Good Website Brief Is A Key To Client – Digital Agency Relationship
With any project, especially one that will produce something that will be used by your business for a long time, it is very important the terms of the project are clear and agreed upon before work begins. This is also true when it comes to web design or other web-related services for your business. All companies looking to hire a web design firm to design their site should put together a website project brief that outlines the project. This can be drafted yourself or you can fill out a form to get a project brief online. We've put together this guide to make it easier for you to understand the purpose of the BriefGen and how to use it to full effect.
What Is A Website Brief And Who Needs One?
Web design briefs define the scope and requirements for the design of a business's website. Any business hiring a web design agency to create their corporate site should strongly consider submitting a brief along with their requests for quotes. Web design project briefs are important because they give each web agency you are requesting quotes from the best idea of what you are looking for and using them will ultimately result in the website you want. Briefs are shared among all people involved in the website creation so everyone is working towards the same goal. This could be just two companies - yours and a web designer - or more, such as if a third party will be designing a virtual storefront.
Web design briefs are also helpful when it comes to signing the contract, because wording from the brief can be used in the contract itself. That way you have in writing what is to be expected from the project. Of course, be sure to get a legal professional to look over any contracts your business signs to ensure everything looks good. If your brief is not used in the contract language, make sure the contract is clear enough regarding the work to be done.
What A Good Website Project Brief Should Include
Introduce Your Business
A good brief will first explain who you are and what your business does. A comprehensive introduction gives the contractor a good idea of the type of business you are, the kinds of services you offer and the kinds of products you produce. This is helpful when building your website because they will have a very clear picture of the company this website needs to be serving.
Be Specific
All project briefs need to be as specific as possible. This gives web design firms a very clear and exact picture of what you're looking for. If you are in a specific industry that needs certain site features, these should be listed. If you have any specific branding colors or color combinations in mind for your website, those need to be mentioned too. If you currently have an existing site, you should explain, with concrete numbers if possible, why it is no longer meeting your needs. Provide as many specifics as you can of what you want, while still keeping it relatively concise and to the point.
Any Examples
It can be helpful for the web design company if you direct them to other sites you think are particularly well done as examples of what you'd like your site to be. For example, you might like the navigation layout of one site and want to combine it with a similar design style to another. You should also include information about your current website, if you have one, because the contractor will want to see what you currently have so they can start planning something new and better. This is an even more important step if the contractor is going to be building upon and improving an existing site. They will need to know what they're working with.
Be Open To Recommendations From The Web Design Agency
It is the job of web design agencies to create attractive and easy-to-navigate sites for their clients. While you of course have the final say over what you want your website to look like, you should always take into account advice from web design professionals. They may think another approach, design or color combination would work better for you. Maintain a good relationship with your digital agency and be flexible in your thinking. What you had in mind might not really be the right decision.
If after doing all of that you still aren't sure what you want, tell your web agency so. They can help you with the creative process and give their recommendations for what you should do. It is a creative profession, so in some cases you might even just want to give them all the info and let them come up with something. That flexibility might result in a website that absolutely stuns you and your customers.
Having Trouble Actually Writing The Brief?
Actually writing the brief is harder than it sounds. It can be hard to put into words exactly what you want, especially if you aren't one hundred percent sure yourself. The first step is to do some research. See what kinds of designs and features are currently popular among corporate sites, as well as look into and familiarize yourself with important web terminology. If you need to hire a writer or designate someone at your company with good writing skills to help put ideas into words, by all means do it. Or just use our free BriefGen to generate a clear, concise project brief online.
Now you can hopefully see why a quality website brief is so key to a good client-digital agency relationship. It serves the purpose of carefully outlining what a company wants and needs so a web agency can accurately and satisfactorily deliver. If you are having trouble coming up with a project brief, use a generator like ours to help you out.
Without a decent brief a project could become a disaster. Be sure to check out other our recommendations and tips for how to build a right brief.