Green Budget Europe Website Proposal

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a proposal for the development of Green Budget Europe’s very own website. Working together, I am confident that we can create a stylish, professional and highly functional site that is fine tuned to the various users' needs and provides a platform for the very important work of reforming our economic system. 

Based on the terms of reference document and a follow up conversation, I have identified a series of needs and  have proposed solutions in the following sections of this proposal document.

Green Budget Europe has the unenviable task of establishing its identity as a fully formed NGO and elevating the ideas surrounding Environmental Fiscal Reform into mainstream politics on both an international and EU level. It has to achieve this with limited means and money.

More specifically Green Budget Europe needs it’s own website that presents a professional and well thought out image in order to convey integrity and expertise to the website’s user. This is a pre-requisite in establishing the credibility of such a far reaching policy reform in people’s minds. The spectrum of users of this website will be very wide but primarily targeted at individuals who are already actively engaged in EFR/GBE and will depend on the site for information such as news, publications and events. The secondary purpose of the website will be to present to the general public a clearly articulated picture of who GBE is, what the ideas behind EFR are and how people can support those ideas.

As such GBE needs solutions that will:

Advertise events and make it easy for users to attend (including description, details, google maps & calendar integration)

Showcase the range of media and publications in a clear and easy to find manner

Give people a clear path in how they can support GBE (donations, become a member, social media)

Have a CMS (Content Management System) that is easy to use and understand, allowing GBE staff to easily maintain the existing content as well as create attractive new pages through the use of a drag and drop layout builder

Be “Responsive”, i.e. have a flexible layout that adapts to computers, tablets and smartphones

Have enough flexibility to adapt and incorporate the long range goals of GBE, such as selling EFR to the general public

Be hosted by an internet service provider that is powered by renewable energy

Pull all this off in a highly cost effective manner.

 

Wordpress

Why Wordpress? It's simple, easy to use, intuitive and cost effective. This is part of the reason why it is the most popular CMS in use today. Wordpress has more than enough functionality to deliver the specific requirements for this relatively simple site. Other CMS systems (such as Drupal, Joomla and Typo3) can cater for a higher degree of complexity but the effort to get there is also significantly higher. In this sense, Wordpress also meets the needs of those who will be maintaining and editing the site content, as it has been specifically designed for non-coders. 

Template

There is no need to individually code a website such as this. Wordpress (and other CMS systems) are largely mature products and as such, the code already exists and can be bought off the shelf as templates for as little as 30-50 Euro. This is highly recommended as not only have these product been tried, tested and refined but they will also save a huge amount of money as the effort does not need to be directed towards replicating code and functionality, instead it can be directed on visual design and readability (where the emphasis should be).

The trick then becomes selecting a template that has the look and functionality needed for GBE (though of course this can be tweaked where required).  A shortlist of potential templates in order of preference is listed below and all have live demonstrations online which I recommend exploring as this will give you an extremely good idea of what the final site could look like and how it will function (think of it as wireframes ++).

Vantam Template - click the link to launch the online demo. This template is extremely well suited to the needs of the GBE website as well as being beautifully styled. It has excellent events pages, integrated donation functionality, a comprehensive drag and drop page builder as well as all the other usual Wordpress functionality. 

Kause Template

Advocator Template

Customisation

The template will then be adapted to the desired look (colour, fonts, logo, menu structure) and the site content filled in. 

Information Design

Information design is all about how information is presented to the user. It incorporates text, headings, graphics, visual style and how these elements are pieced together to create a successful information flow. 

Graphics

Graphic development is hugely important as our humans brains are wired to process visual information. Successful graphics not only engage the user, but also allow them to process information at a much faster rate than text, and with a far higher degree of accuracy. 

For basic website functions, such as information flow and directing users to where they need to go, attractive icons, arrows and buttons go a long way to enhancing the usability and overall experience. This is doubly important for the task of conveying information and ideas such as presenting who GBE is and the ideas surrounding EFR.

