6 Things to Consider When Creating a Website Design Brief

Web Development Brisbane shares 6 things you should incorporate into your design brief to ensure clear communication between you and your web development team.

Before approaching a web developer for your new website, it’s important to consider what you actually want from your new website, because it will allow you to better articulate some of the key details more easily. In our experience, the best way to document this thinking is in a ‘design brief’. In this blog, we share 6 key points to incorporate into your website design brief.

1. Introduce your business

First and foremost, your website developers need to know exactly the who, what, when, where and why’s of your company. These details are often overlooked in website briefs as people assume this information is already known. This introduction should also provide a summary of the values, mission, USP and key taglines.

2. Establish your target audience and users

Sharing information about who your target audience is will help your web developers ensure that your new website will entice and engage your chosen target market. Ensure that you include your target audience’s demographics, such as age, gender and location, and psychographics, such as interests, personalities, and lifestyle. The more information you can provide in this section the better, as your developer should be able to tailor the UX/UI to the target user.

3. Determine your goals for the new website

A web design brief should include exactly what you want from your website for your business, whether that be sales, enquiries, phone calls, etc. Your developer will then build your website with this goal/action in mind. Some common website goals include:

• Increase brand awareness.
• Increase sales.
• Generate leads and enquiries.
• Improve online presence with an up-to-date website that is user and device friendly.
• Improve reliability through e-learning or blogs.

Include any notes about your old website such as what worked, what didn’t work and anything you are adamant on keeping or changing.

4. List any competitors or websites you like

List out your main competitors and list out what you like and don’t like about their websites. Also, really look at any website you visit in your daily search, try to note down things that you like or don’t like. Analyse areas such as layout, colour schemes, typography, photography, and any unique tools or features, etc.

5. Determine the ‘look & feel’

Once you’ve completed the research in step 4, you can start to think about what you want your new website to look like. You might refer to ‘a clean, modern look’ to establish a simple yet sophisticated website. You may also refer to colour schemes to allude to how you want your message portrayed such as white/beige for a feminine atmosphere, or red/white/blue for a fast-paced sports related website. Images are also a key element to consider. Do you want illustrations or photography to be featured on your website, and will the images be stock, or do you have professional photos? Think about what will best reflect the messages you are trying to convey.

6. Technical features and requirements

To avoid having to change things and accrue additional costs in later stages, it’s crucial that you are as thorough as possible in this section. Start to think a little more about the specifics. We’ve provided some common questions we ask our customers in our discovery meetings:

• Will your customers need to purchase products/services from your website?
• Are there any integrations with existing systems required? (such as CRMs, Accounting etc).
• Do you have social media channels, that you’d like linked?
• Will there be a newsletter that people can sign up to?
• What forms will you need? What information are you going to ask for in these forms?
• How many pages will be on your new site? Such as a blog page, team page or a portfolio section.

Web Development Brisbane can assist you

When it comes to creating your web design brief, there are so many important things to think about before the development even begins. Web Dev Brisbane can assist you in every aspect of your website build from start to finish. Download our FREE Website Build Brief and get a kickstart on your new website today!