Creating a Web Design Brief
You need to create a brief for your designer, this is a set of instructions. In the design brief you need to communicate as much as you can of what you want whilst allowing your designer to have freedom to be creative. Your design brief should be clear and concise. Discuss with your designer what kind of information would be helpful. Here are some examples of the kinds of information you should consider:
Purpose - Is it educational, commercial, informational or simply for entertainment. Clearly define the objectives of the website and your goals.
Target Audience - Clearly define who is expected to be using the website and provide as much information about them in terms of their likes and dislikes.
Structure & userability - Provide the designer with a site plan / structure outlining what functionality and features will be required for each page. For example would you like animation, sound, video, sign up, offers etc.
Branding - If you already have corporate or product branding then make sure you provide a style guide to the web designer.
Content - How much content will there be? Do you have a tone of voice? Are there specific facts/messages that are to be included? Is there any special visual material for them? How important is their location within the site?
Style/Emotions/Mood - Do you want it to look modern, traditional, contemporary, light, cool? Do you want it to feel informal or formal? personal? humorous? serious? friendly? funky? Use competitor and customer research to help decide.
Colour - Can you attach colours to the kind of impression you want the site to create? Do you want a main theme of one colour (monochromatic), many colours, bright colours, pale colours, a mixture of bright and pale, etc
Communicating with the Designer
Communicate clearly with your designer - let them know exactly what you think. A good designer will try to create a design that takes into account everyones ideas. Try to have a preliminary discussion with your designer prior to meeting the rest of the team i.e. project manager, developer, copywriter etc. They should meet the designer as early as possible in the process. Agree with your designer the timing for delivery of material and the design brief then your designer should work out ideas, producing a storyboard and rough designs for you to see. Prepare and provide all creative assets to such as logos and photos to the designer. This is the time to let the designer know what you think and what you like. Make it clear at this stage if there is anything about the work which you do not like. You should also discuss adding any new material. The designer will then revise the storyboard and you can then have further discussions so they can make further revisions. It is usual to expect two to three passes of the work before before agreeing on the final templates and they are ready to go the web developer.
