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Creating a Website Design Brief

1. What does your company do?

Never assume that the designer will know anything about your company. Be clear and concise. Provide a link to a website for your trade association and a copy of your mission statement (if exists)

2. What is the purpose of the website?

What are the main objectives for the site? Why?
Are there any other reasons for the website?
Are you trying to sell more products, provide better service or get awareness of your product / service?
How do you differ from your competitors?
Do you want to completely reinvent yourself or are you simply updating your promotional material?

Tip: You should also provide old promotional material to assist the designer.

3. Who is the target market?

What is your target market - market sector, company size & key competitors

4. What text & pictures are needed?

The text and pictures used in a design are as crucial as the design itself and you should clearly state who is going to be providing the copy and pictures if needed. You may need to look into getting a professional copywriter / photographer - ask your designer for some recommendations.

What copy needs to be included in the design? Who is providing the copy?
What pictures / photographs / diagrams etc need to be used? Who is providing these?
What are the specifications?

5. Decide the Navigation Structure

For a website the navigation is key - you need to think what navigation is needed, We usually suggesting creating an organisational chart to display the pages and how they link together

The usability of the navigation is a critical part of the user experience design

6. Have you got a benchmark in mind?

You should provide the designer with some examples of what you consider to be effective or relevant design even if it is from your main competitors. This will set a benchmark for your designer.

Provide a list of sites you like and if you have strong opinions sites you do not like

7. What Pages will you need layouts for

Home Page
Standard Static Page
Categories with Sub Categories
Product List
Product Detail View
News Page
Shopping Basket
Other Critical Pages

8. What Is Your Budget?

Providing a budget helps set expectations on both sides and ensures what you want can be delivered in your exected price range

9. What is the time scale / deadline?

Give the designer a detailed schedule of the project and set a realistic deadline for the completion of the work. You should take into account the various stages of the design project such as consultation, concept development, production and delivery.