Investing Time in the Brief

It’s easy to dive into a Website project without writing a detailed brief, but not advisable. Investing a few hours into research and composing a specific brief will save you and your designer time and energy, as well as avoid frustration.

If the brief is well thought out prior to the Website build and clearly communicates the details about the project, it will be smooth sailing from development to design. Outlined below are key areas for consideration in the preparation of a brief, to effectively give the web designer a focused overview of the project.

Company Profile

The benefit of writing a company profile is that the designer learns who/what the business is, their mission or objectives and how they view themselves. If the designer clearly understands the corporate goals, they will be able to express that message within the Website.

This is not an exhaustive list, but some questions you should answer in the brief:

• How long has the company been in business?
• What are the products or services?
• Do the products have unique selling points?
• Who are your competitors?
• Who is the target market?
• Are there specific industries targeted?
• Where do you see the company in 5 years?

Target Market


There is nothing more frustrating than a client saying, "Our target market is everyone".  A project that does not know who to promote to will be lost amongst the galaxy of other sites with similar services or products. The advantage of knowing your market (e.g. children, adults, social class, income levels, location, etc.) is that the designer will know whom the site should speak to and the tone to use.

Evaluate the current site

If the business has a current site it’s important to consider what is not currently working and what could be done better. Discuss these issues with your designer. Is it functionality, usability, design or the mission? The advantage of your designer understanding the areas where your old site falls down is that they will not make the mistake of migrating that aspect into the new site. Answering these questions sometimes highlights issues that need addressing prior to the brief. Again, strong foundations make for an effective site build that will suit your needs for a long time with as little maintenance as possible.

Site Map

Constructing a site map before the Website build helps organise the project. Think about first, second and possible third levels of navigation and how all the pages link to each other. I find that getting the sitemap correct at the initial stage of the project helps streamline the development of the functionality and design.

Functionality

Unfortunately, I see Website ventures constantly go over budget because the site’s functionality had not been thoroughly thought out. When getting a quote and writing a brief you should be sure to include all the functionality you anticipate in the development.

Below are some functions that could be appropriate for your project:

Look and Feel

Does your company have corporate guidelines? Are there any specific design constraints? Is the new website part of a re-brand? If there is no corporate branding, do some research on visuals you find appealing and provide a list to your designer. Having a solid aesthetic direction will save time and ensure the likelihood of the designer getting exactly, or close to what you want in the initial design.  

This is not an exhaustive list, but some questions you should answer in the brief:

• Are there specific colour schemes you would like to use?
• Are there specific graphic styles, textures, themes you prefer? 
• Should the design be modern or be inspired by a past era?
• Do you prefer san serif or serif fonts?
• Do you have original images or will you need to use stock photography?

Reference Sites  

I find it extremely useful for clients to provide 3-5 Website references in their brief. Specific elements that you like (and dislike) should be acknowledged so the designer is clear why you have referenced the site. For example, is it the navigation or that large background image that you like? Is it the photography or colour scheme? Be as specific as possible.

Benefits of a clear and concise brief

If you don’t like missed deadlines, extra costs and irritation I recommend writing a clear and concise brief and following up with a discussion to ensure understanding from all sides. Without a clear focus and goal the process often turns into a time-wasting guessing game, whereas a considered and specific brief creates a mutual understanding between client and web designer from day one, resulting in a site build and design you can both love AND profit from.