A project brief is like the architectural plans for your website. It tells your developer exactly what you want to build. It explains why you want to build it. It shows how success will be measured.

Without a clear brief, you’re asking a builder to construct your dream home without telling them how many rooms you need or what style you prefer.

• Prevents Misunderstandings: A detailed brief ensures you and your developer are talking about the same thing from day one. It eliminates assumptions and clarifies expectations.
• Controls Scope and Budget: The brief helps prevent scope creep. This is when a project grows beyond what was originally agreed upon.
• Saves Time and Money: The brief provides clients with a more accurate estimate of costs and timescales. This happens because all key requirements are identified early in the process.

One of the important details your brief needs to cover is a company profile or business overview. This is key to helping the design team become familiar with your brand. They need to understand your values, mission, and vision.

Essential Information to Include

Your Business Basics:

• Business name and legal structure
• What services or products you offer
• How long you’ve been operating
• Your location and service areas
• Number of employees or if you work alone

Your Business Story:

• How and why you started your business
• What makes you different from competitors
• Your business values and approach to customer service
• Any awards, certifications, or special qualifications

Target Market Description:

• Who your typical customers are (age, location, income level)
• What problems you solve for them
• How they currently find businesses like yours
• What’s most important to them when choosing a service provider

Once you have a clear understanding of what the project involves, you want to find out the goals of the website. You want to identify the problems it is expected to solve.

Primary Goals

• Generate more qualified inquiries
• Enable online booking or purchasing
• Establish professional credibility
• Reduce time spent on repetitive questions
• Expand service area or market reach

Secondary Goals

• Build email list for marketing
• Showcase expertise through content
• Improve customer service
• Connect with social media followers

Specific Success Measures

Be specific, for example:

• “Increase monthly inquiry calls from 15 to 25”
• “Generate £2,000 monthly in online cake orders”
• “Reduce phone time spent on basic questions by 50%”
• “Book 80% of appointments online rather than by phone”

Problem-Solving Focus

Common goals might include increasing brand awareness. They might involve improving online presence with a responsive and accessible website.

They could focus on:

• Increasing subscriptions and sales
• Generating leads and inquiries
• Becoming a key information source

Next, you’ll want to identify the ideal end-user for the website. This will include gathering key information

Customer Demographics

• Age ranges of your typical customers
• Geographic location and how far they travel
• Income levels and spending patterns
• Technology comfort levels
• Family situation (single, married, children)

Customer Behavior

• How they currently find businesses like yours
• What information they need before making contact
• Preferred communication methods (phone, email, online forms)
• Decision-making timeframes
• Peak times when they research services

Customer Pain Points

• What problems do they have with current solutions?
• What frustrates them about other businesses in your industry?
• What information do they struggle to find?
• What would make their experience easier or better?

Essential Pages

• Homepage with clear value proposition
• About page establishing credibility
• Services/products with descriptions and pricing
• Portfolio or gallery of your work
• Contact page with multiple contact methods
• Any special pages specific to your business

Required Functionality

Identify key features needed for a successful design. This can be “Call to Action buttons”, social media integration, or even a simple contact form.

Basic Features (Most Businesses Need)

• Mobile-responsive design
• Contact forms with automatic email notifications
• Google Maps integration
• Social media links
• Search engine optimization basics
• SSL security certificate

Advanced Features (If Needed)

• Online booking system
• E-commerce for product sales
• Customer account areas
• Photo galleries with categories
• Blog for sharing updates or tips
• Email newsletter signup

Technical Requirements

Listing all relevant technical requirements and specifications at the start can save you many revisions later.

Consider:

• Integration with existing business systems
• Specific payment processing needs
• Accessibility requirements
• Multi-language support
• Special hosting or security requirements

Visual Style Preferences

• Professional and traditional vs. modern and creative
• Clean and minimalist vs. rich and detailed
• Bright and energetic vs. calm and sophisticated
• Examples of websites you like and why

Brand Guidelines

It is also important to include any internal brand style guides. This not only saves you the need to make extensive changes in the future. It can also help you keep the branding consistent across the entire design.

Include:

• Business logo files
• Brand colors (specific color codes if available)
• Preferred fonts or typography styles
• Photography style preferences
• Tone of voice for written content

Content Approach

You’ll also want to include information on the tone or voice of the site’s content. This applies to both text and visuals.

Define whether your content should be:

• Formal and professional vs. friendly and conversational
• Expert and authoritative vs. approachable and humble
• Detailed and comprehensive vs. simple and concise

Budget Range

Be honest about your budget constraints. This helps developers propose solutions that fit your financial reality.

Consider:

• Website design and development
• Ongoing hosting and maintenance
• Content creation (photography, copywriting)
• Additional features or integrations
• Training on how to use the website

Timeline Expectations

It is possible that a timeline might not be important. A project can take as long as it needs. However, this is an exception rather than the norm.

Consider:

• When you’d ideally like to launch
• Any business deadlines that affect timing
• Your availability for reviews and decisions
• Seasonal factors affecting your business

Content You’ll Provide

• Written content for each page
• Professional photos of your work/products/premises
• Customer testimonials with permission to use
• Business information (hours, location, pricing)
• Legal requirements (terms, privacy policy)

Content Timeline

When will you provide each type of content? Content delays are the most common cause of project delays.

Resources You Have

• Existing marketing materials
• Professional photography
• Logo and brand assets
• Customer database for testimonials
• Staff time for content creation

Resources You Need

• Professional photography
• Copywriting assistance
• Graphic design support
• Content organization help

How will you know the website is working?

• Specific metrics you’ll track
• Goals you want to achieve in the first 6 months
• Customer feedback you hope to receive
• Business improvements you expect to see

Tracking Methods

• Google Analytics for website traffic
• Phone tracking for calls from the website
• Customer surveys about their experience
• Business records to measure improvement

Web design clients often let their design agencies or developers handle hosting and maintenance for their sites.

Hosting and Technical Maintenance

• Who will manage website hosting?
• What level of technical support do you need?
• How will software updates be handled?
• What happens if something breaks?

Content Updates

• Will you update content yourself or need help?
• How often do you expect to make changes?
• What training will you need to manage the site?

• Step 1 – Gather Information: Collect existing materials. Think through your goals. Interview key stakeholders
• Step 2 – Write First Draft: Work through each section systematically. Be as specific as possible
• Step 3 – Review and Refine: Check for clarity, completeness, and realistic expectations
• Step 4 – Get Input from Others: If others are involved in the decision-making, get their input before finalizing
• Step 5 – Present to Developers: Use your brief to get accurate quotes. Assess whether developers understand your needs

• Being Too Vague: “I want a professional website” doesn’t give developers enough to work with.
• Unrealistic Expectations: Wanting enterprise-level functionality on a small business budget.
• Missing Key Information: Forgetting to mention important business requirements or constraints.
• Scope Confusion: Not being clear about what is and isn’t included in the project.
• Timeline Pressure: Setting unrealistic deadlines that force poor quality work.

1. A detailed brief prevents expensive misunderstandings: invest time upfront to save money later
2. Be specific about your goals: vague objectives lead to disappointing results
3. Know your audience: understanding customers guides all design decisions
4. Include all stakeholders: make sure everyone’s requirements are considered
5. Be realistic about budget and timeline: unrealistic expectations lead to project failure
6. Plan for after launch: consider ongoing maintenance and support needs
7. Use your brief as a reference: refer back to it throughout the project to stay on track