UNDP Jobs: Country Office Website Development and Design
Terms of ReferenceRequirement: Website Development and Design
Duty Station: UNDP Country Office, Viet Nam
Duration: 2 months, starting in early February 2006
Deadline for Application: January 13th 2006
Summary
UNDP Viet Nam's website (www.undp.org.vn) is one of the most
important and cost-effective public information and
dissemination tools at the organization's disposal. The site
receives over 55,000 unique visitors per month from all over
the world. It is in many ways, UNDP's most important
publication. To date, the website has been a well-
functioning and bilingual site with loyal visitors,
providing basic information, while remaining relatively
up-to-date. It is however in need of a renovation to
simplify the design, improve the navigation and energize the
content. Another major consideration is that, UNDP
headquarters has recently introduced newly designed
templates to be adopted by Country Offices (for reference: http://www.undp.org/templates/)
This contract is available for an individual, or an
individual representing a larger team or company.
Main Objectives:
- To redesign the UNDP Viet Nam website to make it more
user-friendly, organized and innovative
- To adopt UNDP headquarters templates and apply them to
Viet Nam
- To introduce a Content Management System (CMS) to ensure
easy updating by a variety of UNDP technical and
non-technical staff
- To introduce innovative services such as RSS, podcasting,
user comment, etc
- To streamline content creation and an boost author
productivity
- To create an effective search engine
General tasks:
- General consultancy on orientation about website and all
its related architecture
- Implementation of new website architecture and graphics
- Creation of consistent templates using CMS for all pages
of website
- Assist in inputting content into templates
- Adoption of a CMS, including training for staff
- Advising, testing and assisting in installation of new
website on UNDP server
- Ensure easy downloading of site pages by minimizing use of
large graphics, optimizing all graphics and documents for
smaller file size
- Ensure HTML is W3C compatible
- Promotion of site at search engines
The new UNDP Viet Nam website should be well organized,
up-to-date and user-friendly -- both in terms of navigation
and language. Text on the site should be easily scanned, as
users want information fast and in a layout and design that
is easy to navigate and pleasant to the eye. Speed, design,
logic, innovation, relevance, accessibility… these are some
of the principles that will be used to guide the renovation
process.
Duties and Responsibilities
Support process of re-design, construction and transition of
new UNDP Viet Nam website, in close consultation with the
Media Publications Unit (MPU) and the UNDP Web Manager (WM)
Stage 1: Review, Consult and Recommend
- Review current website and make recommendations for
redesign, usability and technical requirements
- Review current MPU proposal and make recommendations
regarding design, architecture and implementation
- Review content requirements and make recommendations for a
Content Management System (CMS)
- Make recommendations regarding web traffic software and
integrated web log publishing software for detailed reports
of visitors to the website
- In coordination with UNDP IT manager, make recommendations
regarding any hardware (servers, Internet connections etc.)
or technical requirements
- Meet with MPU, WM and any relevant staff to go over
results
- Submit workplan to be reviewed and approved by UNDP
- Provide and install a tool to confirm the compatibility of
the HTML pages with W3C standards
- Install recommended web traffic software to collect the
"who, what, how long" types of statistics from visitors
- Evaluate current situation and introduce a database or
archiving system for previous versions of pages, graphics
and documents according to open archive principles
Stage 2: Design
- Attend and participate in a meeting with UNDP content
providers and users to understand various needs and to make
a presentation on the proposal including three template
design options
- Create all templates necessary for new site using new CMS
and the actual UNDP corporate design
- Install a modern, easy-to-use but secure content
management system with high compatibility and no proprietary
features. An open source CMS, (Zope/Plone or similar) is
preferred but other solutions can be offered
- Ensure content editing is fully cross-platform, allows
both WYSIWYG and HTML tag support, and meets W3C and/or
Section 508 standards for accessibility
- Maintain cross-platform, cross-browser compatibility so
that the web site is accessible from a variety of different
environments and electronic devices (pocket pc, wireless
etc)
- In collaboration with Web Manager, maintain adherence to
W3C and/or Section 508 standards and accessibility in
Vietnamese and English including support in both languages
for screen reading software for the visually impaired
- Ensure a consistent visual image on the new site by
introducing fixed styles in templates ensuring consistency
in fonts, formatting, icons, images, layout techniques, and
modularization, including maintenance of template and image
archives
- Review content, make recommendations and install a
quality, easy to use search engine for content in both
languages and (for Vietnamese) multiple language encoding
systems.
