Project Overview

We’re undertaking a full website redesign to significantly improve usability, performance, accessibility, and alignment with modern design standards. This is a ground-up rebuild with a strong focus on clean foundations, long-term maintainability, and smart, scalable design.

A key objective is improving the navigation and overall site architecture. We’re looking for support in designing a thoughtful, intuitive information structure that helps users easily find relevant content and resources.

Following an internal audit completed on 31 March 2025, here’s the current status of the site:

• 100+ published pages
• 428 blog posts
• 50+ active plugins
• 4,100+ user accounts

Since the audit, content has been progressively streamlined using a “Keep, Merge, Remove, Redirect” strategy to eliminate inactive, duplicated, or outdated pages and posts.

A major contributor to the high number of user accounts is the auto-creation of users when members log in or register. We are open to smarter solutions that maintain this functionality without bloating the backend.

Plugin use is excessive. One of our key aims is to significantly reduce our reliance on third-party plugins in favour of the chosen site builder functionality. Clear internal guidelines will govern plugin use moving forward, distinguishing essential tools from avoidable ones.

This project is an opportunity to start fresh - to get the foundations right before we scale. Our goal is a fast, intuitive, secure, and fully documented site that evolves with our organisation.

Scope & Timeline

Development Start: FY26 in a staging environment

Development Duration: 4–6 months of focused build

Target Launch: Pre-January 2026

Key Priorities

Security

• From day one, the site must be secure and locked down – no vulnerabilities or shortcuts.

Functionality & User Experience

• A fast, clean, and intuitive user experience across all devices. This includes a fully responsive layout, working site search, and simple, accessible navigation.

Design System & Presets

• Early implementation of global presets (e.g. fonts, colours, spacing, buttons) to ensure visual consistency and streamline future editing.

Documentation

• Build a clear, maintainable documentation library covering routine site processes – from metadata management and IP blocking to CMS updates and accessibility checks.

Technical SEO & Accessibility

• SEO must be baked in from the start: correct use of metadata, canonical tags, schema markup, and full compliance with WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines.

As part of your proposal, please include a recommendation for the most suitable site builder platform to use moving forward. We’re open to suggestions and are seeking a solution that offers strong performance, design flexibility, maintainability, and minimal reliance on third-party plugins.

Suppliers are asked to develop their proposals based on the information provided in this brief. If clarification is needed, we will offer an optional Q&A call to shortlisted vendors prior to the scheduled pitch presentation, allowing time to refine and finalise proposals as needed.