Harwich Haven - Surrender to Sanctuary.

Transcription

1 Harwich Haven - Surrender to Sanctuary. Website Specification 7 February 2018 Issued by David Cain david@nhscic.org on behalf of New Heritage Solutions C.I.C Office 33 Red Gables Ipswich Road Stowmarket IP14 1BE

2 Summary Objective New Heritage Solutions C.I.C require a project website for a new community heritage project - Harwich Haven- Surrender to Sanctuary. This will be a new web platform for a two year Heritage Lottery Funded programme of community history. The Project Harwich Haven is a two-year project of public research and interpretation around the Harwich Haven ports of North East Essex and East Suffolk (notably Harwich and Felixstowe). The project explores a defining passage of world history through two internationally significant anniversaries: the centenary of the surrender of the German U Boat fleet in November 1918 and the arrival of the first Jewish refugee children known as the Kindertransport in December Harwich Haven - Surrender and Sanctuary will be a unique commemoration which engages the wider public with questions about how wars start and end and how ordinary people are affected by them. The project will empower people to deliver community-based, inter-generational research, including: landscape research, genealogy, the construction of a mechanical representation of the U-Boat threat, walking trails, a refugee exhibition on the region s railways, video, archive films in an historic cinema, debates, art installations and oral history. The Website The project website will be a digital means by which to share project events, research outcomes and resources for community use. We would like a tested and live website to be operational from April This will include a test period of at least seven working days. The project team should be able to update the website via a content management system. Our working preference is for an adaptive Wordpress site, however we are open to advise and guidance on alternative systems.

3 The content management system will enable the hosting of a range of media to include film, sound and photograph, and be capable of embedding social media direct to site. The ambition is this will be an image rich website. The website will be hosted by you and live until January at which point it may be extended or become an archive site. An example of a previous website we had commissioned for a similar project can be found at Cost The total cost for website design, hosting over specified time period, training on content management system and support until 2020, should not exceed 10,000, inclusive of VAT. Timeline Tender submission by 28 February 2018 Award by 7 March 2018 Development phase 8 March to 13 April 2018 Launch by 16 April 2018

4 Further background The principal aims of the project as outlined in its Activity Plan are: 1. Research and interpretation of the social legacy of the end of the First World War and the start of World War Two, through community research, oral history, film, and photography, and development of museum collections 2. Celebration of this material through local and regional events, including a major two week festival in November and December 2018, exhibitions, and other showcase opportunities. 3. Sustaining the project beyond its active stage through learning resources for formal and informal education. All these stages will be backed up by an extensive education offer for all ages, and a unique marketing campaign that will combine traditional methods of communication with new digital media to further the sustainability of the project. The website is an integral part of the project. It is a communications and marketing tool for the heritage community that we are working with as well as a resource for users in the East of England and around the globe. This is how we described the website in our application to HLF: Website The Harwich Haven website is one of the primary ways in which the project will interface with the public. To ensure sustainability it will be created using an open source content management system which will provide users with easy access for updating and maintenance. Use of open source software will ensure a wide contingent of potential programmers and designers, helping to maximise sustainability. The website will be designed along responsive web design principles to provide an optimal viewing experience on a range of platforms from desktop computers to tablets and mobile phones. It will feature calendars and other pages allowing the project staff and partners to upload details of events and promote the project to as wide an audience as possible. Access to the content management system will be by secure log-in, restricting users to trusted partners.

5 Procurement To comply with HLF and project procurement policies we will approach companies based in the East of England to pitch for a web design contract. These companies will have experience working with the public sector and they will be asked to show their understanding of our project and HLF digital policy as discussed here: The contract will be awarded on the following four criteria: design and technical quality, innovation, support and price. Specification Domain name: To be advised by company. This should be based around the project name, Harwich Haven - Surrender to Sanctuary. A suggestion is harwichhaven.org OVERVIEW OF WEB SITE REQUIREMENT Our new site will perform the following function for our organisation: The website needs to be populated and maintained by project staff and volunteers. The needs of the following key audiences need to be understood and catered for: Local audiences to encourage participation. Education (Primary, Secondary, and Adult) audiences in the East of England and wider UK. Local history and community audiences in the East of England. Potential visitors to the East of England. The website will be a home of the project s social media work. It should be fully compatible with twitter, Facebook, Youtube, tumblr, Wordpress etc and have the ability to embed social media within webpages. The website should provide a home for existing and new content be it visual, text, audio or film/video. This should have both linked and embedded media capability.

6 The webpage will need to be accessible across a range of formats including PC/ Tablet & Smart Phone. The website needs to be sustainable. Designers should plan for an active life of at least 8 years. The designers need to accommodate users of all age groups. The designers need to put forward a robust archival policy. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION Search Engine Ranking The website should be accessible to search engine spiders and be coded with good on- page search engine optimisation. The designer should propose separately a budget for link building required to make the site reasonably competitive in the target market LIST OF PAGES This includes prescribed pages and scope for the developer to built pages relevant to our identified needs. Home Page The home page will welcome people to our site and enable easy access to the latest news, events and other web pages. It should be able to host embedded content from social media and have follow us buttons. About us This page will give an overview of the Harwich Haven project. It will also provide a sub page to biographies of key personnel. What s on A webpage to enable internal and external users to post moderated events Newsletter

7 This page will be able to provide links to our newsletter mailing service (currently Mailchimp) Press releases and links to external sites covering the Harwich Haven project. Partners Each partner will have a text & logo link that will allow visitors to find out more about or partners and visit their website. Contact Us Full contact details including interactive embedded map. Further webpages We would like to invite you to work with us in developing the scope for further web pages. We would like to include within this information from the research themes that we are working on with the capacity to provide updates from our oral history and learning strands of work. As an example there could be at least four additional webpages with the titles - Surrender; Sanctuary; Resources; Heritage Lab. Site Map A site map should be provided showing the structure of the site and linking to every page on the site. STYLE AND LAYOUT Overall Style The site style should incorporate our organisation colours, font style and logo.the logo is currently under development. Navigation

8 A common navigation bar should be included on all pages. The navigation bar will include links to all available web pages. Statistics, tracking and analytics. The tracking of web site statistics should by available through a site such as google analytics and include information such as: 1 How many hits does our site receive? 2 How many of these are from unique visitors? 3 How are people finding the Harwich Haven web site? 4 What search terms are they finding us under? 5 What web sites link to us? 6 How many people click through ti our website from our newsletter / social media 7 What are the most popular pages on our site? 8 Who is average visitor (platform / browser / screen resolution)? ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS Accessibility This site must comply with the standards of accessibility contained in W3C WAI (World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative) level A Guidelines. Valid Code All code on the site should validate to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) specifications. Cross Browser Compatibility The website should be accessible for viewing and administration from a range of internet browsers