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5 Design Brief Writing Tips for Web Design Projects

By Guest Author
 on November 5, 2020
Last modified on January 6th, 2022

5 Design Brief Writing Tips for Web Design Projects

By Guest Author
 on November 5, 2020
Last modified on January 6th, 2022

As good as your products or services may be, the design and presentation of your website can effectively make or break your business. Based on Tech Jury, design has a 75% influence on a website’s credibility, with 88% of customers who won’t return after a poor UX. Whether you’re a small business owner or a web developer, writing a competent design brief is extremely important for focused web design.

A design brief with enough information on the site’s purpose, audience and long-term application can help developers create a more meaningful final product. This is further proven in data by 99 Firms, stating that 38% of visitors leave if a website’s content is presented in an unappealing manner. These are percentages of potential customers and clients which you cannot risk alienating from your website due to poor initial planning. That being said, let’s take a look at what goes into writing a design brief for a web design project and its long-term benefits.

Benefits and Application of a Written Design Brief

Let’s take it from the top and discuss the role of a design brief before we tackle the process of writing such a document. According to Social Media Today, 94% of users don’t trust outdated websites, with 86% actively searching for practical information on products/services related to their search.

Multiple elements factor into your website’s functionality in regards to audience and SEO, including your choice of CMS, hosting, visual language, calls to action, etc. The design brief you write will communicate all the necessary information and deliverables to the developers you choose to work with. To that end, what is the purpose of a design brief for web design projects?

  • Provide your team with a clear creative vision within set parameters
  • Help focus your resources to allow for cohesive web development
  • Allow all web developers to be on the same page in regards to goals
  • Minimize the margin for error and miscommunication due to clear documentation
  • Easy to store and reference later on in regards to redesign on new web design projects

Web Design Project Design Brief Writing Tips

In-House or Outsourced Web Design Services

The first thing you should clear up is whether or not you will outsource your web design needs to a third party. If you have in-house developers who can take on web design duties, your design brief doesn’t need to contain basic information on your business.

Relying on a web design service such as Isotropic will require you to provide the developers with context about your business and long-term vision. Choose the option best suited to your staff, resources and scale of the project as a whole before moving forward with writing the design brief.

The Purpose of & Services on your Website

For the sake of clarity, you should outline your business’ portfolio and the intended purpose of the website for the developers, whether in-house or outsourced. Don’t write a design brief without using reliable content writing platforms to do so. Professional platforms such as Trust My Paper, Evernote, as well as Top Essay Writing can be highly useful during the writing, editing and formatting process.

For example, a WordPress website can be retrofitted into an online store, a blog platform or a general business website – which one do you need? Likewise, how extensive will your service portfolio be and how many pages with how much multimedia will you require? This can affect your ranking and load times so make sure not to overdo it with the content you wish to host on the website.

Target Market & Audience Details

Once you’ve outlined the purpose of your website and the list of goods/services you’d like to publish on it, you should write about your audience. More specifically, which markets or territories, as well as target demographics do you want to appeal to? The target audience you choose to attract will determine your site’s design, information hierarchy and the amount of multimedia the web developers choose to implement.

Depending on your products and services, you may be able to create a website which fits multiple demographics, akin to Book Depository for example. However, address the target market and audience of your website directly to avoid miscommunication or lack of information for the web developers.

Include Several Website Examples

Depending on how tech savvy you are in regards to web design, it may be a good idea to provide your developers with concrete examples. According to Finances Online, 48% of users directly correlate web design with a business’ credibility; however 50% of developers’ time is spent fixing easily-avoidable issues. One such issue concerns the visual aspects of the website itself.

Company websites, eCommerce platforms and blogs which you find interesting can find their place in the design brief. Likewise, WordPress themes you’d like to consider using, alongside fonts or visuals you find appealing can also be added to the brief. This section can provide your developers with great visual reference on how you imagine the website to be once it’s launched.

Development Budget & Timeline

It’s essential that you provide the web developers with precise information on your timeline, as well as your available resources. How much money are you willing to allocate to web design? How urgently do you need the website? Do you require a redesign or a full-scale design of a new website without prior reference to an existing online platform under your business’ name?

It’s important that you write down concrete dates and milestones for your website’s development for the sake of clarity with the developers. This will help you avoid miscommunication or cooperation with web developers who may not be fit for your specific needs. Subsequently, it will also allow you to stay on budget and not overspend.

Setting the Foundations (Conclusion)

Once you’ve outlined all the necessary information for a successful web design project, you should look for developers who fit into your website development plans. If you need a small-scale WordPress website, you may find a freelance web designer a good solution. However, a larger scale operation with eCommerce elements may require a team of developers in order to get just right.

Write your design brief as you would write any official corporate document before reaching out to potential developers. Small details can be adjusted on the fly, but the core elements of your web design projects should be cleared up early on.

Author: Marques Coleman

Bio: Marques Coleman is a professional Content Writer at Grab My Essay and UX Writing Specialist at Classy Essay. He is an expert in all things digital publishing, including writing and editing of articles, case studies and opinion pieces. Marques is keen to learn as much as possible about digital marketing, sales and SEO as he goes forward in his career as a writer. In his spare time, Marques enjoys reading historic literature and listening to podcasts.

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/macbook-air-apple-pen-notes-7377/

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