Website Design Brief Template: What to Tell a Web Designer

Copy the sections below and fill them in.

1. About the business

Two or three sentences. What you do, who you do it for and what makes you different. If you’ve done brand strategy, share it.

2. Why you’re building the site

Be specific. “We need more enquiries from small food brands” is a better brief than “we need a refresh”. Common goals:

• Get more enquiries or bookings
• Sell products online
• Build credibility with bigger clients
• Replace an old site that’s hard to update

3. What success looks like

Pick a few measurable outcomes. For example: double the number of enquiries, cut bounce on the homepage, or launch before a particular date.

4. Your audience

Who visits? What do they want to know? What would stop them from contacting you? A paragraph is enough.

5. What the site needs to do

List the pages and functions you expect, such as home, services, case studies, about, contact, blog, shop, booking, email sign-up. Note anything that has to connect to other tools, like a CRM, payments or a newsletter.

6. Content

Who writes the words, and when will they be ready? Who supplies photography? Content is the most common reason projects slip, so be honest about it.

7. Look and feel

Share your brand guidelines if you have them. If not, show two or three websites you like and say why. Mention anything you dislike as well.

8. Competitors and examples

Name a few competitors and a few sites outside your sector that you admire. It shows the designer where you sit in your market.

9. Technical needs

Existing domain and hosting, platform preferences (for example Shopify or WordPress), accessibility needs and any integrations. If you don’t know, say so and ask for advice.

10. Budget and timing

Give a range, not a secret. Designers can only suggest the right scope if they know what you can spend. Include any fixed dates, like a product launch.

11. How decisions get made

Who approves the work? How many people need to sign off? Slow approvals cost more than anything else in a web project.

12. What happens after launch

Who updates the site? Do you need training, support or ongoing improvements? A launch is the start of the work, not the end.

Tips for a better brief

• Write in plain language and avoid jargon
• Say what you don’t want as well as what you do
• Share real examples rather than adjectives like “modern” or “clean”
• Ask the designer what’s missing

A filled-in example

Here’s how a short brief might read, so you can see the level of detail that helps:

• Business: A London studio that makes hand-poured candles and sells online and through ten independent shops.
• Why a new site: The current site is slow, hard to update and doesn’t show the shops that stock us. We want more direct online orders.
• Success: Double online orders within six months, and a stockist page that brings in new shop enquiries.
• Audience: Gift buyers aged 25 to 45, and independent shop owners.
• Pages: Home, shop, product pages, about, stockists, journal, contact.
• Content: We’ll supply product photos and descriptions by the end of the month. We need help with the home and about page copy.
• Look and feel: Warm, natural and calm. We like sites with large photography and plenty of space. We dislike busy layouts and pop-ups.
• Technical: Shopify, keeping our current domain. Needs to connect to our email tool.
• Budget and timing: A stated range (for example £8,000 to £12,000), launching before the end of November.
• Decisions: Two people approve, and we can give feedback within three working days.

Questions a good designer will ask back

Be ready for these, because your answers shape the quote:

• Who else has your customers’ attention, and what do they do well?
• What have you tried before, and what didn’t work?
• What’s the one thing a visitor must do on the site?
• Do you need the new site to be easy for you to edit, or is it fine to ask for changes?
• What happens if timing slips?

Red flags in a proposal

• No mention of your goals, only a list of pages
• A fixed price with no scope described
• No plan for redirects or search rankings if you’re replacing an existing site
• No mention of testing, accessibility or mobile
• A launch date but no plan for content

What you should receive

At the end, you should get a working site, access to everything (domain, hosting, accounts), a short guide on editing it and a handover session. If a designer holds back access or ownership, that’s a problem. Our website redesign checklist covers what to check before launch.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a brief be?

One to two pages is enough. Clarity matters more than length.

What if I don’t know what I need?

Say so. A good agency will help you work it out. It’s often the first step of a website design project.

Where can I get help with a brief?

Book a consultation and we’ll talk it through. You may also find our guide on how to brief a branding agency useful.