Website Design Brief Template to Fill In Before You Brief Anyone

A website design brief template is a set of ten written prompts that you answer before you ask a designer, freelancer or agency for a proposal. Fill it in once, and you can hand the same page to every supplier and compare their answers like for like.

This step by step guide gives you the template in full. Each section has a prompt, what a good answer looks like, and a blank to complete.

Use it as a design brief template for this site and as a creative brief template for your next project. Treat your first draft as a first draft: it only needs to be honest.

Most weak websites are not the result of weak design. They are the result of a weak brief: a few lines in an email, a link to a site the owner likes, and a hope that the supplier will work out the rest. The supplier guesses, and you pay.

An effective brief gives the design team a clear understanding of the project’s purpose and the client’s expectations before any design work begins.

A website design brief saves you from paying for the supplier’s guesses

A brief does three jobs. It forces you to decide things you would otherwise leave open. It gives every supplier the same facts, so their quotes can be compared. And it gives you something to point back to when the project drifts.

The drift is predictable. A page is added because someone senior asked for it. A feature appears that nobody budgeted for. The launch date moves because the copy was never written. This is scope creep, and a clear project scope written down on day one is the cheapest protection against it.

A brief is not the same as a creative brief for an advert, although the idea is similar.

An effective creative brief tells a creative team what to make and why, whether the work is advertising creative, graphic design or product design. A web design brief suits any design project and adds the practical parts: pages, functions, content, hosting, measurement and who approves what.

If you want the wider picture of how a website project runs from goal to launch, read How the Website Design Process Works, Step by Step. The brief is the document that starts the design process.

Ten sections turn a vague idea into a usable design brief

Fill the sections in order. Each builds on the one before, so a weak answer early shows up as a muddled answer later. Write in plain sentences. If you cannot answer a prompt, that is the finding: it is a decision you have not yet made.

1. Project overview and company background

Start with the basics a stranger would need. Leave the nitty gritty details for later sections. Give the project title, what your company does, who it serves, and what kind of project this is: a new website, a full redesign, or a refresh of an existing one.

Add one paragraph of company background, covering how long you have operated, what you sell, and what buyers value. Then answer why now. A project with a reason, such as a new service or a site that is not producing enquiries, gets better decisions than one started by habit.

Fill in:

• Project title: ______
• What we do, in one sentence: ______
• Type of project (new, redesign, refresh): ______
• Why we are doing this now: ______

2. Project goals and measurable objectives

Name one primary goal that serves your business goals. For a business-to-business site it is usually an action: a qualified enquiry, a booked call, a quote request, or a download that leads to a conversation.

Pick the one that matters most, and define success for it with clear objectives. A site that tries to do five jobs does none of them well. Keep to three core objectives at most.

Then turn the goal into measurable objectives. Use a number you can already count today, such as enquiries per month from the contact form, phone calls and WhatsApp messages. If you do not track it yet, say so and make setting up tracking part of the project.

Fill in:

• Primary goal: ______
• How we count it today: ______
• Starting figure: ______ per month
• Target figure: ______ per month, by ______ (date)
• One secondary goal, if any: ______

3. Target audience

Describe the two or three groups of people who must be persuaded. For each, write who they are, what they are trying to decide, and what stops them from contacting you today. Use real evidence: questions from sales calls, objections you hear, and the emails buyers send before they buy.

Resist the instinct to write “everyone in our industry”. A site designed for everybody persuades nobody. If the buyer and the person who signs the cheque are different people, list both.

Fill in, for each target audience:

• Who they are (role, type of company): ______
• What they are deciding: ______
• What worries them or slows them down: ______
• How they usually find us: ______

4. Competitive landscape

List three businesses your buyers might choose instead of you, and one other option: doing nothing, or using the supplier they already have. Say what each does well on its website and where it is weak.

This is not about copying. It tells the design team what buyers already expect to see, and where your site can be clearly different. A brief that ignores the competitive landscape tends to produce a site that looks like everyone else’s.

Fill in:

• Competitor or alternative 1, and what its site does well: ______
• Competitor or alternative 2, and what its site does well: ______
• Competitor or alternative 3, and what its site does well: ______
• What we want a visitor to believe that they will not get elsewhere: ______

5. Project scope, pages and functional requirements

List the pages the site needs, in the order a visitor would want them: home, services, proof, about, contact, plus anything specific to you. Next to each page, say its job in a few words.

Then list the functional requirements, which are your project requirements in plain terms: the things the site must do. Examples are contact forms, booking, search, a client login, a download area, a blog, several languages, or links to your customer records or email tool.

Finally, list what is out of scope. Naming exclusions is the strongest guard against scope creep.

Fill in:

• Website pages and the job of each: ______
• Functions the site must have: ______
• Systems it must connect to: ______
• Who will update it after launch, and with what skills: ______
• Out of scope for this project: ______

6. Content and design deliverables

Decide who provides the words, photographs and proof. This is where most schedules slip. If you expect the supplier to write the copy, say so. If you will supply it, say when, and how you will review it.

Then list the design deliverables you expect, such as a sitemap, page layouts, the final design for each page type, the built site, staff training and analytics set up. Asking for deliverables by name makes proposals comparable.

