Describe the job of the site
Start with a visitor and a decision. A prospective customer may need to compare services, trust the people behind them and send an enquiry. An existing customer may need support or product information. If a page has no clear job for its visitor, a new visual design will not give it one.
List the primary action for each important audience. Give the studio any evidence you have: common sales questions, search queries, support requests or feedback from the current site. Where evidence is missing, label an assumption instead of presenting it as a fact.
Inventory the content before designing around it
Collect current pages, imagery, documents, brand rules and product details. Mark what is accurate, what needs rewriting and what should disappear. A content inventory exposes missing photography and unclear ownership while there is still time to address them.
Include the longest real headings, product names and descriptions. Layouts that only work with short placeholder copy often fail when the finished material arrives.
Define the experience across devices
Name the devices and contexts that matter to your visitors. Navigation, forms and content must work at narrow widths and without hover. Describe any integrations, languages or accessibility requirements up front.
Headings should reveal the page structure to readers and assistive technology. W3C guidance recommends using headings in logical ranks. Performance needs a place in the brief too: loading, interactivity and visual stability are distinct parts of a visitor’s experience.
Plan the handoff as part of the project
Decide who supplies final copy and images, who approves them, who owns the domain and hosting, and who will update the site. Agree how redirects, analytics and testing are handled if the existing site has traffic. Those decisions affect both scope and launch risk.
The brief does not need to solve every design problem. It needs to make unknowns visible, so the studio can propose discovery work where it is needed.
A concise brief checklist
A short, honest document is enough to start a useful conversation. Attach examples of sites you like and explain what works for you in each one. A visual reference is most useful when paired with the business and content requirements behind it.
- Primary audiences and the action each should take
- Current site, content inventory and available assets
- Required pages, functions, languages and integrations
- Accessibility, mobile and performance expectations
- Approvers, deadline, hosting and maintenance owner
Sources and further reading
How this article was prepared
Research and drafting were assisted by AI. Source guidance is linked where relevant; please check the current platform documentation before acting on search advice.