The Town of Duck is seeking proposals from qualified web design and development firms for a comprehensive website redesign and Content Management System (CMS) implementation.
This project will deliver a modern, secure, and fully accessible website that serves as a central communications hub for residents, visitors, businesses, and stakeholders. Scope of work includes strategic planning, website design and development, CMS implementation, content migration, third-party integrations, accessibility compliance, staff training, and ongoing support.
The Town is looking for a scalable, mobile-first solution that improves usability, enhances transparency, streamlines services, and meets ADA, Section 508, and WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards. The selected firm will play a key role in transforming the Town’s digital presence into an intuitive and easy-to-manage platform for both users and staff.
Design Requirements
REQUIRED (MUST-HAVE) WEBSITE AND CMS REQUIREMENTS
The proposed solution must meet all requirements outlined below.
1. Strategic and Functional Requirements
- The website must serve as a trusted, transparent public communications platform.
- The solution must reduce operational inefficiencies through automation and system integrations.
- The platform must support future growth and expansion without requiring redesign.
- The website must provide an integrated analytics system for tracking usage, engagement, and performance metrics.
2. Accessibility and Compliance
- The website must provide full, ongoing compliance with:
- ADA
- Section 508
- WCAG 2.2 Level AA (preferred minimum)
- The solution must include:
- An automated accessibility widget
- Automated daily compliance scans
- Ongoing monitoring and compliance reporting
- Automated remediation where technically feasible
- Elimination of manual HTML remediation by Town staff
- Robust ADA Compliance statement ensuring the website is always audit- ready
- Act as primary point of contact for any issues or adjustments required for website accessibility
- The system must:
- Support proper image tagging and accessibility attributes
- Enforce accessibility best practices within the CMS
- Provide monthly audits of compliance updates and website improvements
3. Content Management System (CMS)
- The proposed CMS must:
- Be user-friendly for non-technical staff and require no programming knowledge.
- Include a WYSIWYG editor.
- Support multi-user content creation and editing.
- Provide role-based permissions and access controls (by user role, IP, or email).
- Include workflow tools (draft, review, publish states).
- Support custom content types and custom fields.
- Provide flexible page templates.
- Allow editable navigation, sub-navigation, and multi-level menu systems.
- Support content tagging, categorization, and filtering.
- Include content versioning and audit logs.
- Provide usage statistics and logging.
- Support descriptive URLs and SEO best practices.
- Allow manual editing of meta data (Page Title, Meta Title, Meta Description, Meta Image, crawl settings).
- Generate an automated XML sitemap.
- Include robots.txt configuration capabilities.
- Support RSS feeds.
- Allow easy updates without custom coding.
- Support multi-site capability (if applicable).
4. Search and Information Architecture
- The website must include an advanced, robust search engine.
- Search functionality must:
- Index and search documents (PDF, Word, and similar formats).
- Support dynamic keyword searching.
- Provide content tagging and filtering capabilities.
- The architecture must support filterable content collections (e.g., directories, rule sets, document libraries).
- The system must be fully indexable by external search engines.
5. Design and User Experience
- The website design must:
- Be fully responsive and optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.
- Include development of custom graphic themes.
- Utilize a modular or atomic design framework.
- Provide a comprehensive pattern library including:
- Buttons
- Tiles
- Accordions
- Tabs
- Media display components
- Calls-to-action
- Be visually appealing and standardized across departments.
- Meet accessibility design standards.
- Include an online, flexible event calendar with third-party integration capability.
6. Media and Content Features
- The website must include:
- Media management system for images, video, and audio.
- Photo galleries and lightboxes.
- Video and audio embedding capabilities.
- Embedded forms.
- News module.
- Social media integration with current and future platforms.
- External data integration capabilities.
- Data dashboards (if applicable).
7. Performance and Technical Standards
- The website must:
- Follow modern web standards (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript).
- Use non-proprietary programming frameworks.
- Render correctly in major browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.
- Utilize minified CSS and JavaScript.
- Implement lazy loading for optimized performance.
- Support CDN and caching capabilities.
- Include secure hosting recommendations or hosting services.
- Provide analytics.
Proposal Deadline: May 14, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. EST
Firms with experience in municipal or public-sector website projects are encouraged to apply. Evaluation will be based on qualifications, experience, project approach, and cost.
View the full RFP document for complete details and submission requirements.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
Proposals must be received by 5:00 p.m. EST on May 14, 2026.
RFP Contact:
Kay Nickens
Public Information and Events Director
PO Box 8369 Duck, NC 27949
252-255-1234
knickens@ducknc.gov
Proposals must be clearly marked:
“Website Redesign RFP Submission – Town of Duck”
Electronic submissions are acceptable.