupalsouth.org was developed in 2018 in order to centralise event and community information and reduce the amount of work for each new event website. The website content is primarily managed by the DrupalSouth Steering Committee and individual event teams, with technical maintenance provided Tomato Elephant Studio and Annex Digital, with hosting provided by Platform.sh.

Budget has been allocated by the DrupalSouth Steering Committee to refresh the website design in 2021 and this document serves as a request for an Expression of Interest for individuals or companies to respond to. 

Goals and Requirements for the Website Redesign

DrupalSouth is the premier event for Australia and New Zealand Drupal practitioners to come together to share their knowledge, experience and to engage with their colleagues. In tandem, sponsors provide the bulk of event funding to promote themselves to attendees and prospective clients. 

While the events have always been organised by volunteers, DrupalSouth needs to project a high level of professionalism to its audience and sponsors that matches the standard of organisation and content at the events.

Specific goals and requirements for the website include:

  • Develop a cohesive style guide that can be consistently applied to all sections of the website. This should include rules around the use of the logo, typography, colours and imagery.
  • The design approach must be distinct from Drupal.org and other standard Drupal branding, as DrupalSouth has no formal affiliation with the global Drupal Association.
  • The design approach should strike a balance between showcasing the community nature of Drupal alongside the fact the software is used by very large organisations.
  • The style guide should consider how the design can be applied consistently to third party platforms, social media channels and event collateral, such as signage and presentation slides.
  • Consideration should be given to how individual event sub-branding can be applied whilst retaining consistency with the website style guide.
  • There is no requirement to replace the existing DrupalSouth Logo (Black and white drop motif), but we are open to suggestions as to how this might be modified.
  • There is no requirement to modify the website information architecture (content structure), but guidelines should be established for key page layouts and modular design components.
  • The website design must comply with WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility standards, as detailed by the Digital Transformation Agency.
  • The website layout must be fully responsive on mobile devices.

Expression of Interest Responses

Respondents should outline the following in an Expression of Interest to the DrupalSouth Steering Committee:

  • Any design methodology and processes that will be applied to the project.
  • Outline of how the requirements will be fulfilled.
  • Project plan that outlines key deliverables, review points and other milestone dates.
  • Key personnel.
  • Relevant experience and case studies or portfolio examples applicable to the project.
  • Pricing model including any discounts or other added-value applied in consideration of DrupalSouth’s non-profit status and community focus.
  • A separate budget and project plan for implementing the front end coding for the project may be included if the respondent can provide this service, but it is not a key requirement.
  • Note any potential conflicts of interest, such as having a staff member on the DrupalSouth Steering Committee.

There is no requirement to provide actual design concepts in the EOI.

Selection process

Expressions of Interest must be submitted by 11:59pm (AEDT) on Friday March 19, 2021 via email to proposals@drupalsouth.org

Written questions may be directed to proposals@drupalsouth.org before Friday March 12 to clarify any aspects of the project. Anonymised answers are shared here for all respondents to view.

Proposals will be evaluated by the DrupalSouth Steering Committee and preferred respondents will be short-listed based on the following criteria:

  • Existing involvement with the Australia and New Zealand Drupal Community: 10%
  • Design methodology and approach: 5%
  • Understanding of the requirements: 10%
  • Relevant experience and case studies: 40%
  • Project plan: 15%
  • Pricing and value for money: 20%

Further details and clarifications may be requested from short listed respondents before presenting their proposals via video conference.

A final selection of the preferred candidate will then be made by Friday April 9 with details published on DrupalSouth.org. The project must be completed by June 30, 2021.

Unsuccessful candidates will have the opportunity to receive verbal feedback on their proposals if requested.