Web Development Brief

Web Development Brief

Turning Point South West: Strengthening the Visual Art Sector

Turning Point South West is part of the Turning Point National Network initiated by the Arts Council of England. Turning Point Network is a national consortium of artists, arts professionals and arts organisations in England dedicated to working together to find new ways to strengthen the visual arts, and to support the arts more broadly. The purpose of the network is to connect people working in the visual arts with each other, and with professionals in other fields around the world, in order to share information, ideas and resources. We are dedicated to working together to realise a stronger visual arts for the benefit of artists, arts organisations and audiences, present and future. Turning Point South West’s overarching aim is: To raise the level of critical dialogue and engagement across the region in order to support a dynamic and sustainable visual arts sector, especially within the current economic climate.

Our key objectives are:

1. Supporting and developing excellence in artists and arts organisations 2. Empowering the sector with greater skills and knowledge

3. Providing greater opportunities for networking, partnership working and collaborative projects, including engagement with wider networks nationally and internationally

4. Developing better understanding of audiences and extending reach 5. Improving economic stability

6. To provide leadership and advocacy

TPSW would like to commission a web development project to help fulfil its aims and objectives.

The contract will cover the entire development including helping us to refine the concepts outlined in this brief, and then driving the design, build, implementation, testing and optimisation of a dynamic and energetic website that will engage visitors as active participants.

2. Aims and objectives

Our main aims and objectives for the website compliment the TPSW aims and objectives (as above) and will also:

- Provide a space to map visual arts orgs from across the region/ a gateway to the visual art sector in the SW

- Provide a forum to share learning and resources for the visual art sector in the region

- Signpost information on visual arts for the sector

- Provide a user-led central site that can encourage critical dialogue, practical information sharing and opportunities within the visual arts 3. Target audiences

The following are the target users/audiences for the website:

• Visual arts organisations who wish to map their organisation as part of the network.

• Artists and others wanting to find out about opportunities/ information • Wider audience (UK and beyond) interested in visual arts in the region • Practitioners, organisational representatives, funders who wish to share

information and resources

• Any wishing to engage in a critical dialogue around visual art • Arts Council officers

• Local Authority officers (inc. arts development and creative industries officers)

• Regional Development Agency and URC officers • Potential partners

Central to this project is a belief that all visitors to the website should consider themselves to be active participants and not simply passive users.

4. Creative requirements

Functionality and clarity are the most important requirements, and the website should comply with best practice guidelines for accessibility. However, the target audience includes creative practitioners who we feel will respond best to a highly visual design environment.

We have identified some sites that we can take inspiration from:

www.dutchartmap.nl We would like a map of visual art activity in the region, which link to the respective sites (rather than having a listings site that needs continuous updating).

www.theatrebristol.net We would like a sector facing section, which includes a forum, resources, opportunities and events/projects (possibly a sign in section)

5. Technical requirements

We have identified the following areas / objectives for the site, for which we are seeking a developer to produce innovative technical solutions:

• Functionality of a visual map that shows visual arts organisations across the region.

• Disseminate learning from the TPSW programme by showing footage from events, podcasts, downloadable documents etc

• Functionality that assesses individual visitor behaviours (such as google analytics)

• Functionality that assesses collective visitor behaviours and streamlines access to information (automatic FAQ’s and cloud / category tagging, for example)? • Functionality that will allow visitors to post questions to the rest of the

community (a bit like Ask An Expert) (possibly tied to a chat room / discussion board)

• Functionality that will automatically request that visual arts orgs/users refresh information within the site

Expandable Resources Bank:

• Functionality to allow site visitors to access, and download from toolkits, resources etc that is available

• Functionality to allow participants to submit suggested documents to the site(via a moderator)

• Functionality to allow some site users (defined on following page) to upload new documents, and delete / archive out-of-date entries

Cross cutting requirements:

• Fully accessible (to meet W3C standards)

• Functionality to allow for moderation of all content submitted

• Functionality to allow for all participants to report questionable content • Functionality to allow participants to feedback to site administrators • Include a full search facility, including category / cloud tagging To date we have defined four distinct types of site users:

1. Participant (can view whole site, but can only contribute via certain applications)

2. Editor (can do everything a participant can do, plus they can access and edit their entry)

3. Moderator (responsible for approving new or rejecting reported content, and for maintaining the Resources Bank)

4. Administrator (access to entire site and all tools, with full privileges) We anticipate that the developer will revise these suggested user groups in relation to the final concept, and determine the appropriate privileges / access as part of the final development plan.

userfriendly tools, including things like text editors and hyper-link builders. We anticipate that the developer will work with us to identify the appropriate hosting solution for this project.

The developer will be required to develop simple and integrated help guides for site users, written in accordance with Plain English standards.

6. Maintenance requirements

Ongoing support and bug fixing will be required beyond the initial development phase.

We anticipate that the feedback system should allow for reporting of technical faults by users, directly to the developer for immediate resolution.

7. Evaluation and monitoring requirements

The final development plan will need to include provision for a robust and

analytical system for reporting on site usage. We would also like to work with the developer to find interesting ways of soliciting feedback in ways that help us measure the success of the website.

8. Search engine Optimisation

We anticipate that SEO will be built into the development plan by the web developer.

9. Project resources

The project will be developed and paid in 2 phases. It will be reviewed after each phase.

Phase 1 – Concept, Design and Build £5,000 Phase 2 – Implementation, Testing - Pilot Site £4,000

Final Site -In response to feedback/ needs we expect a second phase of the website(it is envisaged that this will be developed after 3-6 months of the pilot site being launched, in response to usage and potential) £TBC

Grace Davies will manage the development for TPSW. Contact times will be agreed with the developer as part of the development plan.

The successful developer will work to Grace Davies and with the TPSW Steering Group.

10. Project deliverables

thoughts and expand on them in innovative ways) • All aspects of design

• All aspects of build

• All aspects of implementation (to be discussed once hosting solution is agreed) • Support with testing

• Content Management System and tools • Integrated plain English user help guides • Search Engine Optimisation

• Ongoing technical support and bug fixing 11. Timescales

Our initial timescale for the development is as follows: Monday 16 January 2012- Deadline for tender submissions Early February - Briefing and planning meetings

Specification / Development plan agreed

Mid-February 2012 - Contract issued / Build commences End of February 2012 - Initial designs / visuals submitted Early March 2012 - Final designs / visuals signed-off Friday 30 March 2012 - Beta site launched

Early April 2012 - User Acceptance Testing Mid April 2012 - Public launch of pilot site End of April 2012 - Debriefing meeting 12. Pitch arrangements

In line with Arts Council England’s procurement policy, potential developers are invited to submit initial tenders for this project. These should include:

• Information about you and your company • An initial proposal including:

• Proposed approach including any creative concept suggestions • Technical specification

• Estimated costings (broken down by deliverable) • Initial project timescale

• Initial visuals where possible (not expected due to tight timescale) • Examples of previous developments undertaken

• Two references

Tenders should be submitted by: 10:00am on Monday 30 January 2012

Submissions should be sent for the attention of Grace Davies to: