Kendal Website Design Brief 1. Overview Kendal Futures working in partnership with Kendal Town Council and Kendal BID want to create a new website for Kendal. The new Kendal website will be aimed at visitors, local residents and businesses. It will provide easy access to information about the town, its retail, arts, culture and leisure offer, events and festivals and history and heritage. It will also include practical information about car parking, loos, travel and transport and be a onestop-shop to encourage people to visit Kendal and stay longer by exploring and spending more. 2. Existing Websites Current Google searches for Kendal reveal a plethora of websites which feature varied amounts of information, including Kendal Town Council, Go Lakes, Explore South Lakeland, Wikipedia and Visit Cumbria but there is no single source of information for the town. However, it is important that feeds are duplicated from, and links are made to, useful content on these other sites, where appropriate. 3. New website design features The website must be a responsive design to work effectively across a range of media devices and all platforms. A template style website will be considered as well as bespoke designs. The new website design should offer: A clear and contemporary design using the Kendal brand and guidelines (see 15) Lots of good quality images and clear, concise text A content source from, or signposting mechanism to, other existing websites (to avoid duplication of content, in particular the Kendal feeds from Explore South Lakeland A news facility for the publication of relevant news and press releases A basic contact feature with contact details and feedback form A Kendal Gift Card purchasing page with a link to the Stripe payment system and feeds to feature participating businesses Interactive Google maps (for road, rail, cycling directions etc) A downloadable town centre map (to be supplied) Visitor maps and trails for cycling, walking and exploring (to be supplied) Pdfs of leaflets and visitor guides (to be supplied) A site search An ability to house videos and/or host a link to a Kendal based YouTube/Vimeo channel Links to useful other useful websites and visitor information
An enewsletter sign up facility A social media sharing wall, such as TINT Call to action/banner areas built in to the pages (to highlight special events, initiatives or as a future revenue driver for advertising space). A separate cost is required for the following additional optional elements: A plan my trip facility (see kentuckytourism.com) Cookie driven re-marketing campaigns/pop-up messages, eg, Here s how to spend 3 days in Kendal. 3.3 Accessibility The website must be designed to comply with the standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Every page on the website should have the facility to be translated into other languages using Google translate. 3.4 Target Audience This will be a destination website targeting visitors to Kendal but it must also appeal to local residents, existing businesses and businesses who may be looking to relocate to Kendal in future. 3.5 Other Websites We would like to reduce duplicated content and effort with other existing websites. We intend to signpost and direct people to other complementary websites including: www.breweryarts.co.uk www.abbothall.org.uk www.kendalwall.co.uk www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk www.kendalmuseum.org.uk www.northcountryleisure.org.uk/south-lakeland/kendal-leisure-centre And the Kendal areas of: www.exploresouthlakeland.co.uk www.investinsouthlakeland.co.uk www.golakes.co.uk www.lakesculture.co.uk www.activecumbria.org
3.6 Look and feel of the new website We want to establish a strong, new look and feel for this website, in line with the new Kendal branding which has recently been developed (see attached brand guidelines.) We want the website to have a fun, vibrant feel, welcoming tone and establish a true sense of place which will inspire more people to visit, dwell and spend time and money in Kendal. Some corporate logos will be included to recognise funders (including Kendal Town Council, Kendal BID and Kendal Futures in a low key footer/ about this site area) but the site should otherwise avoid an organisational or corporate feel. Similar website designs from other towns/areas which we are inspired by include: www.kentuckytourism.com (great design and aspirational content) www.exploreasheville.com (strong sense of place/character) www.lakesworldheritage.co.uk (the TINT social media wall) 3.6.1 Photographs Photographs need to be in set places and set sizes as various people will be responsible for updating the website. Photographs will be made available from the image libraries held by Kendal Futures, South Lakeland District Council and other partners. 3.6.2 Copy, content and structure Copy and content will be provided. A draft website structure is attached in appendix 1 but other suggestions are welcome. 4. Web hosting and domain name The domain name has been purchased and is held by South Lakeland District Council on behalf of Kendal Futures. Please quote for website hosting for 3 years and indicate this cost separately. The website must be hosted in a suitably secure environment. 5. Maintenance, support and security A simple to use content management system is required and training will be needed to enable Kendal Futures and partners to update the website themselves. Please quote for some ongoing technical maintenance and support work on a monthly basis for the first year of operation. This support must include the ability to resolve any security threats or malicious denial of service attacks quickly. 6. Copyright Copyright for the website will be held by Kendal Futures/Kendal Town Council.
7. Statistics Website statistics to be available via Google Analytics. 8. Promotion The website will be supported by an on and off-line marketing campaign in the first year of operation to get it established with visitors, local people and businesses. 8.1. Off-line promotion The off-line promotion will include: Press releases Postcards/business cards/flyers/posters/window stickers Mentions in newsletters 8.2 On-line promotion Online promotion will include: Search engine optimisation Links to partner businesses and partner organisations E-mail marketing Social media promotion Possible remarketing or Google Adword/Facebook advert campaigns (if budget allows) 9. Timescales We would like to see initial design concepts within one month of awarding this contract and the finished site to be live within three months. 10. Testing and consultation Some testing and consultation with different audiences will be required to ensure the website design and navigation meets the needs of our range of users. Some amendments/design changes will be needed following consultation with partners. 11. Project management This project is managed by a small task and finish group of key stakeholders and funders and the successful developer will be required to attend a small number of meetings with this group and/or the Kendal Futures Board. 12. Price The budget allocated to this work is a maximum of 6,000 for the design and build of the website. The hosting and technical maintenance/support elements should be quoted for separately.
This contract will be awarded based on the most economically advantageous proposal, on the basis of 60% quality and 40% price. Previous experience of developing similar website projects will be important. 13. Proposals We request proposals from suppliers in response to this brief. Please include examples of similar destination type websites you have produced and a break down of the costs involved, including: Hosting for 3 years Design and build SEO Production of an e-newsletter template Technical maintenance and support Added value Please return your proposal by 5pm on Monday 16 th May to: Paula Scott - Kendal Futures C/O South Lakeland House Lowther Street Kendal LA9 4DL Email: p.scott@southlakeland.gov.uk Tel: 01539 793284 or 07585 665636 14. Next steps Short listed web designer/development companies will be invited to come to give a short presentation of their proposals to a small panel on Tuesday 24 th May. These will include proposals for site architecture and design layout. 15. Kendal brand guidelines Kendal Futures has recently developed a new destination identity - brand, logo and set of guidelines. The brand and guidelines will be officially launched in mid May. You are welcome to see the logos and guidelines to inform your proposal if you treat them confidentially until the launch. Please contact Paula (see above) to arrange this.