Terms of Reference (ToR) for Design Improvements to the Teach For Palestine Website

Background:

Teach For Palestine is an independent non-governmental Palestinian organization established in early 2023. Its mission is to contribute to providing quality and inclusive school education for all children in Palestine. This is achieved through improving the classroom and school environment, adopting innovative teaching, and learning methods, and seeking to provide promising creative solutions to educational challenges, especially in marginalized and remote areas.

TFP is working on develop collective leadership by investing in promising teachers who commit to teach in vulnerable schools and become lifelong advocates for the right of every child to learn in safe and quality learning environments and take actions towards achieving this right. The program focuses on equipping the targeted teachers of primary levels with the necessary skills, knowledge, and mindsets to achieve transformative educational outcomes in Palestine.

Teach For Palestine website serves as a critical platform for outreach and community engagement. However, the current website requires a refresh to enhance its visual appeal, user experience, and functionality. This project aims to redesign the TFP website, ensuring alignment with our branding guidelines, improved user experience, and seamless integration of new features.

Objectives:

• Visual Enhancement: Restore the website's look and feel to create a modern, engaging, and consistent visual identity aligned with TFP's branding manual. This includes fixed styles for fonts, formatting, icons, images, and layout techniques.
• User Experience Improvement: Enhance navigation and overall user experience, ensuring that content is accessible and spontaneously organized, particularly in handling bilingual content (Arabic and English).
• Content Automation: Develop templates that automatically capture and display the most recent content on the homepage, organized by specific categories, tags, or other custom taxonomies.
• Dynamic Content Management: Ensure that all sections and subsections of the website dynamically display the latest relevant information, including news, resources, publications/guidance, stories, and events.
• Social Media Integration: Integrate social sharing features, including Twitter share by text selection and Twitter feed by handle and hashtag, to enhance engagement.
• Newsletter Signup: Implement a feature for users to sign up for the latest news updates.
• Support and Maintenance: Provide administrative and technical support, including quality control, for three months post-launch. Ensure full source code, including all developed libraries, is handed over to TFP.

Scope of Work:

• Visual and Brand Alignment:

1. Incorporate predefined fonts and color schemes from the TFP branding manual across all pages.
2. Redesign layout to enhance visual appeal and professional presentation.

• Bilingual User Experience:

1. Improve the alignment and integration of Arabic and English content without compromising the design symmetry.
2. Ensure language toggle is prominently placed and effective across all pages.

• Photographic Content:

1. Curate and edit photographs from TFP’s existing media to better fit the new design.
2. Implement dynamic, context-sensitive imagery that enhances content engagement.

• Interactive Elements:

1. Introduce interactive features such as a video tour, success stories sliders, and interactive maps of program locations.

• SEO and Technical Optimization:

1. Ensure all design elements are optimized for speed and SEO.
2. Implement responsive design for optimal viewing on various devices and browsers.

Work plan: Tasks

1. Initial Debriefing: Participate in a debriefing session to fully understand the project’s scope, objectives, and expectations.
2. Design Concept Development and deliver a website map: Based on the debriefing session and this ToR, the vendor will develop a design concept for the site as well as a website map. Up to two design proposals will be shared with the TFP team for review.
3. Feedback and Adjustment: The company will adjust the design concept based on feedback and comments from the TFP team to ensure it meets all requirements and expectations.
4. Visual and Language Development: Develop the visual concept and language for the website, adapting it to the different components outlined in the “Deliverables” section, and iteratively adjust it based on TFP team feedback.
5. Responsive Design: Create responsive CSS and graphic design elements and integrate or adapt existing designs to be fully responsive across all devices and platforms.
6. Web Development: Develop website sections and content management features. Ensure that content upload, integration, and display mechanisms are in place for automated and dynamic content updates.
7. Testing and Quality Assurance: Conduct comprehensive testing of the website before it goes live to ensure all functionalities are working as expected.
8. Launch and Handover: Upon approval, launch the website and provide full source code, including all developed libraries, to TFP. Ensure that the site is ready for public use and meets all specified requirements. Conduct a session for team members to coach them on website usage and management
9. Support and Maintenance: Provide administrative and technical support, including quality control, for three months after the website goes live.

Deliverables:

• Design Concepts: Up to two design concepts, adjusted based on TFP team feedback.
• Final Visual Design: A fully developed visual design adapted for different website components.
• Responsive CSS and Graphics: Responsive CSS and graphic design elements integrated into the website.
• Dynamic Content Templates: Templates that ensure automated content capture and display on the homepage and other sections.
• Social Media Integration: Social sharing features, including Twitter integration, implemented on the site.
• Signup Feature: A functional signup form for the latest news updates.
• Testing Report: A report on the testing phase, detailing any issues found and how they were resolved.
• Full Source Code: Complete source code, including all developed libraries, provided to TFP.

Timeline:

• Debriefing Session: One day
• Submission of Design Concepts and website plan: [Start Date], for 2 weeks
• Feedback and Revisions: [Start Date], for 1 week
• Final Design and Development: [Start Date], for 3 weeks
• Implementation and Quality Assurance: [Start Date], for 3 weeks
• Launch and Post-Launch Support: [Start Date], for 2 weeks

Evaluation Criteria:

1. Technical Proposal: Quality of work, team qualifications, timeline adherence related experiences [60 points]
2. Cost Proposal: Financial proposal and cost-effectiveness [40 points].

Vendor Qualifications:

• Experience: A reputable firm with at least 5 years of experience in designing visually appealing and navigation-friendly websites.
• Technical Expertise: Broad knowledge of current web development technologies and design tools, including HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, Macromedia Flash, and Java.
• Design Proficiency: Excellent knowledge of recent trends in graphic design, web design, online video publishing, and social media networking.
• Innovation and Creativity: Demonstrated ability to create innovative and visually appealing designs.
• Development Sector Experience: Experience working in the development sector and with NGOs, producing high-quality outputs.

Application Process:

• Interested parties should submit a detailed proposal, including:

1. a portfolio of relevant work,
2. CVs,
3. a projected timeline,
4. and a detailed financial offer inclusive of VAT.

Applications should be submitted to procurement@teachforpalestine.org specifying the ToR title “ToR for Design Improvements to the Teach For Palestine Website” in the subject line of the email no later than Sunday, Sept. 8th, 2024.