Website proposal for Scottish Mentoring Network
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
website proposal for Scottish Mentoring Network David Kelly Design Office Suite 373, 4th floor, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow, G1 5PE T: +44 (0)141 227 6777 M: +44 (0)7980 571197 E: david@dkdo.co.uk
1 Introduction
Introduction
1.1 David Kelly Design Office Ltd has over 6 years’ experience in web design and digital marketing
for organisations including the NHS, COSLA and the Big Issue Foundation. In every project, we focus
on creating effective solutions that are completely appropriate to our client and their target audience.
References
1.2 The vast majority of our ongoing business comes from repeat customers, many of which have
been with us since our first year, so there are plenty of people that you can call for a testimonial. The
following references have been selected for their relevance to this project. All of the sites also include
an easy-to-use content management system, to enable each client to update content by themselves.
I’d be very happy to demonstrate these and other solutions in person.
Laidlaw Youth Trust
www.laidlawyouthtrust.org/old
Abbey House
83 Princes Street
Edinburgh EH2 2ER
Tel: 0131 247 6801
maureen@laidlawyouthtrust.org
Mike Nicholson – Befriending Network Scotland
www.befriending.co.uk
45 Queensferry Street Lane
Edinburgh EH2 4PF
Tel: 0131 225 6156
mike@befriending.co.uk
Derek Mitchell – COSLA Strategic Migration Partnership
www.asylumscotland.org.uk
Suite 203, 69 Buchanan Street
Glasgow G1 3HL
Tel: 0141 314 3796
derek@cosla.gov.uk
Further example websites
1.3 See the section ‘Why Choose David Kelly Design Office?’near the end of this document for a list
of example client websites.
© 2008 David Kelly Design Office • 2 Proposal
Aim
2.1 Scottish Mentoring Network (SMN) is the country’s principal resource for information and
advice on running effective mentoring projects. With a membership including charities, social enter-
prises, educational institutions and businesses, its key aim is to ensure the continuing development
and quality of mentoring provision in Scotland, and thus help people such as ex-offenders, minorities
and single parents to realise potential in their work and personal lives.
2.2 SMN requires a new website that will support its objective to increase membership from 40 to
750 over the coming 3-4 years. In order to do that, the new website must become the online hub for
members to access and share information on good practise, funding, recruitment, training, and other
key issues that impact their ability to be provide effective mentoring services. Like a ‘social network
for mentoring schemes’, the site will encourage interaction and connections between members and
member groups, to ensure it continues to grow as a lively and dynamic community.
Key features
2.3 Based on the brief and an initial discussion with Sarah, Kerry and Iain, we’ve developed and
expanded upon the following features that will help the new website to achieve its aim:
• The new website will raise the profile of mentoring and the services of SMN with an ap-
proachable, user-friendly look and feel (away from the ‘corporate’ style of the existing site), in-
cluding clear, graphical links and signposts to direct visitors to important content. Aberlour.org.
uk was identified as a good reference point for its modern, professional design, full use of the
screen space, and plenty of relevant photography. The homepage and main content must make
it obvious to visitors what SMN is and what it can (and cannot) do for them – thus minimising
direct enquiries from people who wish to become a mentor (instead directing them to relevant
external resources), for example, and maximising enquiries relating specifically to the running of
mentoring schemes, in line with SMN’s strategic goals.
• To create exceptional value for members (and encourage more projects to join up), the web-
site will provide members-only content and social networking features through a secure login.
Through this easy-to-use Facebook-like facility, members will be able to access and download
SMN resources (eg, Evaluation Packs), and interact and share information with other members,
including maintaining their own profile, creating blog entries with photos and video, event an-
nouncements, and adding comments to discussions on other members’ pages. Like Facebook,
all activity will be tracked and promoted via feeds on the main website and members area
pages, as well as automated email updates to members (which they can opt out of if desired).
All messages, events and comments will be moderated by SMN staff, giving you complete con-
trol over everything that appears on the site.
• The Mentoring Map will be completely redesigned in line with the new site’s approachable,
user-friendly look and feel. Importantly, in-house maintenance of the directory will be mini-
mised by having members update their own map profile via their online account (although you
will have the ability to moderate any changes). Like the existing map and the example on the
Befriending Network Scotland website (www.befriending.co.uk/directory), the new version will
enable visitors to find mentoring projects by various criteria, or by clicking on a specific region.
With our experience of developing a successful solution for BNS, we have the basis on which
to create an even better solution and would be keen to explore ways of expanding on the map
© 2008 David Kelly Design Office • features that would be valuable to your members.
