How to Write A Web Design Brief
18 February 2015

How to Write A Web Design Brief

If you have found this article it's likely that you've been allocated the job of writing a web design brief, either for a brand new website or a redesign of a current website. Get it right and you have a great starting point for a successful website development. Get it wrong and the end result could be seriously compromised, in addition to budgets and delivery being negatively affected.

Company Profile

The web design company will need to have a good overview of your company so they can get a feel for the design and structure of your website. Also, the more they understand your company the more able they are to add value with ideas and suggestions. Areas to cover may include:

  • Describe your company using just 5-10 single words (e.g. young, traditional, innovative, established etc)
  • 2-3 paragraphs about your company including your products and/or services and how long you have been established
  • The size of the company, that is the number of employees, and if you are happy to include it a rough turnover figure (there is a lot of difference between how a website for a £100,000 company and a £100,000,000 company should look)
  • What is the geographical scope of your company, are you a local business, UK based or an international company? Try and be specific stating where your current and target customers are based
  • What are the unique selling points for your company, your products or your services?

The Old Website

If you already have an existing website then include the web address in the brief and cover the following points. It may useful to get feedback from both staff and clients for parts of this section.

  • What do you like or find useful about the website?
  • What do you dislike about the website?
  • How long ago was it built, and who built it?
  • What levels of traffic is it currently receiving?
  • How often do you get a genuine sales lead through the website?
  • Who is responsible for updating the site?
  • Is there any other area in which the website is failing/doesn't work?

Target Audience Review

Please describe your target audience in as much detail as possible.

  • Are they staff members, existing customers, new customers
  • Where are they, local, UK, Europe?
  • Male, female or both?
  • What age group do they fall in?
  • What industry are you aiming the website at?

Business objectives of the new website

You must now examine what you need from the new website. It is here that you'll need to define exactly what the primary aim of the project is and what effect it should have on your business objectives.  A good starting point would be to consider the following:

  • Outline the aims of the website ( e.g. to increase traffic, increase product awareness, generate more sales, offer e-commerce, advertise a new product or service)
  • Is the new website part of a re-brand, or a new product launch?
  • Is there other advertising taking place that the new website should tie in with?
  • List your main competitors' websites.

Design Strategy

The website should be an extension of any current branding or advertising that you have. Provide your website design company with:

  • Your logo
  • Any company literature such as brochures, marketing literature or reports
  • Any images used in other marketing materials and access to your image library should you have one
  • A list of any websites you like and what you like about them
  • Any other design requirements

Content

An area that is often overlooked is copywriting. Have you got the copy text ready to go onto your website? Do you have the resources or skills to create and supply the text to go on the website? If the answer to these questions is no, you will need a web copywriter as well - we can put you in touch with excellent copywriters who provide this service if necessary.

Technical requirements

You should outline any special technical requirements that your company might have:

  • Is it an intranet/extranet or internet site?
  • If it is an intranet, is it a Windows only environment?
  • Accessibility - Do you need to be catering specifically for text only browsers, audio web browsers or Braille readers?
  • Will the website include video?
  • Will the website be ecommerce enabled?
  • Will you require any other functionality such as a news or blog system, a private members area or a content management system?

Promotion

A good website design company will always ensure that your website is well optimised for search engines. However if your target key phrases are highly competitive then some ongoing promotion may also be required, such as :

  • Offline promotion e.g. Postal mail shots, Brochures or a PR exercise
  • Building link partners
  • An ongoing search engine optimisation
  • Search engine paid listings (the sponsored links you see on the side of your search results).
  • Email marketing - commonly HTML emails that are branded in line with the website.
  • Banner advertising on high traffic volume websites

Project Scope, Timeline and Budget

It is important to outline any unmovable deadlines, should part or all of the project be required to coincide with a fixed event.  Also inlcude preferred delivery timescales and your budget for the project.

If we can help you with this, just call us on 01509 852 188 to have a chat about it. Good luck with writing your website design brief and don't forget to include us on your list of companies to tender for the development work ...

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