Look At The Information Flow!

Precise Wording

What you don’t say is just as important as what you do say. This is an area of web design that is frequently overlooked and not worked on enough. The vast majority of users only read a fraction of the webpage content, skimming for the information they want and can be quickly turned off by large chunks of text. Working on making the first few sentences extremely clear and targeted to the user (using the principles of “do they need to know this”) is critical in grabbing the reader and keeping them engaged (along with the use of graphics). Good wording takes time and emphasis should be placed on getting this right, especially for the most important pages.

This includes wordpress installaton, template selection and implementation, analytics software installation, customisation of website appearance and development of Green Budget Europe Logo.

This includes development of website structure, events & donation setup, photo and graphic library and the filling in of all the pages contained within the site.

This includes developing a website manual (online & offline) and running a tutorial session via video conference call which will be recorded and made available for future viewing.

Includes the selection, application and 1 annual payment for a web-hosting server powered by renewable energy.

A report based on the analytics results that presents the most relevant & useful statistics (as opposed to most of the rest) and gives recommendations on what on the site could be changed to improve usability.

This includes the selection and purchase of the best professional template for the needs of the GBE website.

This includes the development of customised graphics for the entire website and writing of all webpages in accordance with the Precise Wording section. All writing will be approved by GBE staff before being signed off as complete. All graphic files will be made available for use in other publications in a variety of formats.

This includes the development of customised graphics for the entire website. All graphic files will be made available for use in other publications in a variety of formats.

Graphics can be ordered individually. Price will depend on the complexity and size of each item.

This includes writing of all webpages in accordance with the Precise Wording section. All writing will be approved by GBE staff before being signed off as complete.

This includes writing of individual webpages in accordance with the Precise Wording section. All writing will be approved by GBE staff before being signed off as complete.

This includes an assessment of all pages to highlight what is good, what is bad and how it can be written better. This does not include the writing of the pages themselves.

Animated elements can greatly improve engagement and cognition in teaching concepts. Individual elements can be arranged through consultation and will be priced according to complexity.

Animated videos, similar to above but in longer form and with sound, can help orientate user to how the site functions or explain concepts such as EFR. Individual videos can be arranged through consultation and will be priced according to complexity. 

If you agree to go forward with the project with me, here is the schedule for payments of the fee:

50% of the project total (excluding optional items) is due before work commences.

50% of the project total + 100% of any optional items is due after work is complete and before launch of the website. 

I will launch the website on the agreed upon date (during August), providing there is no balance due.

I have been active in the energy and climate change communication space for the last 3 years after 3 years experience in working as an engineer in the Australian energy efficiency scene. Not only do I share the central aim of wanting EFR implemented in economic policy but I also have experience and skills to meet GBEs needs in both web and information design. Because of this my motivation is to give GBE tremendous value for money. I do this so your precious resources can be channelled into projects that will make a real difference.

If you would like to see a sample of my capabilities I invite you check out my website

here

here

and here

EFS - Green Budget Europe Trial Video from Matt Beer on Vimeo.

Once project fee is paid in full:

The GBE logo will be owned entirely by GBE and all files will be transferred so that the logo can be replicated in other publications to industry standards.

 

The website template licence will be owned by you, allowing GBE an ongoing, non-exclusive, worldwide license to make use of the digital work contained within the template. GBE can not re-distribute the Item as stock, in a tool or template, or with source files.

Any stock material purchased (such as photographs) will be owned by GBE in accordance to the licence it was purchased with. This usually means that GBE will have an ongoing, non-exclusive, right to use the stock on the website and in publications. Use of stock material outside the organisation would be a breach of licence. 

The intellectual property rights to the graphics used within the GBE site & publications are still owned by me (Matthew Beer) however GBE has full permission to use as they wish within the organisation. Use of graphics outside of the organisation may be granted with permission.

I hope to be working with you very soon. If you have any questions do not hesitate to send me an email.

Matt