• The website will include a secure, easy-to-use admin/content management system to enable
SMN staff to manage news, FAQs, staff details, library resources, events and other content, as
well as member accounts, blogs, events and discussions. We’re as happy developing the content
management system using platforms such as Joomla and Drupal, as we are developing custom-
ised open source solutions that exactly fit our clients’ requirements. We’d recommend the latter
method because of the level of customisation it enables, and like the platforms, the open source
tools (PHP, MySQL) we use do not come with any licence fees or restrictions, and can be picked
up easily by any competent developer. In general though, we apply the best available tools
based on a thorough analysis of each project’s requirements. For example, the social networking
platform Ning.com may provide a good foundation for developing the social networking appli-
cation, which we would explore as part of the first phase of prototyping the site’s main features.
Full training will be provided for the designated website administrator(s). We’d be very happy to
show you a demo of similar systems in use by our other clients.
Structure
2.4 Based on our analysis of your site diagrams and our initial discussions, we’ve outlined the pro-
posed site structure below – although this may well change slightly during the early phases. The main
sections of the new website will include Home, About Us, Mentoring Map, Resource Library, News &
Events, Membership/Join, Contact Us, Help/FAQ and Member Area.
• Home will make it immediately clear to new and returning visitors about what the Scottish
Mentoring Network is and what it can do for them. Clear signposts to information on starting or
running scheme, as well as people who want to become mentors (who will be directed towards
helpful external resources), will help funnel visitors through to relevant content, and thus opti-
mise the types of enquiry received. Registered members will be encouraged to login to access
their account pages and members-only features such as the social networking application and
resources. In addition to news headlines, an events calendar, and excerpts of member-generated
content, other features of the homepage will include shortcut links to content within the main
sections, such as About Us, Mentoring Map and Resource Library.
• About Us will outline the background to SMN, its aim and history, and information about
staff and directors.
• Mentoring Map will provide a searchable directory of members and mentoring schemes
throughout Scotland, as outlined above.
• Resource Library will provide downloadable resources (eg, Evaluation Packs) via a clear
and easy-to-use interface. Any members-only resources will require visitors to login in order to
download them.
• The News & Events section will provide regularly updated news and forthcoming events.
News might include stories about the Network, the latest interesting discussion from the
members’ social networking site, or the work of member schemes. You might also want to allow
visitors to leave comments, to help encourage more user interaction. The Events calendar will
list forthcoming events in an appropriate, easy-to-use format. Members’ own events could be
differentiated by colour or other visual treatment, so that visitors can see which are SMN’s own
events, which are external events, and which are members’ (SMN administrators will be able to
manage all events listings via the admin area).
• Membership/Join will explain the benefits of joining SMN, and include a form through
which visitors can enquire about becoming a member.
• Contact Us will enable visitors to easily get in touch via telephone, email or directly via an
online enquiry form.
• Help/FAQ will include common questions and answers about mentoring, running a men-
© 2008 David Kelly Design Office • toring scheme, SMN’s services and the website, for the convenience of visitors and to avoid
unnecessary contact time with staff.
• Member Area will be accessed via a secure login form, and will provide members with ac-
cess to special members-only content including resources and the social networking application
outlined above. Members will be able to edit their profile, add blog entries, events, comment on
other members’ discussions and change personal settings such as opting in/out of email notifi-
cations. All member actions in this area will be tracked by the system and SMN administrators
will be able to moderate any changes or messages.
Content management
2.5 As outlined above, the website will include a secure, easy to use admin system to enable SMN
staff to manage frequently changing content and back-office processes. Full training will be provided
for the designated SMN website administrator. We’d be very happy to show you a demo of similar
systems in use by our other clients for managing everything from blogs to events, product catalogues
and ordering systems.
Email communications
2.6 In order to ensure the site stays in regular touch with members, and to avoid placing this
responsibility with SMN staff, we propose to create automated email updates to members (like
Facebook’s own updates), including weekly updates from the social networking application, and so on
(members will be able to opt-in/out via their own online account page).
2.7 Other email communications may require manual input – for example, a monthly email newslet-
ter or promotional e-shot would require SMN staff to insert content into a custom-designed template
and send the campaign to a mailing list, in which case we can provide an account on our email
marketing service, Campaign Point. We’d be very happy to demonstrate the email marketing service,
including how to create a campaign, manage mailing lists, and view reports on who’s opening cam-
paigns and clicking links. Some example email campaigns for other clients include:
• www.campaignpoint.com/c/thelighthouse/ceclaunch/
• www.campaignpoint.com/c/haadesign/
• www.campaignpoint.com/c/cityis/oct07/
• www.campaignpoint.com/c/elevator/0606/
Technical quality assurance, usability and accessibility
2.8 We build standards-compliant web pages using XHTML and CSS, which ensures cross-browser
compatibility, and enables us to guarantee compliance with accessibility standards and guidelines set
out by the W3C and as required by UK law.
2.9 To ensure maximum usability, we test features at all stages of development (not just at the end).
Our mostly informal, qualitative methods enable us to make vastly improved interfaces without hav-
ing to go to the expense of lab-based tests.
