Outline Your Website Brief
How to Write the Perfect Website Brief
If you have no previous experience of writing website specifications, follow the suggestions below and you can create a brief that will enable us to take your website dreams and turn them into a fully-functioning reality.
1. Introduction
Use the introductory section of your brief to summarise what you want your website to do for your business. This should only take a couple of sentences; there’s no need to go into great detail at this point. For example: «We need a new e-commerce website that our customers can use to browse & purchase our product.»2. Overview of your Business
In this section, explain what your business does, how long it has been in existence, and what your plans for the future are. If you have a corporate philosophy, include this here as well.3. Notes on Existing Website
If you are building a brand new website, you can safely skip this section. However, if you are looking for a design team to create a fresh, new site that will replace your existing one, it would be very helpful to make some notes on what you like about your existing site and what you would like to change.
4. Design/Branding Notes
In this section, you should describe the type of design and branding that you wish to be used on your new website. If there are any specific color schemes, fonts, images or other elements that you think are essential to the design of your site, you should mention them here too.
5. Who You Wish to Reach
Before writing this section, think about who you want to reach with your online presence. The team that designs your new website will need to know who you are targeting if they are to make a good job of it.
6. Specific Online Goals
What specific goals do you want to achieve with your new website? If you are hoping to increase your turnover by 10% through sales leads generated by your online presence, this is the type of goal that should be included in this section of your brief.
7. Website Navigation/Menu Structure
If you have a clear idea of how you would like your website to be organized, you can provide details here. You may, for example, want to have separate sections for your Sales and Maintenance divisions, with several sub-sections for each of these. If you’d like our team to come up with a sensible structure for your website, you can skip this section.
8. Key Features
If there are any particular features you would like your new website to have, this is the place to list them. If, for example, you need to integrate specific payment getaway, this would be a feature you need to mention here. You may also wish to offer visitors the option to subscribe to a newsletter: any special features you want should be included in this section.
9. Notes on Competitors’ Websites
If starting from scratch, kindly to provide us with links to a few of your competitors’ websites, along with some notes on what you like and dislike about them. If there are any websites you particularly like, it would be useful to include these in this section as well.
10. Timeframe
Kindly let know how long we have to prepare a quotation and, how long we will have to complete all the necessary work. It is important to be realistic when setting limits; if you need a large, complicated website with advanced functionality, you will need to allow us plenty of time to deliver it.
11. Budget
You probably already have a figure in your mind that you would rather not exceed but, as with the timeframe you set, you need to make sure that your budget is compatible with all the requirements. In other words, be realistic about how much functionality & design work you are going to be able to command for the money you are willing to spend. Once you have decided on an acceptable budget, make a note of it here in this section.