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

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

Issued byAsia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF Canada)RFP reference no.APFC-2026-UX-01Date issuedOctober22, 2026Questions dueNovember 2, 5:00 p.m. PTProposals dueNovember23, 5:00 p.m. PTSubmit to[communications@asiapacific.ca]

1. About APF Canada
The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada is Canada’s only national public‑purpose institutiondedicated exclusively to Canada‑Asia engagement. Our vision is a prosperous, secure Canadashaping its future through high‑impact engagement with Asia, and our mission is to enableCanadians 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 implementablerecommendations for modernizing the site’s structure, usability, and visual design–withoutdiminishing the visibility of our core research outputs, programs, and networks.

This engagement is astrategic re-design engagement.It is not an implementation contract (seeSection 6).

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

1. Understand our audiences. Establish whoactually usesasiapacific.ca, what they come for,and where the current experience fails them – grounded in analytics and primary userresearch, not assumption.
2. Simplify the information architecture. Recommend a navigation and content taxonomythat 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 patternsappropriate to a large and growing publications archive.
4. Modernize the visual design. Recommend a contemporary, credible, distinctly APFCanada visual direction appropriate to a national policy institution – clean, readable, andconfident rather than decorative.
5. Clarify the digital ecosystem. Advise on the relationship between asiapacific.ca and oursatellite properties.

4. Timeline

RFP issuedOctober22, 2026Deadline for written questionsNovember 2, 2026Answers posted to all proponentsNovember 6, 2026

Proposals due

November23, 2026, 5:00p.m. PT

Anticipated engagement duration is[14–18] weeksfrom kickoff. Proponents should propose aschedule aligned to their methodology and flag any dependencies on APF Canada staffavailability.

5. Budget
The total budget for this engagement isnot to exceed C$30,000,inclusive of all professionalfees, participant incentives, software and research tool costs, travel, and applicable taxes.

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

6. Proposal Requirements
Proposals must not exceed20 pagesexcluding appendices, CVs, and portfolio samples, andmust 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 onyour own review of asiapacific.ca. We are particularly interested in what you observethat we may not have.
2. Proposed approach and methodology– including research methods, participantrecruitment strategy, and how you will balance modernization against preservation ofour core content.
3. Work plan and schedule– phases, milestones, deliverables, and dependencies.
4. Team– named individuals, roles, time allocation, and relevant experience. Identifywho will lead the engagement and who will conduct research and design. Note anysubcontractors.
5. Relevant experience– three comparable projects, ideally involving content-heavy,research-driven, mission-based, bilingual, or public-sector organizations. Include clientreferences with contact information (references contacted only for shortlistedproponents).
6. Portfolio– samples demonstrating both research rigour and design quality. Wherepossible, include evidence of measured outcomes.
7. Bilingual and accessibility capability– describe your French-language researchcapacity and your accessibility expertise, including relevant certifications or auditingexperience.
8. Detailed budget– as described in Section5.
9. Assumptions, exclusions, and requirements of APF Canada.

7.Submission Instructions
Submit proposals as a single PDF to[communications@asiapacific.ca]with the subject line“APFC-2026-UX-01–[Proponent Name]”no later thanNovember23, 2026,5:00 p.m. PacificTime.Late submissions will not be considered.

Written questions may be submitted to the same address untilNovember 2, 2026.Questionsand answers will be compiled, anonymized, and circulated to all registered proponents toensure fairness.

Contact:Michael Roberts,Communications Director, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada,michael.roberts@asiapacific.ca