User Experience (UX) Review and Redesign Recommendations for asiapacific.ca

Request for Proposals: User Experience (UX) Review and Redesign Recommendations for asiapacific.ca

Issued by Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF Canada) RFP reference no. APFC-2026-UX-01 Date issued October 22, 2026 Questions due November 2, 5:00 p.m. PT Proposals due November 23, 5:00 p.m. PT Submit to [[email protected]]

1. About APF Canada
The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada is Canada’s only national public‑purpose institution dedicated exclusively to Canada‑Asia engagement. Our vision is a prosperous, secure Canada shaping its future through high‑impact engagement with Asia, and our mission is to enable Canadians to understand, connect with, and succeed in Asia.

2. Background and Purpose
APF Canada is seeking a qualified UX consultant or firm to conduct an independent, evidence-based review of asiapacific.ca and to deliver clear, prioritized, and implementable recommendations for modernizing the site’s structure, usability, and visual design – without diminishing the visibility of our core research outputs, programs, and networks.

This engagement is a strategic re-design engagement. It is not an implementation contract (see Section 6).

3. Objectives
The successful proponent will help APF Canada achieve the following:

1. Understand our audiences. Establish who actually uses asiapacific.ca, what they come for, and where the current experience fails them – grounded in analytics and primary user research, not assumption.
2. Simplify the information architecture. Recommend a navigation and content taxonomy that is intelligible to a first-time visitor while still surfacing the full breadth of our research, programs, and networks.
3. Make our research findable. Recommend search, filtering, and browsing patterns appropriate to a large and growing publications archive.
4. Modernize the visual design. Recommend a contemporary, credible, distinctly APF Canada visual direction appropriate to a national policy institution – clean, readable, and confident rather than decorative.
5. Clarify the digital ecosystem. Advise on the relationship between asiapacific.ca and our satellite properties.

4. Timeline

RFP issued October 22, 2026 Deadline for written questions November 2, 2026 Answers posted to all proponents November 6, 2026

Proposals due

November 23, 2026, 5:00 p.m. PT

Anticipated engagement duration is [14–18] weeks from kickoff. Proponents should propose a schedule aligned to their methodology and flag any dependencies on APF Canada staff availability.

5. Budget
The total budget for this engagement is not to exceed C$30,000, inclusive of all professional fees, participant incentives, software and research tool costs, travel, and applicable taxes.

Proponents must provide a detailed cost breakdown by phase and by deliverable. Where a proponent believes the objectives cannot be fully met within this budget, they should identify which elements they would recommend prioritizing and price optional components separately.

6. Proposal Requirements
Proposals must not exceed 20 pages excluding appendices, CVs, and portfolio samples, and must include:

1. Cover letter (1 page) – primary contact, firm overview, and a statement of interest.

Page of

1. Understanding of the assignment – your reading of APF Canada’s challenge, based on your own review of asiapacific.ca. We are particularly interested in what you observe that we may not have.
2. Proposed approach and methodology – including research methods, participant recruitment strategy, and how you will balance modernization against preservation of our core content.
3. Work plan and schedule – phases, milestones, deliverables, and dependencies.
4. Team – named individuals, roles, time allocation, and relevant experience. Identify who will lead the engagement and who will conduct research and design. Note any subcontractors.
5. Relevant experience – three comparable projects, ideally involving content-heavy, research-driven, mission-based, bilingual, or public-sector organizations. Include client references with contact information (references contacted only for shortlisted proponents).
6. Portfolio – samples demonstrating both research rigour and design quality. Where possible, include evidence of measured outcomes.
7. Bilingual and accessibility capability – describe your French-language research capacity and your accessibility expertise, including relevant certifications or auditing experience.
8. Detailed budget – as described in Section 5.
9. Assumptions, exclusions, and requirements of APF Canada.

7. Submission Instructions
Submit proposals as a single PDF to [[email protected]] with the subject line “APFC-2026-UX-01 – [Proponent Name]” no later than November 23, 2026, 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Late submissions will not be considered.

Written questions may be submitted to the same address until November 2, 2026. Questions and answers will be compiled, anonymized, and circulated to all registered proponents to ensure fairness.

Contact: Michael Roberts, Communications Director, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, [email protected]