Minnesota State is requesting proposals to assist in developing, designing, implementing, and providing technical services to improve the BSU web presence. The redesign will move BSU to a web presence with an updated, modern look and feel that reflects the new brand identity, is responsive to mobile users, meets the highest standards of user experience, accessibility and security, and aligns with the university's strategic goals. • Modernize Visual Aesthetics: Implement a fresh, visually appealing design that reflects the recently updated college's brand identity. • Improve User Experience: The site should be easy to navigate, search, and drive users to goals. • Responsive: Be designed with mobile readers first in mind, but still look consistent and engaging on a desktop or tablet. • Shareable: Enable and encourage sharing of content on social media. • Searchable: Include an internal search function that allows readers to easily find content. • SEO: Follow best practices to optimize the website for search engines to improve visibility and attract more traffic. • Accessible: Model accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) and intuitive, seamless UX. • Easy to Update and Maintain: Be intuitive and easy to use by editors and staff who regularly update content. Enable ongoing development by the internal IT web team and/or outside vendors. Information Architecture The site structure should be reviewed critically, and suggestions should be made to improve the organization and navigation. 1. Clear Information Architecture: Organize content with a logical structure that makes it easy for users to find information. 2. Target Audience Focus: Tailor the website structure to meet the specific needs of audiences. Special attention should be given to prospective students. Examine and recommend opportunities to improve and streamline the following user flows: 1. Signing up for campus visits 2. Viewing online virtual tours 3. Capturing email addresses 4. New student applications (the actual application is out of scope since the form is hosted by a separate site https://eservices.minnstate.edu) Environment 1. BSU will host the site within our on-premises web environment. 2. BSU Web Servers utilize Linux operating system user group file permissions and SELinux permissions. For security reasons, these are configured in a way that WordPress and PHP code do not have the ability to alter any files outside of the wpcontent/uploads/ directory. No PHP files are able to be executed within the wp-content/uploads/ directory. Updates to WordPress software and WordPress Plugins can only be done by manual updates using BSU’s command line management tool that makes use of the WordPress command line interface, WP-CLI. BSU's tool leverages SELinux contexts and file permissions to run updates to WordPress and WordPress plugins. 3. Under Development > 6: Authentication to WordPress must be through MyBSU/MyNTC using our Authentication Application Programming Interface (Auth API). 4. Code deployments for the theme and plugins will be done by BSU/NTC Web Services.
