Planning a new website - the design brief

Objective of the design brief

The objective of the design brief is to explain how best the new website will compliment the activities of the organisation.

Benefits of the design brief

A good design brief will help you to achieve the following results:

Clarify your thoughts about the specific objectives for you website
Brief a graphic designer to design a custom skin if you choose to do this. A graphic designer will respond to your needs and expectations. The better your brief is communicated the more likely that that you will be happy with the end result.
Communicate the website plan to project team members

Step-by-step

There is no standard template for design briefs. Our experience is that each web design professional develops their own design brief template to best suit their personal style.

Here is a checklist of questions that are typically included in a design brief, there are many more you could think of. To create your own brief you could choose from the following list of questions those that you feel comfortable and confident to answer.

Logistics - this will guide the team on the expectations for the site
- When do we plan to go live? - set a date
- How will we measure success? e.g. 50 unique visitors per month after 6 months.
About the organisation?
- What are the mission, vision and values of the organisation?
- What problems does the organisation experience that have potential to be addressed with the website?
- What opportunities are available to capitalise?
Why are we building this site?
- What are the expectations?
- Does the organisation have any specific needs? e.g. shopping cart
- What are the objectives for the site? e.g. generate new customers, inform existing customers, enable on-line ordering
Who are our target users?
- Who are we talking to? What do they do and think?
- Consider demographic indicators like gender, age, income, geography
- Consider psychographic indicators such as attitude, lifestyle, values and opinions
- Is there something that unites or divides these target users. e.g. love nature or sport
- What about behaviour patterns? e.g. work part-time, work from home, mobile device access
NB! What do our target users expect?
- Why do customers or potential customers need a website?
- What problem do they expect to solve by coming to the website?
Target Audience
- What have they seen previously? perhaps a brochure or newspaper article, perhaps nothing
- What do people think about the brand now?
- Describe the brand personality in 3 words
- How would we speak to consumers?
- What makes our brand different from competitors?
- What is our Unique Selling Point ('USP')?
Mandates
- Does the organisation have existing collateral and branding such as colour themes, logos?
- Should the website conform to existing branding or should it bring a fresh perspective?
Reference Material
- Are there any sites that are considered to be appealing?
- Are there any sites that are considered to be poor and that we should stay away from?

The WebSuburb Design Brief template

You may find it easier to download this design brief template [right click and select 'save target as...'] (MS Word 75k) that we use.

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