Design, Content Development, Hosting And Maintenance Of  The Assar Website

ABOUT ASSAR

The Rwanda Insurers Association is an independent non-profit making consultative and advisory body for the insurance industry.

ASSAR is responsible for promoting cooperation among its members, protecting and prompting the members’ common interests, raising awareness about insurance, driving sector wide initiatives in the area of Innovation, Market Development, advocacy and capacity building. The Association currently has 12 members.  

Scope of Work

ASSAR is seeking have a new website to designed, replacing the old one, under the same domain www.assar.rw . our main objective is to have a modern looking and user-friendly website that share relevant information to visitors and also uniquely serve our members.

The site shall be designed as per the Functional and Technical Specifications requirements mentioned here under.  This shall include website development, design and content development.  

The scope of work shall be extended to include hosting and maintenance of the site upon launch.  However, this aspect shall be reviewed after development is completed.

PART a: WEBSITE Functional Specifications

The website should have the following functionalities, among others:

• A responsive design that is optimized for desktop and mobile devices A fresh, clean and modern look.
• Provision of a section for ASSAR members only to access member specific information such as industry data, training schedules, event details, circulars and other industry internal communication.
• The navigation style must ensure that the user, at all points in time, has access to all the major information points available in the website.
• Provisions for users to download files in PDF and HTML formats
• Ability for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to access the website
• All the content posted on the website should survive updates i.e. when new content is added; the old content should remain on the website archive.

Site arrangement and aesthetics

• The homepage should bear the corporate identity and logo,
• The space should be well utilized, and demarcated
• The homepage should be visually appealing in-terms of colour, content placement imaginative use of colour, graphics and images. – without affecting the loading speeds of the website
• The homepage should bear all the important information/links that users require when visiting the site – based on the analytics of the current website,
• The look and feel should transcend through all the pages
• The font should be easy to read and can be used in various typefaces (bold, italics, upper and lower case etc)
• There should be a provision for categorized links to other related/useful information web sites such as RRA, BNR, NATIONAL POLCE, RBA and other.
• All related information should be grouped together to make it easier for visitors to find related content
• The hierarchy of information should be clear,
• A site map should be included on all the web pages, to enable visitors navigate the website faster and easily,

Embedded pages -The website shall have embedded pages of the Association’s social media sites

Loading times -The web pages should be able to load fast enough. This is important for good usability.

Search capability

• The website should incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics including; indexing, use of key words, associated coding and cross linking among others to ensure high visibility for the website.
• A search input box should be provided
• Search facilities should be designed to suit individual needs. They should allow searches by:
  • Published date
  • File name
  • Topic, sub-heading or category in specific directories
  • Using keywords, phrases

Availability -The site should be available at all times. There should be minimal downtime.  The acceptable levels of availability shall be agreed upon during transition to hosting and maintenance by signing various service level agreements between the Association and the chosen developer.

Well Planned Information Architecture - Information on the site should be well organized and presented for good usability. The website should also offer a wide range of information and resources to attract the target audience. The website sections and categories should be well planned and information presented in a way that it is easy for users to find.

Well-Formatted Content That Is Easy to Scan - correct use of headings, sub-headings, paragraphs, bullets or lists should be used to help break up text, making it easy for readers to scan through key parts of the page quickly to determine if it is relevant to their needs.

Browser Consistency - How the website is interpreted by other browsers is key and must be taken into consideration. It will be important to ensure the new website appears and behaves consistently across all major browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

Effective Navigation - It is important when designing the new website to ensure that the navigation is clutter-free. The number of menu items should website standards. A drop-down menu or sub-navigation would be preferred. All the pages should be organized and named in a way that the target audience will easily understand. The website links should be distinct so that they can be easily identified. Use link titles to provide users with a preview of where each link will take them, before they have clicked on it. All the Links to related information should also be relevant and close to each other.

Valid Mark-Up & Clean Code - The website must adhere to the relevant web design best practices and standards so that it can be more robust and dependable. This will ensure the website will load faster and appear consistent across browsers and devices.

Site Graphics

• The graphics should be meaningful and of high quality – the Association will be provided with a selection to choose from.
• The graphics should be light so they do not affect loading time. This ensures that they can be viewed on small size (Mobile) and low-resolution screens
• The buttons should blend with the look and feel of the site
• Scrolling should be minimized on all pages.
• Static Pictures / banners should not be loaded on every page.
• Web page background should not interrupt the text.
• Columns of text should be narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen.
• There should be good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text.
• Define the height and width in all tables and graphics,
• Use space to break up long pages of text to ease reading and appeal.

Security

• The site must use HTTPS which is the current standard for website security and SSL will be in the name of ASSAR.
• The site must be compatible with HTTP/2 and new web platform APIs.
• The site must use secure URLs only.
• The site must always use search engine friendly URLs.
• The site must redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS.
• The site links to external URLs must be safe to improve performance and prevent security vulnerabilities.

Archiving Capabilities

• All the existing content shall be migrated to the new Website.
• The site should have scalable storage capability to enable archiving of the relevant records.

Content Management System (CMS)

• The site should run on a world proven and tested content management system (CMS), to be used by authorized personnel to regularly update the Web pages.
• The CMS should have customizable elements where necessary to allow proper content management.
• The CMS should also play a great role in organizing the flow of information on the site in a consistent manner.
• The Website should have audit trail capabilities of tracking and reporting any website updates.

Deliverables:

• Wireframes for the website's main pages
• Design mock-ups for the website's main pages
• A fully functional and tested website

REQUIREMENTS

1. A technical/creative proposal for the website. This should also include the timelines for developing the website and at least three similar assignments you have undertaken.
2. A financial proposal for developing the website
3. The sealed and clearly labelled RFP is to be delivered to the ASSAR Offices by 1^st February, 2023 at 3pm at M PEACE PLAZZA BLOCK C, 4^TH FLOOR or a signed and stamped copy send by email at administration@assar.rw  

The RFP is to be labelled as follows:

The Managing Director

Rwanda Insurers Association

RFP - ASSAR WEBSITE