A Guide to Writing a Website Brief

A detailed and easy-to-understand web brief is essential for success. To write a website brief correctly, you should avoid leaving any space for misunderstanding since it can result in costly and time-consuming project changes.

To ensure the web designer produces a satisfactory end result, it is essential to incorporate the following 10 factors. No matter who is penning the brief, it is imperative that all of them be addressed.

Explain What Kind of Company or Organization the Site Is for

A corporate profile or overview should be included in your brief as one of the crucial items to include. The project’s trajectory and financial objectives will be defined by the brand’s principles, mission, and vision, so it’s crucial that the whole design team understands these things. Included here should also be a list of the key stakeholders.

This is especially useful for responding to problems that develop and for determining who to contact with particular deliverables that may be necessary to advance the project. Future expansion plans should also be included so that the design team can lay the groundwork for anticipated adjustments early on.

Develop an Overarching Plan for the Website or Project

The next step is to specify what your project will include and how far it will extend. Making sure everyone is on the same page about what it takes to make the end product a success requires extensive background information. Here are a few samples of what you may expect to find in this summary:

  • All anticipated deliverables, including the website and any supplementary assets (such as a logo, bespoke email address, or content), regardless of whether the project involves a complete overhaul of an existing website or its complete construction from scratch.
  • Problems that could develop and plans to fix them.
  • The project’s boundaries, as outlined in some detail.
  • How much say the customer thinks they will have during the creative process.
  • Include details on the voice or tone of the site’s text and images as well.

Last but not least, be sure to include the client’s branding elements and a rundown of the website’s essential features. To make the design a winner, you need to identify crucial features, for instance. Things like contact forms, social media integration, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons fall under this category.

Write a Website Brief

Project Objectives

After you have a good grasp of the project’s scope, the next step is to learn the website’s intended outcomes, such as the issues it hopes to address. Doing so will guarantee that the design accomplishes its goals, remains under budget, and prioritizes the client’s needs. The following are examples of client-requested outcomes for their website:

  • Raising the profile of the brand.
  • Get your name out there with an easily navigable and mobile-friendly website.
  • Raise the number of subscribers and revenue.
  • It is important to generate leads and queries.
  • Establish yourself as an authority in your field by writing blog posts, technical documentation, or online courses.

In addition, a section regarding the present or prior website (if any) could be useful. Let us know what you liked and didn’t like about the previous design so we can include your feedback into the new one. Here, it’s worth noting that setting up performance tracking could be crucial. For instance, you can evaluate your client’s marketing strategy’s efficacy by configuring a platform like Google Analytics to track pertinent metrics.

Figure Out Who Will Be Using the Site

The next step is to figure out who exactly will be using the website. As part of this process, we will collect demographic, firmographic, and psychographic data. Some examples of such information include their age, gender, values, occupation, and media consumption patterns, among other things.

You may create a site that is well-suited to its intended users if you have a firm grasp of this data. Keep in mind that you may need to gather this data on your own if your client does not have it on hand. The user research services you offer may be upsold as a result of this.

Analyze Rival Companies

Being aware of your client’s rivals is also a good idea. Using this as a guide, you may identify the most important aspects of the new website. Looking over their websites will give you a good idea of what they do and what makes them special. You should make mental notes of their successes and failures.

Making a list of consumer problems that your rivals have ignored gives you a chance to create a solution that fits your needs perfectly. Particular areas of importance, like essential functionality, should also be included. Lastly, to ensure clarity, remember to provide links and reference notes.

Make a List of All Design Inputs and Outputs

To avoid having to go through multiple modifications later on, make sure to include all the necessary technical requirements and specifications up front. This can also help you keep the client’s budget from getting out of hand by preventing scope creep. Here are a few things to include: user registration management, site login credentials, and more.

The kind of land you’re developing on will have an impact on these kinds of features. Items such as product types and variants, payment options, promo codes, shipping rates, and so on could be included in a brief for an online store. Be sure to incorporate any company-wide brand style guides as well.

By doing so, you may avoid making major revisions down the road and ensure that your branding remains consistent throughout the design.

Make a Plan or Timetable for the Project

A project can go on for as long as it needs to if a strict schedule isn’t necessary. But this is an outlier, not the rule. That is why you need to plan ahead and factor in potential setbacks and delays. If your team is aware of the timeline in advance, they can effectively allocate resources during development.

Keep in mind that your schedule ought to be practical. Do not promise a complete site design in two weeks if you are unable to complete the project to a satisfactory standard within that period.

Establish a Budget for Web Design

An essential part of the brief is the estimated cost for developing the website. It affects the scope and methodology of the project as a whole, as well as the specific technologies utilized to construct the site. If you’re working with a tight budget, for example, you might choose for a more stripped-down design and make more use of pre-made templates. A website builder or Content Management System (CMS) might be used for this purpose. On the other hand, if you have greater funding, your team can devote more effort to intricate design or premium services, such tailor-made solutions.

Outline the Project’s Outcomes

To ensure that all parties involved understand their responsibilities, a website brief should contain clear expectations. This necessitates that you incorporate all the agreed-upon outputs. This include not only the website but also any content, be it blog entries, case studies, or anything else.

Delays in this area can impact the launch of the website, after all. So that we can avoid problems by getting in touch early, it’s important to specify who is responsible for the copywriting and other deliverables. Knowing whether your client wants SEO-optimized content for their website is helpful.

You can increase sales by offering more services in this area. For instance, they could be clueless when it comes to internet marketing possibilities like Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising campaigns or the significance of creating a sitemap for the final product.

You should probably list your deliverables again in this part, even though you did so in the project summary. Establishing and maintaining the project’s scope and budget depend on clearly defining these things.

Explain Your Plan for Hosting and Upkeep

It is common practice for web design clients to delegate hosting and site management to their design agency. Experts in the field usually know more about the resources at their disposal and which services are the greatest fits. Include in this part of the web design brief important details like who will pay for the hosting and domain name and how much the client wants the designer to help them out in the future.

You must specify in the brief that you will be responsible for arranging your own hosting if you intend to commission a website with this intention. No matter who is in charge of this, it is critical to select a hosting company that allows for the creation of a safe and quick site.

You can start to write brief now that you have an idea of what should be included in one. But if you’d rather not start from scratch, we have our own free template that you can use exactly as is, only changing the fields as needed.

Fill out the Brief