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American Library Association RFP for UX Design for Community Platform

Release date: August 19, 2016 Responses due: September 19, 2016, 9:00pm CDT Issued by ALA’s Information Technology & Telecommunications Service unit (ITTS)

Project Description The American Library Association seeks a vendor to design the interface and enhance the user experience for its professional collaboration and networking site, ALA Connect, which is migrating from Drupal to Higher Logic. The site supports 2,600+ groups and 64,000+ users and allows users to post content to groups, join open groups, add members as friends, participate in a mentor matching service, and browse and apply for volunteer opportunities. Users will collaborate through the use of discussion forums, files, calendars, and other Higher Logic features that drive member engagement, provide additional revenue opportunities, and allow members to display their professional contributions on their profiles. It should be noted that the ALA installation of Higher Logic for ALA Connect is highly unique, because it will be one of the largest sites using the relatively new “nested communities” option and other features not typically enabled with their other clients. ALA highly recommends and explicitly invites each of the potential vendors to speak with the contact listed below to discuss the project’s requirements that make it unique from other Higher Logic installations so that questions can be answered before submitting their response. Our goal is to create a responsive interface design for our Higher Logic sites that is ADA-compliant, easy to use, looks good, and meets the needs of our members. The basic design should coordinate the look and feel with ALA.org, but not confuse members by making them identical (see Appendix 1 for a screenshot of the new responsive template to be implemented on ala.org).

Timeline 1. RFP published on August 19, 2016

2. Responses due by 9:00am CDT on September 19, 2016

3. ALA will evaluate proposals (September 19 - September 30, 2016)

4. Contract to be signed by October 10, 2016

Understanding the above dates, respondents should propose dates to complete the timeline for the following project milestones:

5. Date work to begin:

6. Launch initial design internally: 7. Provide ALA Staff with training and documentation to modify the ALA microsite templates 8. Propose start/end dates for which ALA will gather feedback from user acceptance testing 9. Proposed time needed to apply design tweaks based on feedback submitted during user acceptance

testing 10. Propose start/end dates for final user acceptance testing 11. Expected date ALA, partnering with vendor, will implement final site design on all microsites

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Accessibility Compliance ALA’s web resources must comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. If you’re not familiar

with this standard, please read Understanding the Guidelines, a Quick Reference Guide, and information on

Recommended Techniques from the W3C Working Group. If your service does not meet this standard and your

company is not willing to work towards compliance, you should not respond to this RFP.

Description of ALA’s Organizational Structure ALA is comprised of several different types of units, all of which have their own unique organization. To

accommodate this special structure, ALA’s Higher Logic implementation will include thirty-three (33)

microsites, each of which will have 1-3 nested levels of communities.

The selected vendor will build four (4) microsites, one for each type of ALA unit (ALA, division, round table and

ALA-APA), create and install theming templates for each nested level: (microsite, committee/office/interest

group, section and section committee), as well as provide training with documented steps, so that ALA staff

can deploy the rest of the microsites needed for the implementation.

*Placeholders for “Round Tables” and “Divisions”

represent microsites reflecting 20 Round Tables and 11

ALA Divisions. See Figures 3 and 4 for details.

Figure 1 Full ALA Connect Overview

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Within ALA itself are “offices,” which are organized by core value (e.g.,

advocacy, diversity and inclusion, intellectual freedom).

Offices have committees but members are not part of an office. Within

ALA Connect, each Office will be a community within the main ALA site,

but it will also have committees (“communities”) listed underneath the

Office hierarchically. There are seventeen (17) Offices.

All ALA members will be part of the main ALA site, although Office

committees have closed rosters that synchronize with our AMS (iMIS).

“Divisions” are semi-autonomous units dedicated to a type of library or

type of service and have dues-paying members. A member joins ALA and

can pay an additional cost to join one or more Divisions. Each division

will have its own microsite within ALA Connect and will have its own

committees (“communities”), separate from ALA’s communities.

There are eleven (11) divisions.

Some Divisions also have “Sections,” which are interest-based sub-

units that only that Division’s members can join. Sections also have

their own committees whose rosters synchronize with iMIS, as well

as self-forming “interest group” communities whose rosters don’t

synchronize with iMIS. There are sixty-nine (69) sections that live

within six of the Divisions.

A Division’s microsite will display all of its groups hierarchically in the

Community Navigator and the site search box will display results from only that Division’s content. (4 nested

levels)

Figure 4 Division Overview

Figure 2 ALA Microsite

Figure 3 Division Microsite

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“Round Tables” (RTs) are yet another type of organizational

structure within ALA that is devoted to specific topics within the

profession. A member joins ALA and can pay an additional cost to

join one or more Round Tables (in addition to one or more

Divisions).

There are twenty (20) Round Tables, each of which has its own committees (“communities”) whose rosters

synchronize with iMIS. Round Tables do not have Offices or Sections.

ALA also has a sister organization called “ALA-APA” (“ALA-Allied

Professional Association”), which will have its own microsite.

ALA-APA has committees but not Offices, Divisions, Sections, or

Round Tables and will be a more traditional Higher Logic

implementation.

Challenges The traditional Higher Logic implementation doesn’t include this many unique types of structures, particularly

nested structures, within one software installation. While each microsite might seem like a fairly standard

implementation, the designer selected to create the information architecture and navigation across all 33 sites

will need to account for the different levels of nesting within each site, as well as ways to navigate and find

content across all of the sites.

