The first draft of a homepage is only as good as what the designer knew going in. When the brief is a two-line email saying "modern, clean, like Apple," the first round of designs becomes the real discovery, and the client spends their revision rounds explaining what they meant. A website design brief moves that discovery to the start, where it costs an hour instead of a week.
This template is a client-facing brief for web designers and studios. Send it after the client agrees to work with you and before wireframes, then use it as the reference for every design review.
TL;DR
The website design brief template collects the site's business goal, primary audience and their top task, a draft page list, content readiness, required features, three liked and three disliked reference sites, brand assets, budget range, deadline and technical facts such as domain and host. Send the brief right after the project is agreed. The key practice is asking why for every reference site, not just collecting links.
What's inside
- Project basics — organization, contact, approver, launch date and budget range.
- Goals and success measures — what the site must achieve and how the client will judge it.
- Audience and top tasks — who visits and the one thing each visitor type needs to do.
- Draft page list — the pages the client expects, to be confirmed in the SOW.
- Content readiness — which copy, photos and video exist, and who is producing the rest.
- Features — forms, booking, shop, blog, search, languages, integrations.
- References — liked and disliked sites, with reasons.
- Brand and technical facts — logo, guidelines, domain, current host, platform preference.
When to use it
Use the website design brief for new sites and redesigns of any size. It works best once the client has said yes and before you start wireframes, because the answers shape the layout decisions you would otherwise guess at.
The general creative brief focuses on audience, message and tone for any creative output, from ads to packaging; it does not ask about pages, features, hosting or content readiness. Use this brief instead when the deliverable is a website. For the longer pre-sale intake that helps you price the job, send a website questionnaire first. Once the brief is agreed, the page list and features feed directly into the web development SOW.
Questions that change the design
The visitor's top task. A restaurant site is about the menu and booking. A consultancy site is about trust and a contact route. Asking "what is the one thing a visitor must be able to do in under ten seconds" decides what goes above the fold.
Content state. Ask for an honest status of each page's copy: exists and approved, exists but needs editing, or not written. If most pages are "not written", raise the content timeline before quoting a launch date.
Who approves. A founder who sees the design for the first time at round two can undo weeks of work. The brief names the approver and anyone with veto rights.
Constraints the client forgets. Accessibility requirements, languages, a booking system the business already pays for, a legal disclaimer the industry requires, or a CMS the marketing team already knows. Each one changes the build.
Reference reasons. "We like this site" tells you little. "We like how this site shows pricing on the first screen" tells you a layout decision.
Customize it in your COLO workspace
Create the website project in COLO and upload the completed brief to the project files, so it sits next to every design review. Clients can upload their logo, photos and copy through the client portal, and questions about the brief stay in the project chat rather than scattered across email.
Turn the draft page list into tasks once it is confirmed, and choose which ones the client can see. When the brief is agreed, send the build fee as a proposal with line items per page group.
Common mistakes
- Accepting "modern and clean". Every client says it. Ask what it means in their market.
- No budget range. Without it you design a site the client cannot afford to build.
- Skipping content status. Designs built on placeholder text break when real copy arrives.
- Several approvers. Name one decision-maker, and list the others as people to consult.
- Treating the brief as optional. Without it, every design review argues about goals instead of design.
FAQ
Q: What should a website design brief include?
The business goal of the site, the primary audience and their main task, a draft page list, content readiness, required features, sites the client likes and dislikes, brand assets, budget range, deadline and technical facts like the domain and current host.
Q: Who should fill in the website brief?
The client fills it in, ideally the person who will approve the design. The designer then reviews it and runs a short call to fill gaps. A brief written entirely by the designer tends to miss internal politics and constraints.
Q: Is a website design brief the same as a website questionnaire?
They overlap. A questionnaire is usually a longer intake used before a proposal; the brief is the shorter, agreed summary that the design work is measured against once the project is signed.
Q: How do I get clients to be specific about design preferences?
Ask for three sites they like and three they dislike, with one sentence on why for each. Reasons such as "too busy" or "easy to find prices" are more useful than the links themselves.
Q: When should content be ready for a website project?
Ideally before design starts, or at least before the page templates are approved. Designing around placeholder text often means redesigning when real copy arrives at twice the length.