Crafting a well-written website design brief is essential for achieving success in your web design project. Ensure your project’s success with a well-crafted design brief.
Starting a web design project can be a daunting task, especially without effective project management systems in place. It’s crucial to identify potential hurdles early on and establish a common understanding of project objectives, deliverables, and expected outcomes.
1. Introduce your Business/Organisation/Project
You should start your website brief with a comprehensive company profile or business overview. This information is crucial for your web designer to become familiar with the brand, including its values, mission, and vision, which will serve as the basis for the project’s direction and business objectives.
You should also include a list of core stakeholders. This list will help identify the specific individuals responsible for delivering required materials and address any issues that arise during the project.
Outlining plans for future growth is also recommended in the website brief. This information will help the web designer to anticipate changes and allow them to establish a solid foundation for the future.
2. What are the goals of the project?
Knowing the ultimate goal for your website needs to be made clear to your web designer so that the design created remains effective, stays within the project’s scope, and focuses on the client’s priorities.
Some common website goals that you may have include:
- Enhancing brand awareness
- Promote a project
- Generating leads and inquiries
- Boosting sales
- Providing key information through a blog, documentation, or e-learning
Each set goal also needs to be measured. Therefore it’s also important to implement performance-tracking tools that can be used to measure relevant metrics and evaluate the success of your marketing strategy after the launch of the project.
3. Define the Overview
Defining the scope of your project and its deliverables is crucial for ensuring everyone is fully aware of what’s involved in making it a success. To provide an extensive background on the final product, consider including the following information:
- Whether the project involves redesigning a website or building a new one from scratch
- All expected deliverables, such as the website, logo, custom email address, or content
- Potential obstacles that may arise and how they will be addressed
- Details on what is not within the scope of the project
- The level of client involvement expected in the design process
- Specific items related to the client’s branding, this can also include information on the tone or voice of the site’s content, for both text and visuals
- A list of any key functionalities the website needs, such as Call to Action (CTA) buttons, social media integration, or contact forms.
By identifying important features required to make the design a success, you can ensure that the project meets the your expectations.
4. Whos the target audience?
The next step is to identify your target audience. To achieve this, you will need to gather important details about the ideal end-users (Demographics). This information will include age, gender, values, job title, media consumption habits, and any other relevant details that may offer insight into their preferences. By fully understanding this data, you can create a website that effectively caters to the specific needs of your target audience.
5. Have a look at your competitors
It is a wise idea to have a look at what your competitors are doing. Begin by examining their websites to gain insight into their businesses and unique selling points, taking note of their strengths and weaknesses. By identifying customer pain points that competitors have failed to address, you can address those issues in your own design. Additionally, highlight key areas of interest such as particular functionalities. To ensure clarity, provide links and reference notes as needed.
6. The technical bit – domains and hosting
Web designers are often entrusted to handle hosting and maintenance for their websites. This is because professionals in the industry are knowledgeable about available resources and can identify the most suitable services. To ensure that hosting and maintenance are handled effectively, it is important to include relevant information in the web design brief. This includes specifying who will be responsible for acquiring the domain name and hosting, as well as outlining the level of ongoing support the client requires from the designer. In case you intend to make your own hosting arrangements despite commissioning the website, it’s critical to mention that in the brief. Regardless of who handles hosting and maintenance, the choice of hosting provider should prioritize the creation of a fast and secure website.
By following the suggestions listed above, you will be able to build a design brief that can aid in maintaining project progress and budget adherence. It fosters a shared understanding of the desired outcome among all stakeholders, enabling early identification and mitigation of potential hurdles. By utilizing a design brief, you can ensure that your project stays on course and avoid deviations from the intended path.