What is a Design Brief?

A design brief is simply the wealth of information a digital agency requires from you before starting the design phase of your website.

It can be shared among your agencies strategists, copywriters, web designers, developers, arming them with the insight they need to apply their area of expertise to achieve the set goals and overcome the challenges of your website. It is that important as it is imperative to the successful design of your new website.

A good design brief should have sections such as an introduction to your company, an overview of your project, your budget, target audience, and more.

How to Write a Brief for Your Web Designer?

1. Introduce Your Company

You should write an overview of your company profile – a web design agency is interested in knowing about your company just as much as they’re willing to work on your project.

Be sure to share information such as the history of the company, for example, name product line; what makes your brand unique; mission statement, vision, and values; stakeholders and contributors.

2. Project Overview

The next thing required of you is to write a detailed summary of the project – precise and easy to remember. The summary brief, written explicitly, will answer questions like “What are you doing?” and “Who are the target audience?”

The what explains clearly the scope and scale of the project and what it expects to deliver. Pretty simple and straightforward!

The who on the other hand defines the target audience whom your product will take care of their necessities. Sharing this with the web designer can as well influence the content, design and usability of the website.

3. Website Goals and Objectives

This explains what inspires the need for a new website and it also gives your web designer an insight into what you want. Examples include:

The goals will not only serve as a guide to the web designer, it’ll shape the design of your website and also help get users to take action.

4. Your Target Audience

One of the attributes of a good brief is identifying your target audience. This simply refers to users who will be interacting with your website, and identifying them gives you a step ahead in the designing process.

Defining the target audience in the design brief enhances your design team to make precise decisions during the design processes. Creating a persona can include the following sections:

5. Competitors

One of the most valuable sections of a design brief is the research on competitors. The truth is your web designer is not in charge here, you are. This is simply because it’s your niche. And providing details as such will enhance your web designer in providing services that beats your competitor’s website.

Apart from detailed information about your competitors, you may as well select a few sites that you find their templates and design attractive, and highlight what you like about them. Colors, layout, the content, the functionality; be sure to explain whatever it is to your website designer as this will give them a perfect overview of what you’re looking for.

6. Your Schedule

A design brief represents your project, and a project usually has an achievable timeline. Hence, your design brief must have realistic schedules.

A good design brief should not only indicate the deadline but also identify any progress and potential or unexpected obstacles. Additionally, a schedule also helps in keeping your team on track and on the same page.