Search Engine Marketing & Analytics
2.10 In addition to the core website deliverable, we’ll review the new website content to ensure it is
‘search-engine friendly’, including having important keywords in all the right places, such as page title,
meta tags, file paths, and so on. This should help improve your search ranking over time, and provide
an excellent foundation for any future SEO work.
2.11 We’ll use a selection of methods to measure the success of the website:
© 2008 David Kelly Design Office • • Visitor opinions. Simply asking clients and colleagues who use the site what they think about
it will provide a useful measure of the new website’s success over time.
• Visitor tracking. I’ll transfer across the existing Google Analytics service so that you can eas-
ily keep track of visitors, how they found your site, how long they spend on the site, and so on.
• Conversion of visitors to online enquiries and mailing list registrations. In addition to keeping
the existing enquiry form to enable visitors to send you messages via the website, I’ll add code
to the form so that anyone ticking the mailing list box will be automatically added to the recipi-
ent database for your email newsletter. Using Google Analytics, we can track the percentage of
visitors who enquire via an online form, sign up to your mailing list, and so on.
© 2008 David Kelly Design Office • 3 Costs & Schedule
3.1 The total cost of all of the core deliverables is £9600+VAT. This is based on an estimate
of 24 days at £400 per day, and covers the design and production of the new website based on the
site architecture and features described above, including the social networking application and secure
admin area for managing the site’s content and processes. This breaks down as follows:
Description Time
Design concepts and prototyping of main features 4 days
Production of HTML/CSS, database and content integration 4 days
Production of Mentoring Map feature with clickable map and search criteria 2 days
Production of Members area incorporating social networking application 6 days
Admin area incorporating content management system, member administration and moderation, and 6 days
including training
Testing and quality assurance 2 days
Total 24 days
3.2 Design and development of the (optional) email newsletter template would cost £600+VAT,
which would include the first campaign, and training so that you can then create and send future
newsletters using the same template. Subsequent campaigns would cost around £25 per campaign,
plus 2p per recipient (eg, a newsletter sent to 100 members would be £25 + £2 = £27+VAT.
Service and support
3.3 Ongoing support and maintenance is charged at £25 per half hour, although we do not charge
for small, occasional requests (within reason) – eg, replacing a logo or small text changes. Also, by
charging for support time in half-hourly increments (instead of full hours), it works out more economi-
cal for you. Costs of work arising from quarterly or twice-yearly review meetings would be proposed
and agreed at the time. Any minor changes arising in the 30 days following launch of the site will
be carried out at no charge. After this period, the usual rate will apply. Alternatively, we can agree a
monthly retainer at a reduced fee to cover minor updates on an ongoing basis.
Terms
3.4 The above costs apply only to deliverables set out in this document – if any new requirements
arise then we’ll agree how they will impact the time and budget. All costs exclude VAT at 15%.
3.5 We normally invoice a third up front, a third at an agreed milestone and the balance on comple-
tion (although we are happy to discuss monthly or other alternative payment schedules to suit). Any
snags/minor changes in line with the brief in the 30 days after completion will be carried out at no
charge. If the project is cancelled, we normally require payment for the first invoice plus any addition-
al work carried out to the point of cancellation.
© 2008 David Kelly Design Office • 4 Why Choose David Kelly Design Office?
David Kelly Design Office has been building effective websites and integrated digital marketing solu-
tions since 2002. In that time, we’ve worked with many small and large clients to develop successful
strategies and implement original ideas with flair and efficiency.
Experience
Befriending Network Scotland – www.befriending.co.uk
The leading resource for befrienders and befriending projects in the country.
COSLA Strategic Migration Partnership – www.asylumscotland.org.uk
Scotland’s principal resource for organisations working with asylum seekers and refugees.
Laidlaw Youth Trust – www.laidlawyouthtrust.org/old
A charity providing funding to organisations that support children and young people. (The website is
now closed because the Trust is being run down, but you can still view it at the above address.)
Ken Sharp – www.kensharp.com
Ken spent many years as a photographer for music and media magazines and has shot the likes of
the Rolling Stones. He now focuses on up-market family portraiture.
Proactive Recruitment – www.proactive-recruitment.co.uk
A recruitment consultancy specialising in temporary placements.
Pensions & Investments Management Services – www.pensionsandinvestments.co.uk
A Glasgow-based financial adviser.
Drummond Central – www.drummondcentral.co.uk
A design/marketing firm in Newcastle.
Castle Computer Services – www.castle-cs.com
A leading provider of IT services and accounting solutions.
CityIS – www.cityis.com
A global video conferencing solutions provider.
Mandors – www.mandors.co.uk
A well-known Scottish fabric retailer.
Little’s – www.littles.co.uk
Scotland’s largest chauffeur drive service.
Bloxx – www.bloxx.com
A global IT security solutions provider.
© 2008 David Kelly Design Office • You can also read
