Brief a website designer - how to

A well-thought-out brief not only clarifies your vision but also ensures you receive clear cost estimates, timelines, and plans so that everyone is on the same page. Time spent on a well thought website brief is time well spent. A good brief should include these things:

About you

Share your organisation's history, size, team, and locations, along with an overview of your products or services. Highlight your values, mission, and growth plans to help understand what you need.

Project timeline

Your timeline matters and it helps plan the next steps. If you have a critical deadline, share it early for a smoother project.

Target audience

Describe your clients/customers. This helps to design a website that meets their needs. You can also include market research or customer feedback on what they expect and how we can best serve them.

Project goals

What are the main objectives for your new website? Common goals include:

• Boosting brand awareness
• Enhancing online presence with a modern, mobile-friendly design
• Expanding reach through organic and paid marketing
• Driving sales and lead generation
• Providing valuable information via blogs, events or webinars

Share insights on your current website—what works, what doesn’t, and what you'd like to keep or change.

Competitors and websites you like

Who are your competitors? Analysing their strengths and weaknesses helps refine your offering and your brief. Identify key features they offer. Also, share websites you admire—consider layout, colours, typography, photography, and unique tools or features.

Technical requirements

Is your website a brochure, or something more? Technical detail is key to avoiding scope creep and extra costs. Will you need:

• User logins: How will registrations be handled? What features will the user dashboard have?
• E-commerce: Will you sell products, services or both?
• Integration: Does your website need to share data with other systems?

Also, list essential site sections like blogs, social feeds, forums, maps, events, calendars, bookings etc.

Content

Will you be writing the content? Put together a sitemap and estimate the total number of pages. Who's responsible for writing, editing and approving content? Delays in content supply often impact launch timelines. 

Have you considered getting help from a web content specialist? 

Do you have an existing library of quality photos, videos, illustrations or graphics?

Website hosting

Will you manage hosting? What are your ongoing support needs and future assistance requirements? Reliable hosting will have local servers and staff, fast, secure, and backed up regularly.

On-going support and maintenance

Deploying the new website live is exciting but it's just the beginning. You'll need a reliable maintenance and support partner for on-going tweaks and security updates. 

Search engine optimisation and online advertising

Launching a great website isn’t enough - it needs to be found. Summarise your marketing plans, including SEO, social media, and email campaigns. Don’t overlook traditional advertising and word-of-mouth to drive traffic.

Budget

If your budget is a few hundred dollars then consider DIY platforms like Webflow or Shopify. Your budget helps agencies to plan the best use of resources to meet your goals.

With a higher budget, you can include UX design, a customised content management system and detailed staff training. A lower budget means prioritising core services for the initial website. Providing a price range helps define expectations.