Invitation to tender – AIM website refresh

Brief: AIM website refresh 2024  

1. AIM  

The Association of Independent Museums (AIM) was established in 1977. It currently has around 1,200 members comprising independent museums, individuals and suppliers and is thus one of the largest heritage associations in the UK.  

2. aim-museums.co.uk 

Attracting around 7.7k users monthly, AIM’s website is a key resource for current and potential AIM members. It hosts guidance, case studies, news, vacancies, and details of member exclusive grants.  

As many AIM resources are available to all, but many grants are exclusive to members, the site also acts as a ‘shop window’ for non-members. Getting non-member visitors to the ‘Join AIM’ pages is thus a key site goal.  

The structure, content and design of the AIM website was last reviewed in 2020, although small adjustments have been made since.  

3. Aims  

Supporting growth in membership:  

As AIM looks ahead to our 50th anniversary in 2027 we are focusing on growing our services and membership. The AIM website should reflect this ambition. It should be clear to potential new members and potential partners landing on the site who AIM is and what we do. The website needs to support the organisation’s growth plans by making it simple to navigate the site, whether for new members to find the Join AIM pages, or for existing members to find the support they need. New services and our authoritative voice should be immediately apparent. The website needs to work harder to showcase all that AIM has to offer. 

4. Key areas for consideration 

4a Improving User experience through insights and a more effective site structure:  

User testing and analytics  

What user testing should we be doing to help improve the site?  

What should we be looking at in GA4 to track on a regular basis?  

Understanding and optimising user journeys 

We want help to better understand how users navigate through the site. For example, AIM’s weekly eNews (sent to 4,600 recipients) is key in terms of driving traffic but our understanding of subsequent actions is limited, hampering our ability to set site goals. What do people do once they’re on the site?  

Setting goals and improving traffic to key pages 

The top three most viewed pages on the site are consistently – homepage, job vacancies and trustee vacancies. How can we drive more traffic to ‘Join AIM’?  

Terminology and structure 

How can we help users find the wealth of useful resources on the site? Do we need to look at structure or terminology, especially ‘Helping organisations’ and ‘For AIM members’? Do users know the difference between ‘Helping organisations’ i.e. help available for anyone, and ‘For AIM members’ i.e. help available to AIM members only.  

Filter functions 

aim-museums.co.uk/helping-organisations/resources/  

Once a user is on the ‘resources’ page, they have the option to filter, it would be helpful to understand if people choose this option and whether we need to consider different wording to make these options clearer. Can filtering options be simplified? Tagging by resource ‘type’ is likely to be useful to the user, should this be the first filter option, or the only filter option?  

https://aim-museums.co.uk/helping-organisations/case-studies/  

The ‘case study’ section does not have a filter option, but given the volume of case studies, would likely be a sensible addition here.  

Again, user behaviour should inform what changes should be made to make this section easier to navigate.  

4b Improving Homepage design:  

We’d like the homepage to work harder to promote our key messages. 

The carousel format works well but the preference is to have an image plus text to promote e.g. AIM Conference, the latest grant scheme, advocacy news etc. This information is currently relatively hidden down the page, and the header section that people would likely see more often hasn’t changed for a couple of years.  

Any new functionality should be easy to update via Word Press although it’s not anticipated that it would change more than once or twice a month.  

4c Modernising Conference web pages:  

https://aim-museums.co.uk/aim-conference-2024/   

The AIM Conference is our flagship event and a significant income driver. The conference web pages are built using existing functionality within Word Press. There is a lot of information to share and several key messages that we know are important to delegates before they buy their tickets. We would like to look at a simpler presentation of the information, particularly for the programme pages. We want to make it easier for delegates to find key sections, depending on which information is most important to their decision to attend conference.   

We would like to consider new functionality for these pages, such as a + button to expand content. Such functionality could also be used on other text heavy pages e.g. grant schemes.    

4d Improving accessibility: 

AIM is keen to improve the site’s accessibility score and all developments need to be made in this context; we welcome advice on what further actions are required beyond this development project to sustain improvements to accessibility.   

5. Points to note:  

• It is expected that all design work will adhere to the AIM brand guidelines, available on request.  
• AIM plans to introduce a grants portal, for members making applications to our grants scheme. This will likely be cloud based and will plug into the site. The timing for this development is TBC. 
• The budget available is inclusive of any proposed development work. 

6. Timings:  

• Brief issued: April 2024 
• Option to speak to the AIM team: contact Catrin Salvatore to arrange on catrin@aim-museums.co.uk 
• Proposal to be received: 5pm 26 April 2024 
• AIM to commission work: early May 2024 
• Work to be completed: by end of December 2024 

 7. Budget:  

Up to £10,000 including VAT  

8. Requirements: 

Response to brief outlining  

1. Your approach on how you would address the brief  
2. Detail of actions you would undertake and relevant implementation timelines  
3. Detailed costings broken down against actions above  
4. Overview of you and your organisation  
5. Details of comparative work to date 
6. Outline of working methods, approach  

 Proposals to be sent to Catrin Salvatore on catrin@aim-museums.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 26 April