how to prepare an effective web design brief

Part 2 - the key elements of a design brief

A profile of your business: even if you are a household name the designer still needs to hear your own view of your business. Include a succinct description of your company, products and services, its history, unique selling points and who it's main competitors are. Also include a few words on the company image, brand or personality.

Project objectives: identify the main reason for having a web site as well as any secondary objectives. Here are some typical reasons:

Marketing - improve brand awareness, expand on traditional marketing materials such as brochures, advertising and direct mailers.
Selling - sell products, advice or services.
Customer services - provide clients with information or support.
Recruitment - advertise vacancies and attract suitable candidates.
Public service - make information accessible to a local, national or international community.

Web site content: list the main elements that you want to see in the site, for example, company background, news and press releases, client list, project portfolio, product information (specify how many products both now and in the future), contact details including location map, enquiry form, etc. Identify any elements which already exist and in what form, and which will need to be created specifically for the site. Also think about how often you want to update the content and whether you want to be able to do this in-house.

Target market: briefly describe your traditional market and who the web site will be targeting (if it's not the same thing).

Articles intro

Scope: specify what you are expecting the design company to do (or not do). For example, do you want them to provide you with:

A domain name (e.g. www.mybusiness.co.uk), web site hosting (a host provides the online computer space for your web site) and e-mail to go with it.
A new logo - and remember to specify if you want it suitable for using in other media as well
Copy writing or proof reading
Photography
Illustrations
Animation, video or sound
Database development
Search engine optimisation and registrations

Also describe the scale of the project - either estimate roughly how many pages you expect to be in the site or the number of individual products or services it will cover. The figures can be very general since a few pages more or less will rarely alter the cost or timing of the project.

Project constraints: set deadlines for appointing a designer and for the site to go live. Timescales for the stages in between can be worked out later. A rough idea of the budget will make sure that you don't waste time with companies who will turn out to be too expensive.

Point of contact: provide the name, phone number and e-mail address of one person that the designers can approach with any questions that they may have about the project. Ideally this person will be their point of contact throughout the work and will have the authority to make decisions and sign off each stage. Note that if the designers are not dealing directly with decision makers the process will tend to be slower.

Download:

Kick start your brief with the help of our web design questionnaire. This is in PDF format so you can read it on screen or print it out.

If you don't already have it, then you may need to download the free Acrobat Reader.

Part 3 - how to use the brief

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