- Provide regular updates and drafts to MPU and collaborate
and work closely with UNDP webmaster and MPU as requested
- Ensure site hardware and structure suitable for online
surveys, video and audio streaming, webcam, podcasting, RSS
Stage 3: Integrate Content with Design
- Assist UNDP in the input of all relevant content using the
new CMS
- Ensure existing websites and pages deemed not appropriate
for CMS conversion are unaffected
- Incorporate UNDP feedback from Stage 2 meeting into this
phase, maintaining close contact with UNDP MPU and WM
- Develop graphics, logos and related multimedia content
where necessary
- Determine appropriate compression techniques, resolutions,
sizes, colour maps, and depths to insure that images are
delivered at sufficiently high speed and quality
- Develop META tags on each web page based on UNDP
standards, registration with major search engines
- Ensure design and content make all pages "print-friendly"
- Provide regular updates and drafts to MPU and collaborate
and work closely with UNDP Web Manager and MPU
- Create a scripting mechanism to convert legacy HTML files
to the new CMS-based pages
Stage 4: Upload and Test
- Upload offline site for review
- Check bugs and problems, diagnose and fix them
- Provide regular updates and drafts to MPU and collaborate
and work closely with UNDP webmaster and MPU
- Check W3C compatibility and scripts of the entire site
- Participate in and advise on "dry-run" of trial CMSuse
within the office
Stage 5: Follow-up and Continuity
- Assist/advise UNDP on the development of various web-based
tools we may wish to develop
- Provide complete technical documentation related to site
and its components
- Provide a diagram, site map of the website
- Train selected staff in all software and technical
requirements related to website renovation
Qualifications and Experience
Site Development:
- Extensive experience in web development, graphic design
and implementation of information-rich, user-friendly and
large websites
- Extensive experience with CMS, including experience with
both commercial and Open Source systems
- Advanced proficiency with HTML, including style sheets,
templates, complex tables and image maps. Must possess
working knowledge of basic composition, page layout, art and
office/web software packages such as MS Word, Excel,
Dreamweaver, Adobe PageMaker, Illustrator, Photoshop and
Acrobat (or Open Source Software equivalents)
Other Technical requirements:
- Experience with Linux/Unix system and server
administration
- Experience in web development programming languages (PHP,
perl, ASP, Python, JSP etc.)
- Knowledge of W3C standards such as XHTML, accessibility
standards, content sharing standards such as RSS/RDF and
Open Archives Initiative
- Experience with photographic manipulation, digital
painting. Digital audio and video experience highly
desirable
- Experience with new technologies like RSS, podcasts etc.
highly desirable
- Experience with web servers (Apache, Tomcat, IIS, Zope
etc.)
Communication / Management:
- Good command of written and spoken English and Vietnamese
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Willingness to work as key member of larger team with
minimum supervision
* * Applications for this post should include CMS
recommendations and justification.
Warranty:
The successful applicant will warranty all aspects of their
work for 12 months following the completion of this contract
without any additional charges.
Application Procedures
Interested candidates are invited to submit Proposals in
English, indicating "Proposal for UNDP Website"
to:
Ms. Nguyen Minh Ha
UNDP-Viet Nam
25-29 Phan Boi Chau street
Hanoi, Viet Nam
Fax: +84-4-942 2267
Email: registry.vn@undp.org
Applications must reach the above address no later than
17:00 P.M, 13 January 2006.
Only short-listed candidates will be notified three
weeks after the submission deadline.
