A Guide to Writing a Great Website Design Brief.

Why Write a Design Brief?

For anyone planning a new website or overhaul of an old website, we’re here to tell you that a great small business website starts with a great brief. The problem is briefs are hard and time-consuming so most people skip this critical step. 

If you’re one of those people that hates writing a brief - don’t worry, we’ve got a step-by-step guide for you. We’ve also provided a template for you to download and use for your next project brief.

As part of my training at American Express, I was sent to Ogilvy to learn how to write a good brief. Twenty-five years later (gasp) I still have the original deck and yes I still refer back to it from time to time.

A good agency like Ogilvy is a true partner, not just someone you hire - they care deeply about your business, hold important knowledge about your brand and most importantly work as hard as you do to make your business a success. That’s what you want in an agency.

But even if it is just me and the dog working alone - I still write a brief because I find it helps focus on what’s really important and define my key objectives and key results (OKRs). 

Additionally, a good web design brief helps to:

1. Highlight any gaps in your thinking or resources.

2. Reduce the likelihood of costly assumptions or oversights.

3. Speed up the project because it reduces the need for a lengthy discovery and gets everyone on the same page.

4. Make the chances of success greater because you’ve managed expectations and anticipated problems earlier.

5. Inspire truly great work.

How long does it take to write a good web brief?

That depends on how many briefs you written, the complexity of the project and the number of stakeholders involved. 

If you’re a solo entrepreneur you might be able to do it in a day but most good design briefs take several days even weeks especially if you need to compile information and research from multiple sources.

The Discovery Process

Most website designers including Ascender Creative start with a discovery process. This first phase helps designers and agencies to:

• Get to know you, your business, your customers and your competitors.

• Define the scope of the project including key website priorities, required features and 

• Highlight who is responsible for what and identify any gaps that might need filling (things like copywriting or new photography).

If you have done a good design brief then this phase should be a breeze.  

And now our step by step guide…

Download this template below

Our Step by Step Guide to Writing a Web Design Brief

Project Requirement

This is where you provide a high-level description of what you need to be done and why - i.e. your business objectives.

Example:

To build a new website to replace our outdated and clunky WordPress site (www.oldwebsite.com) with a new site that makes it easier and quicker for clients to order online with minimal offline support. The project will cover concept, design, development as well as post-launch maintenance and support.   

The next step is to provide some background on your business, both historical and contextual. 

Start with the basic business information. Things like where and how long the business has been operating, what the business is known for and the status of the business now.

Then go on to outline the key opportunities and challenges facing your business and how this relates to the project requirement.  

Go deeper and talk about your customer proposition remembering to start with the why. 

1. Why do you exist? What is the problem you solve? Think of this through the eyes of your customer.

2. How do you do this in a way that is different from your competitors?

3. What is it that you offer? (e.g. the actual products and services)

Need a refresher? See our post on Start with the Why. 

Take some time to discuss your competition.

I had one client tell me he didn’t think he had any competition and I am here to tell you EVERYONE has competition. We have direct competitors - businesses that target the same customers with similar products/services to ours (e.g. Coke and Pepsi).

Indirect competitors - businesses that compete for the same customers using different products or services - for example, Coke and Evian Water compete to satisfy the same thirsty individuals. 

Future competition comes from businesses that aren’t in the marketplace yet - they might be existing businesses thinking about entering a new space either through product development or vertical or horizontal integration. An example was Coke purchasing Minute Maid in 1960 and entering the juice market. 

With this in mind…

• Describe your key competitors and their strengths and weaknesses.

• Describe your potential future competitors and the threats and opportunities they might present.

• Then discuss what you like and dislike about your competitors’ websites – providing URLs. 

The last bit of the background is talking about your existing website, assuming you have one. 

Tell us what works well on your website now and what could be improved? If you have any stats provide those - things like current traffic, visitors, lead generations, conversion rate,  customer feedback, etc. 

If you don’t then talk about websites you like. Don’t worry if they are not in your field or beyond your financial means - it’s always good to dream big!

Now we start thinking about your Website Goals and Objectives.

Outline the key goals and objectives for your new website. 

Remember goals tend to be broad, longer-term and help set general direction/vision.

Whereas objectives are narrower in scope, specific, measurable time-bound. 

