Bids sought for OCA web site redesign project

The Orthodox Church in America is seeking bids for a redesign of its highly trafficked web site, https://www.oca.org.

During the first week of March 2016, Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, OCA, Secretary, issued a Request for Proposals for the project. encouraging Orthodox designers to submit bids.

“This represents a strong commitment on the part of the leadership of the OCA to expand and upgrade the communication needs of the faithful, and to engage those seeking the Orthodox Christian Faith, with the tools of the 21st century,” notes Father Eric.

The deadline for submitting bid packages is April 15, 2016.  All bids should be submitted to Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, PO Box 675, Syosset, NY 11791; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  Enquiries may be sent to Father Eric at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Prospectus for OCA.org Redesign


1. Project Design Scope.  The https://www.oca.org web site is the official communications medium for the Orthodox Church in America. It consists of a wide variety and large amount of material and resources for both the members of the Orthodox Church in America as well as for those interested in the work of the Church. The current web site was redesigned and redeveloped in 2011 which included much work on the technical aspects of the web site as well as a new look. Much of the material was reformatted, realigned and migrated to the new site. Since it is now five years after the redesign, the web site needs to update its look, realign the material and make navigation easier and more efficient. The project is based on a redesign and thematic changes rather than creating a new web site.

  • The site must have a more religious and church concept around its look and navigation.
  • There should be a new homepage which keeps the navigation above the fold and directs to different thematic areas.

Each of these areas will need a consistent and redesigned theme which aligns the sections of the web site with each other. It is estimated to be four to six subsections. The team will provide suggested landing page design with forms and call to action buttons needs.

  • There should be a new navigation to social media sites that are utilized by the OCA.
  • Indexing will be redone to be consistent with provided categories in order to make navigation simpler and more efficient with a minimum amount of sub-categories.
  • The homepage may need to have rotating content based around news integrated with content that will remain either highlighted for longer or indefinite periods.
  • Church-wide organizations and resources will need to be more easily located and utilized.
  • Other work on important aspects of Church life will need to be highlighted.
  • Designer must be able to grasp and demonstrate understanding of the OCA aesthetic — design survey results available upon request.
  • Must be able to complete work in project boundaries. The expected start date is Summer 2016. Proposals and designs ideas are due April 15, 2016.
  • User experience and information architecture critical to project: designer must have demonstrated experience in site architecture.
  • Designer must be able to work with current technical team and material including Semantic HTML5+CSS markup.  Our team will deploy design using ExpressionEngine.  Pages must load in < 5 sec over SSL on a phone (specs: webpagetest.org, Dulles VA, iPhone 6 over a 780 Kbps 3G connection with 200ms latency).

2. Bid requirements:

  • Total amount, and breakdown, of design fee.
  • List of sites designed, and portfolio.
  • Cover letter that explains why you are the right designer for this project, and what you see as the critical needs of https://www.oca.org as you evaluate the existing site and look towards an upgrade.
  • Three client references.