Share the details of any photographs, graphic design files or other design elements you supply, and confirm the usage rights for each.

Fill in:

• Copy: we write it / supplier writes it / shared (circle one)
• Photographs and video: ______
• Proof we can supply (cases, testimonials, figures): ______
• Design deliverables we expect: ______

7. Brand guidelines and aesthetic preferences

Attach your brand guidelines if you have them: logo files, colours, typefaces and tone of voice. If you do not have them, say so plainly. A design team that has to invent a look will charge for it, and the result may not match your other materials.

Then describe taste in concrete terms, so visual ideas become something a design team can act on. Collect three websites you like and one you dislike, and write one sentence on each saying why. Mood boards are useful here, provided each image has a reason attached. “I like it” is not a reason.

Fill in:

• Brand guidelines attached: yes / no / partly
• Three sites we like, and why: ______
• One site we dislike, and why: ______
• Words that describe how we want a visitor to feel: ______

8. Search, speed and measurement requirements

Say how the site will be found and how you will know it works. State that pages must load quickly on a phone, that analytics must record enquiries as events, and that each key page should answer one clear question in its first lines, so search engines and AI answers can quote it.

Be honest about what is promised. No supplier can guarantee a ranking or a citation. They can build the structure, headings and markup that make both possible, and set up the measurement to show what happens.

Fill in:

• Pages that must be found for specific questions: ______
• Existing site traffic and rankings to protect (if a redesign): ______
• Tracking we need (forms, calls, WhatsApp, downloads): ______
• Who receives the report, and how often: ______

9. Budget and project timeline

Give a budget range, not a blank. A supplier who knows your range can propose what fits it, and one who does not will either guess high or pitch something you cannot afford. If you want to see how one agency publishes what projects cost, see Brandesis plans and pricing.

Then set the project timeline. Include any date that cannot move, such as an event or a product launch. Use realistic timelines for content and approvals, because these run longer than design or code. Say how quickly you will give feedback.

Fill in:

• Budget range: ______ to ______
• What the budget must cover (design, build, copy, photography, hosting): ______
• Fixed dates: ______
• Our turnaround for feedback: ______

10. Key stakeholders, decision making and sign off

Name the project manager on your side: one person who answers questions and collects feedback. Name the key stakeholders and what each decides. Name the one person with final say.

Then set the sign off points. Typical ones are the sitemap, the page layouts, the finished designs and the final site.

When different teams in your company want different things, one person decides. Agree that feedback comes back as one consolidated list, not as eight separate emails that contradict each other. Endless back and forth is almost always a stakeholder problem, not a design problem.

Fill in:

• Project manager (our side): ______
• Final decision maker: ______
• Other stakeholders and what each decides: ______
• Sign off points: ______
• How feedback is gathered: ______

A strong brief is specific, honest about gaps, and short enough to be read

When the ten sections are complete, read the brief as a supplier would. A good design brief passes five checks, and these are the best practices that matter most.

• It names one primary goal. Not a list of wishes.
• It uses numbers where it can. “More enquiries” becomes “from ___ to ___ a month”.
• It says what is out of scope. Silence invites additions.
• It admits what is not decided. “We have not chosen a content system” is a better answer than a bluff.
• It fits on a few pages. A brief nobody reads does no work.

For a deeper list of the choices to settle first, use The Website Design Checklist: What to Decide Before You Build alongside this template.

Send the same completed brief to every supplier and compare what comes back

The brief earns its keep when proposals arrive. Send the identical document to each supplier you are considering, and ask each to respond against the ten sections. Then compare.

Look first at what the supplier asks you. Good suppliers come back with sharp questions about your goal, your audience and your content. A supplier who asks nothing and sends a price has probably not read the brief.

Then check that the proposal covers the deliverables you listed, states what is excluded, names who will do the work, and sets out how approval and revisions work. Compare like with like. A cheaper proposal that leaves out copy, training and tracking is not cheaper.

The same brief works whether you are choosing an in-house hire, a freelancer or an agency.

If a redesign is on the table and you are not sure it is worth doing, read Should You Redesign Your Website? What Is Worth Fixing First before you spend anything on a brief.

Keep the brief alive after the project starts

A brief is not finished at kickoff. It becomes the reference for every decision that follows. When someone asks for a new page, check it against section 5. When the date slips, check section 9. When two people disagree about design decisions, section 10 says who decides.

Keep a short change log at the bottom. Good project management is mostly keeping this record honest, and it makes collaboration with the design team easier.

Each time scope, budget or timeline changes, write down what changed, who agreed and what it did to the other sections. This turns scope creep from an argument into a decision you make with open eyes. It also helps you create a better brief for the next project.

Every new project starts better when the last brief is reviewed. After launch, go back to section 2 and check the target figures against what the site now delivers. That is the real test of the brief, and the end of the design journey.

If you want a structured way to find where an existing site loses visitors before you brief anyone, the free Website That Sells ebook and workbook walks through it in plain language. It is written for owners about to brief a redesign.

For teams who would rather have the brief drafted with them, Brandesis explains how it approaches website design: a site built to convert, structured to rank in search and be cited by AI answers. The wider thinking sits in The Ultimate Guide to B2B Website Design.

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