For example, the goal of your website might be to drive new sales and your objective would be to generate X number of new leads per month. The goal is new sales and the objective is lead generation.  

Think about dividing them up by key areas - from business to customer and operations. Some examples include:

• Business Goals and Objectives – increase sales by generating more quality leads.

• Customer Goals and Objectives – increase customer satisfaction by making it easier to re-order online, improve customer engagement by increasing opportunities for meaningfully customer interaction.

• Communication Goals and Objectives – establish business expertise and experience in X area, build business credibility, increase brand awareness.

• Operation Goals and Objectives – reduce inbound calls by 10% by providing better online customer resources to answer frequently asked questions.

Remember to make your objectives SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). 

Now go deeper into your Target Market 

Knowing exactly who your target market is, is critical to designing a website that meets and exceeds your customer needs and achieves your business goals.

Start by describing your ideal customers by answering the following questions. If you have more than one target market please describe each customer segment. 

• What do your customers look like in terms of demographics (gender, age, race, marital status, income, education, employment) and psychographics (personality, lifestyle, interests, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, values)?

• What are the main problems they are trying to solve by using your service/product?

• What motivates them? Why would they consider your business product/service?

• What annoys them? What would turn them away from your business product/service?

 Website Specific Customer Questions:

• How do your customers use your website now?

• How would you like them to use your new website?

• What do you want your customers to think and feel when visiting your new site?

• What is the single most important takeaway you want visitors to get from visiting your new site?

The next phase is to start to scope out the new site. 

Sometimes you might not know exactly what you want or even what’s available. That’s okay - this is the start of the process and the design brief helps to move the discussion and business strategy forward.  

Website Requirements - pages and features

Here you need to outline the website scope and key features – essentially what you need to be built. Be sure to highlight “must haves’  - i.e. any element or functionality that are an absolute priority for your business. Some examples are below.

Website Pages

• Home

• About

  • Our Story

  • Core Values

  • Our Team

• Products / Services

• Shop

• Projects / Gallery

• Contact

• Testimonials / reviews

• Blog

• Members Area

• Press / News

• FAQ

• Careers

• Events / Workshop Page

• Advertising or sponsorship information

• Privacy / Terms and conditions

• Coming Soon

• Resource Library

• Not Found / 404 

Website Features

• Ecommerce platform and online billing

• User registration and login

• Member restricted resources

• Search functionality

• Events calendar and online booking

• Contact form

• Newsletter subscription form

• Announcement Bar

• Promotional Pop-Ups

• Social media integration

• Plug-ins – please specify e.g. Calendly

Legal and Technical Requirements  

What legal and technical requirements must be built into your site. For example, does it need to comply with EU cookie regulations and GDPR? Does it require any integration with third-party APIs? Do you need to purchase a domain and find a hosting provider? 

Project Responsibilities

This is where you outline who is going to do what, for example:

• Branding – will you provide branding guidelines in terms of fonts, colours, photography etc or do you need help with this?

• Content – will you be writing the content or outsourcing it to a copywriter? Do you need help finding a copywriter? Will you be looking to us to provide support with copy editing and proofreading?

• Imagery – will you be sourcing images? Will the images be bespoke or purchased? Do you need help with sourcing the images and image manipulation to achieve a branded look and feel?

• Ongoing Marketing – will you need any support with ongoing online or social media marketing post-launch?

• Ongoing Site Maintenance – will you need help maintaining the site post-launch or do you plan to do it yourself?

Measures of Success 

How will you know when you have achieved your objectives? What will you be measuring? 

• Some metric examples include: 

• Google Analytics usage reports 

• Mailing list subscription numbers

• Number of new high-quality enquiries

• Customer survey feedback

Make your metrics SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) ones!

Timeline and Budget

• What is the timeline for the project? Include key milestone dates.

• What is the budget? What does it include and what doesn’t it exclude.

Conclusion:

I hope this has been helpful and not too overwhelming. Remember if you want a better output, focus on improving the inputs. I guarantee you that the time spent will pay off in the long run and save you lots of time once the project kicks off.

My other tip is to make sure you find a web designer that properly reviews, digests and adds their expert insight to your brief. Your web designer should be seen as a valuable partner and if they aren’t up to the task, move on.