How to Prepare a successful Website Brief

What is a website project brief? A project brief is a detailed evaluation of your requirements and objectives for your website project.

A well prepared brief will give your web designer a clear understanding of what you hope to achieve with your website. It is also a useful resource you can refer back to throughout the project to make sure it stays on track.

Why prepare a brief?

Preparing a brief will save you time. The time spent on preparing the brief is minimal in comparison to the time you will spend otherwise with different designers asking you the same questions. Preparation will give you the confidence to “cut to the chase” and shortlist the designers to those who can fulfil your requirements.

Your brief will also give you a better idea of how you would like your website to look and what information your website will contain.

What should I include in the brief?

The following information should be included in your brief:

- A profile of your business
- Assessment of your target market and competitors
- Objectives for your website project
- What content you would like in your website eg. images, latest news, testimonials, database, shopping cart
- Services required – eg: copywriting, photography, logo design, web hosting etc.
- Design elements – samples of websites you like and why, preferred colours etc.
- Site map – a preliminary plan of your website pages and brief description of their content and purpose.
- Time frame – estimated date of website launch

Presenting your Brief

When contacting web design companies for a quote advise that you have prepared a brief and would like them to have a look at it. Some designers may give you a quote over the phone but a good designer will want to discuss the elements of your brief with you.

The web designer should have the experience to give you advice on how to improve the plan, to make it more efficient. Your website may not require all the pages you originally thought it would or there may be a better way to navigate around your proposed site. This could really cut down the cost by removing unnecessary features or save you being charged additional costs due to a designer not qualifying the brief with you first.

A brief should be the starting point for collaboration between yourself and your web designer.