Creating A Great
Web Design Brief

Web Design Brief Template

Creating A Great Web Design Brief

A design brief serves as a guide for the web design process. This is a very pertinent document, as it optimises a design project for better understanding between client and designer. A design brief is a project management tool that is very effective, as it helps you manage the expectations of your client. Every designer needs to know how to produce a good design brief.

Having said this, it is very important for both client and designer to learn how to make a well-structured design brief. We have brought you an in-depth explanation of a complete design brief which can help improve your skills in producing one.

website-design-brief

What is a web design brief?

This is a document that contains a detailed explanation of the entire design project. You can relate this with a proposal for a job, the difference here being that the job is already given to you. With the correct information, well inserted, it provides a kind of project workflow that eases your task. With this document, you can already see the end of your project before commencement. This will help you identify potential speed breakers and wrong decisions and avoid them.

Every designer handles the design brief production process separately in their own unique ways. However, it is always a good idea to design this brief with your client. That way, you can understand his needs better and get the client involved in the accountability of the final product of the project.

Web Design Brief Questions

Who Needs To Get A Design Brief?

1. A new business owner that is about to put out a website.

2. An already existing business owner with a website that is not producing the required results.

3. A web owner that requires an entire re-strategy and change of website.

Website design brief questions

Benefits of a Design Brief

  • It provides a medium for the involvement of both parties (designer and client) in the planning of the project.
  • It foresees potential mistakes and avoids them.
  • It gives the designer the necessary insights for the completion of the project.
  • It provides a free flow of work once commenced.
  • It remains valuable even after the completion of the project as it can be used as a case study for another pitch.
web-design-briefing

web design creative brief

Getting Yourself Ready For A Design Brief

Before starting the brief process, it can help to get a design brief template. There are some brief templates available online, and you can easily download one of these and make use of them. Also, do thorough research on the background, goals and visions of the company for which you are designing the website.  Here are some questions every potential website owner should ponder on when making a design brief;

Purpose of the website creation

If you have the best website and the wrong audience, it will be useless. You need to define your target. Who are you creating this site for? Who do you hope to reach with this website? You can go further to include demographics for more specification.

Target audience

An already existing business owner with a website that is not producing the required results.

Requirement for this website

What do you need for the realisation of this project?

Values outline

You might think it unnecessary, but a lot of serious clients always check to see the values of a website. Think about the values you would like to portray from your website.

What is your uniqueness

What difference are you bringing to the table?

Financial certainty

How much are you ready to invest into the development of your site?

Mode of approval

What are your criteria for the approval of the web design?

Time constraints

When do you hope to finish the design project? When do you intend to launch the website? You can also set time frames for expected results.

The list goes on and on, but you get the idea. If you are able to provide an honest answer to the questions above, you are halfway into the actualisations of your visions through your website.

how to write a web design brief

Who Should Write A Design Brief?

The designer, no matter how good he is will need a lot of help from the web owner to write the brief. In fact, the majority of the information required will come from the executive owner of the website.

If it is a company website, the board of directors can also be present in order to make joint, better decisions.

web-design-brief-questions

Here is some information the web owner needs to provide for the designer;

  • Features of the website and its functionality: List out the features you need your web to contain. A clear scope will help the designer understand what you expect your website to contain.
  • Key pages of the website: Depending on the kind of website being created, you must tell the designer your expected key pages. Usually, it is the homepage, about, contact, and service pages, but if you need more or less, then speak up.
  • Your content requirement
  • Map out your key call to action buttons on each page of your site: Explain the preferred position of the action button and type of action you would love the viewer to take.
  • Reference website: By pointing out the websites you like, you can give your designer useful clues as to your preference.
  • Your traffic generation strategy: How do you hope to drive traffic to your site? Would you run paid ads? Would you use physical advertisement?
  • Chosen domain names and hosting
  • What tools would be used for your analytics?

With this information, your website will have a clearer, more defined vision and a higher chance of achieving the aim. Remember that your brief is open to changes and upgrades. As you learn and get better, feel free to revisit your briefs and make necessary changes. If you need to upgrade your website or create a new, better website, this upgrade will be very useful to both you and your designer.

The latest articles in Web Design and SEO