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 2 3 , 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:

- 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.

- 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.

- Make our research findable.  Recommend search, filtering, and browsing patterns appropriate to a large and growing publications archive.

- 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.

- 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 2 3 , 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:

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

Page of

- 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.

- Proposed approach and methodology – including research methods, participant recruitment strategy, and how you will balance modernization against preservation of our core content.

- Work plan and schedule – phases, milestones, deliverables, and dependencies.

- 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.

- 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).

- Portfolio – samples demonstrating both research rigour and design quality. Where possible, include evidence of measured outcomes.

- Bilingual and accessibility capability – describe your French-language research capacity and your accessibility expertise, including relevant certifications or auditing experience.

- Detailed budget – as described in Section 5 .

- 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 2 3 , 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]