For example, an ALA member who is a member of a Division and a Round Table is by default an ALA member,

which means they will have participations in three different microsites (ALA, Division, and Round Table). We

are seeking the optimal way to represent all of a member’s participations on their profile and a unified

navigation scheme that lets users easily move across sites while maintaining a cohesive experience.

In addition, there will be challenges displaying search results in a way that delineates which microsite a piece

of content is from and how users will be able to browse and search for groups. There are likely to be issues

with standard Higher Logic widgets that will need to be addressed. For example, the Community Navigator is

Figure 7 ALA-APA Microsite

Figure 5 Round Table Microsite

Figure 6 Round Table Overview

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not designed to reflect ALA’s complex structure, but we believe it cannot be removed from the interface. Our

goal is to allow members to access any of their groups within two clicks at most, but we’re unclear how this

will be possible across all 33 microsites. How can we reduce as much of this complexity as possible in the email

templates to easily delineate which microsite is sending notifications? These are just a few of the issues that

will need to be addressed creatively.

Deliverables Wireframes of the navigation and information architecture for the ALA Connect site, as well as creation of the

themes for the ALA and ALA-APA microsites plus one Division, one Office, one Round Table, and one

Committee/Section. Menus should be meaningful and action-oriented, and need to minimize the number of

clicks to get to a specific community. All pages need to be as ADA-compliant as possible.

Creation of a template for ALA search results pages, as well as wireframes for search results for each microsite,

including faceted searching for each which uses a hierarchical display.

Provide detailed instructions and training for how ALA staff can install the rest of the microsite templates and

modify them in the future.

A common set of graphics to use to maintain consistency for those interface pieces that are standard across all

of the sites.

Vendor Assurances Templates (for both microsites and emails) and functionality should look and work the same across the most current version of Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer/Project Spartan, and Mozilla Firefox.

Training & Documentation Designer will provide initial training for ALA staff for usage and first level support of all templates and themes. Describe your plan for training and any documentation to which both ITTS staff and group admins will have access.

Testing Describe your plan for assuring that the system works properly before the launch, including for site visitors using assistive technologies.

Communication & Project Management Identify the tool(s) to be used to communicate with ALA and manage the project. Detail the composition and skillsets of your project team and how you’ll approach the project, including for ongoing support after the launch.

Warranty & Support Options Describe any warranty provided as well as your system support plan and terms for both implementation and ongoing support.

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Budget /Pricing Provide a total price and any ancillary fees broken down by phase for all required features. Include

supplemental costs and pricing for support if extra. Any costs for adding desired features should be broken out

separately.

Questions & Inquiries Submit questions to Pamela Akins (pakins@ala.org, 312-280-4210). Proposals are due by 9:00 am CDT on September 19, 2016. Send your response to Sherri Vanyek (svanyek@ala.org) and Pamela Akins (pakins@ala.org). To prevent your proposal from possibly languishing in a spam filter, leave a voicemail for Pamela Akins (312-280-4210) with the sent from email address after you have emailed your proposal. We will confirm receipt of your proposal by email when we receive it.

About Your Company Provide information about your company’s legal structure, length of time in business, principal business activities, and other relevant information we should know. Describe your company’s principals; also provide relevant background information on those persons likely to be assigned to this project. Provide at least three references for similar projects that include UX design with a Higher Logic site using iMIS integration. If your company has been in business for less than five years, be prepared to provide ALA with financial statements for the past three years.

About ALA The American Library Association (ALA), founded in 1876, is the oldest and largest national library association in the world. Its concerns span all types of libraries: state, public, school, and academic libraries, and special libraries serving persons in government, commerce, and industry, the arts, the armed services, hospitals, prisons, and other institutions. ALA has about 55,000 members in the United States, Canada, and over 115 countries. The Association’s mission is to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all. With a membership of libraries, librarians, library trustees, and other interested persons from every state and many countries of the world, the Association is the chief advocate for the people of the United States in their search for the highest quality of library and information services. The Association maintains a close working relationship with more than 70 other library associations in the United States, Canada, and other countries, and it works closely with many other organizations concerned with education, research, cultural development, recreation, and public service organizations concerned with education, research, cultural development, recreation, and public services.

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In order to meet the needs of its varying constituencies and their concerns, ALA has developed into a complex organization with an array of membership units, including the ALA Council (the overall governing body), the Executive Board (central management body), ALA committees, 11 Divisions, 20 Round Tables, and 57 autonomous chapters of the ALA, each with its own elective structure. In sum, approximately 5,000 members are actively involved in the work of the Association. The ALA staff of over 270 persons consists of a small publishing enterprise in Middletown, CT, a lobbying and public policy office in Washington, D.C., a division office in Philadelphia, PA, and the main headquarters in Chicago. The information needs of the staff are as broad as the Association’s activities and also include association management issues such as meeting management, governing board operations, finance, and marketing. Most staff are “knowledge workers” with regular and frequent need to gather and synthesize data, information, and research in support of member activities or constituent information needs.

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Appendix 1

ALA.org responsive design wireframe – for reference to coordinate templates but

not to emulate

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Appendix 2

Challenge: How can our users quickly navigate between their groups? Some (quite a few) of our power users are in many groups. We need a way for them to be able to navigate

between the groups they manage with the fewest number of clicks to get there.

What we have now:

How do you propose to address this issue?

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Appendix 3

Challenge: How can we allow users to Browse all Groups, within the group

hierarchy?

What we have now:

How do you propose to address this issue?