\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n Download our Business Resource \u2013 Website design and build briefing template<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ve created this template to help client-side digital marketing and e-commerce managers brief a website design and build project to either an in-house team or to a digital\/web design partner.<\/p>\n Access the Website design and build briefing template<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n No one starts to do a bad job but the process is time-consuming and requires a lot of thinking. It raises difficult strategic choices, which teams find uncomfortable to make. All too often the process is basic and just ticks the same boxes, which inevitably leads to less than inspiring work coming back.<\/p>\n A great brief condenses key information, insights, and customer understandings into an inspiring brief. Talk articulately, knowledgeably, and passionately about your business, brand, and target customers. Bring to life the challenges your products and services are facing, or the opportunity you have identified in the market. Do that and you can inspire your designers to do some outstanding work. So how do you create a brilliant design brief that does just that?<\/p>\n Before looking at the contents and structure of a brief, it\u2019s useful to understand the objectives. There are two when it comes to design briefs. The design work has an objective, which we\u2019ll come to later, but the brief itself also has a very specific objective, one which is often forgotten.<\/p>\n The key objective of a design brief is to<\/em> fuel the creativity of the designer<\/em> who will use it to deliver great work. <\/em><\/p>\n They need to be inspired to find solutions to the challenge you have. Marketers and designers are often kept apart by account management teams. It\u2019s not surprising that this point gets lost as the brief gets 'translated' from marketing-speak into designer-speak, via the accounts team, who\u2019ve got their own 'speak' too. I\u2019m pretty sure this is how Chinese whispers works and we all know how well that turns out. Keeping this objective in mind should minimize how much is lost in translation during the design process.<\/p>\n Ideally, the briefing will happen face-to-face. That way you can iron out any confusion, discuss any challenges, and answer any outstanding questions. However, you\u2019ll still need to get the brief down on paper, even if you brief face to face. The agency or designer needs it to be able to price up the job and allocate resources, and they\u2019ll use it as a guide to work to once they start. You need it to formulate your thinking, align your internal stakeholders, if you have any, and evaluate the work when it comes back.<\/p>\n There are hundreds of templates available for writing design briefs. They vary massively in style and language but they mostly use a core set of building blocks. They can be broken down into:<\/p>\n You need to make sure it\u2019s all in there but the quality of a brief is less about the structure and more about the thinking that goes into each section.<\/p>\n To fuel and guide the designers\u2019 thinking, some background information is invaluable.<\/p>\n Company<\/em> - This is useful as it provides context to the brief. If this is the first time you\u2019ve worked with a designer it\u2019s worth making sure they understand the business and it\u2019s overall aims and strategies\u00a0so that they can understand how their work fits into the bigger picture.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Market<\/em> \u2013 The design work will likely be answering a challenge or opportunity in the market, so share the topline market information, successful new product launches, and any emerging trends or new entrants. Identify key competitors. Outline their performance and any share any significant successes and failures.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Brand<\/em> \u2013 Introduce your brand. Tell your brand\u2019s story.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t need to answer all these questions, just those relevant to the brief. One element that often gets left out for product packaging is the in-store environment. It leads to great 2D design work that doesn\u2019t work in the end environment. Don\u2019t skip sharing information on the location the design has to ultimately work in.<\/p>\n State the objective of the design work as concisely and specifically as possible. It may contribute on many levels to broader marketing objectives but getting one clear objective for the brief is powerful. Objectives tend to be about change, so make the language dynamic. Is it about changing perception, or behavior, from X to Y? Is it to attract a new target consumer? Be realistic about the potential outcomes of design work. Increasing sales or market share are the jobs of the whole marketing plan, not design work.<\/p>\n Bring to life the target audience for the designers. Use visuals if that helps. What should the customer think, feel, and perhaps do as a result of the design work? Share key insights about their lives, their habits, and perceptions of the brand today. What role does the category play in their lives? What are their unmet needs or conflicts for them with the category of products?<\/p>\n This part is where most discussions will be had before and during the briefing, and where the most energy will go once the work has started. You will have talked about some of the broader challenges for the brand and target customer already but this is the single challenge the design work will answer this challenge, so it should be clear and compelling.<\/p>\n Think about getting the conflict and emotion of the challenge into the statement. The mental imagery you create with the language you use is important. It might be the articulation of a negative customer perception or an exciting opportunity to take the market by storm.<\/p>\n Sharing visuals to bring the brand and design challenge to life is also useful to give the designer a feel for the style, tonality, and visual handwriting you are trying to capture. Provide images of things that will be present alongside the new design work, existing visuals, or campaigns. Share images or colors you like, or you think might work for the project. Show images of taking an idea too far to give some boundaries.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t try to crack the problem, you\u2019re paying the professionals for that but if you have an idea of which direction you\u2019d like it to go in, it\u2019s much better to share it upfront. Be prepared for the designers to challenge it if they think another direction would be stronger in meeting your brief.<\/p>\n [Image Source<\/a>]<\/p><\/div>\n Share anything that is a must. If there are brand or logo guidelines, with fonts and color palette to use, that needs to be shared and noted here. If the brief involves packaging be clear up front how many colors you are going to have available for the final print. There is nothing worse than painstakingly creating a design to have it ruined because it can\u2019t be realized within the print parameters.<\/p>\n You must outline exactly what you expect the design\/agency to deliver. Is the brief for 2D work or also 3D. How many initial concepts do you want to see? How many finished design iterations will there be? Do you want design files or print-ready artworks on handover? If you\u2019re doing a rebrand do you need new visual brand guidelines developing?<\/p>\n Break down the key dates for the project and be realistic about internal sign off time required. You\u2019ll need to agree on the full-timing plan with the agency\/designer but providing launch deadlines and dates of any critical points for the design work will help with resource planning and budgeting.<\/p>\n Good design work costs money. A full brand redesign is going to need a significant budget, versus a design extension or adaptation. To come to a suitable budget consider: the brief; deliverables; timings; and the impact on your brand of the design work.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth providing names and contact details of the project team and any senior stakeholders who are sponsoring the project.<\/p>\n![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/How-to-write-briefs-that-deliver-great-design-work-1.png\")
<\/p>\nGetting clear on objectives<\/h3>\n
Delivering the brief<\/h3>\n
Design brief building blocks<\/h3>\n
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Background information<\/h4>\n
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Project objective<\/h4>\n
Target audience<\/h4>\n
The design challenge<\/h4>\n
Design inspiration<\/h4>\n
![\"Design](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Design-inspiration-visuals.png\")
Mandatories<\/h4>\n
Deliverables<\/h4>\n
Timings<\/h4>\n
Budget<\/h4>\n
Project team<\/h4>\n
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