How to Write a Website Design Brief (With Template)

Most founders have a picture in their head of the website they want. Getting that picture out of your head and into a designer's is the hardest part of the whole project, and it is where many websites go wrong: the designer produces something that is technically what you asked for, but it is not what you meant. A website design brief solves that. It does not need to be long or technical, but it does need to exist, because without one every designer you speak to makes different assumptions, quotes for a different website and designs something slightly different from what you had in mind.

This guide is in two halves. The first covers how to get your vision across in plain language, with no design vocabulary required. The second gives you a brief template you can copy, with what to write under each heading and an example line, plus a fill-in-the-blanks summary if you only have ten minutes.

Why a Brief Matters for a Startup

A brief does three jobs. It forces you to decide what the website is for before you spend money on it. It lets designers quote for the same thing, so you can compare prices properly rather than comparing one person's guess with another's. And it gives the designer a reference point for every decision during the project, which is what produces a first design that is close to right rather than a long series of revisions.

For a startup the stakes are higher than usual. Budgets are tight, launch dates matter and there is rarely time for a second attempt. Vague enquiries get vague quotes: "how much for a website?" produces a wide range or a request for more information, while a two-page brief produces a fixed price, a timescale and a handful of sensible questions. Our guide to how much a website costs in the UK explains why the scope you describe has such a large effect on the price.

First, Get Your Vision Out of Your Head

Before you write anything formal, work through these techniques. They are the raw material for the brief, and they are what a designer most needs from you.

Start with the outcome, not the look

The most useful thing you can tell a designer is what the website has to achieve. "I want it to look modern" tells them almost nothing. "I want local homeowners to feel confident enough to request a quote" tells them who the site is for, what emotion it needs to create and what the main call to action is. Answer three questions in a sentence or two each: who is the website for, what should they do on it, and how do you want your business to come across. Designers who understand what a website is for can make hundreds of small decisions on your behalf without needing to ask.

Show examples and say exactly what you like

Example websites are the single most effective way to communicate taste, but only if you explain them. Sending a link with "I like this one" leaves the designer guessing whether you mean the colours, the photography, the layout, the tone of the writing or the video on the home page. Collect three to five sites, not necessarily in your industry, and for each one write a line covering the navigation, the tone, the imagery and the layout. Say what you dislike as well: "too cluttered", "too corporate" and "I do not want a big slideshow at the top" are all useful, and negative examples often narrow the options faster than positive ones.

Use everyday words to describe the feel

Pick five or six adjectives that describe how you want someone to feel when they land on your site, such as professional, warm, premium, energetic, calm or straightforward, and a few that describe what you want to avoid, such as "cheap", "cold" or "trendy". It also helps to describe your business as if it were a person, a shop or a car. These comparisons feel silly to write but they tell a designer a great deal about colour, typography, photography and pace.

Share your brand assets, even the rough ones

Send everything that already defines how your business looks: your logo in the best format you own, colours you use anywhere, fonts if you know them, photography, brochures and social media graphics. If all you have is a logo someone made years ago and a vague preference for blue, send that and say so. If you have no branding at all, say that too; it is far easier to design a logo and brand identity together with the website than to retrofit one to the other, and our guide to startup branding explains what to have in place.

Sketch a rough page list

You do not need to draw layouts, but a list of the pages you think you need, with a line about what goes on each one, is enormously helpful. "Home: who we are, our three services, a few reviews, a way to get in touch" is plenty. A pen-and-paper sketch of how pages link together is also welcome, because it shows the designer how you think about your business. If you are not sure which pages you need, our guide to what pages a startup website should have walks through the essentials.

Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves

Write two lists. The first is the features the website cannot launch without: a contact form, a booking system, a map, a members' login. The second is the things you would like at some point: a blog, live chat, a newsletter signup, an online shop. This keeps the first version focused and affordable, and it tells the designer what to plan for. A site built on a solid foundation can have a booking system or a members' area added later without starting again, but only if the designer knew it was coming.

Share real content as early as you can

Design follows content, not the other way round. A page with three short services looks completely different from one with twelve detailed ones, and a home page built around professional photography is designed differently from one that relies on icons and text. You do not need polished copy at the start, but a rough draft of each page, the number of services or products, and the images you actually have will shape far better designs. Late content is also the most common reason website projects run over.

Things that do not help

• Designing the site yourself in Word or PowerPoint. Fixed layouts rarely survive contact with phones, tablets and real content. Describe what each page needs to do and let the designer work out the layout.
• "Make it pop." Along with "modern", "clean" and "professional" on their own, this means something different to everyone. Pair vague words with examples.
• Changing direction every meeting. If you loved the blue concept last week and want green this week, say why. Designers can work with changing minds, but not with unexplained ones.
• Too many decision-makers. Feedback from five people with five opinions produces a compromise nobody likes. Gather opinions internally and give the designer one consolidated response.
• Hiding the budget. Designers scope to budgets. Knowing yours lets them propose something achievable.

How Long Should the Written Brief Be?

One to three pages. Bullet points are fine. You are writing for a professional who wants to know the essentials quickly, not producing a legal document. If a section does not apply to you, leave it out or write "not sure, happy to be advised". That is a perfectly good answer and designers see it all the time.

The Website Design Brief Template

Copy these twelve headings into a document and fill in each one. The sections below explain what to write under each heading, with an example from a fictional startup.

1. About your business
2. Goals for the website
3. Target audience
4. Pages and structure
5. Features and functionality
6. Content and assets
7. Design preferences
8. Competitors
9. Technical details
10. Budget
11. Timescale and deadlines
12. Contact and decision-makers

1. About your business

Two or three sentences on what you do, who you do it for, how long you have been going and what makes you different. Include your location if you serve a local area. Example: "We are a new bookkeeping service in Leeds launching in March. We specialise in small limited companies and contractors, and clients will choose us because we explain things in plain English and charge a fixed monthly fee."

2. Goals for the website

List what the website needs to achieve, in order of importance, and be specific. "More enquiries" is a goal; "generate five qualified enquiries a week from local businesses" is a better one. Example: "1. Generate enquiries from small business owners. 2. Make a brand new company look established and trustworthy. 3. Answer basic questions so we spend less time on the phone."

3. Target audience

Describe your typical customers: who they are, what they are looking for, what worries them and how comfortable they are online. If you have more than one type, describe each briefly and say which matters most. Example: "Owners of businesses with one to ten staff who find accounts stressful. Secondary audience: contractors looking for a fixed monthly fee."

4. Pages and structure

List the pages you think you need and a line about what goes on each. You do not have to get this right; the designer will suggest changes. Example: "Home, About, Services (a page each for Bookkeeping, Tax Returns and Payroll), Pricing, Reviews, Contact."

5. Features and functionality

Describe what the website needs to do beyond displaying information, split into must-haves and nice-to-haves. Common items include contact and quote forms, online booking, newsletter signup, downloadable documents, a members' area, online payments, a shop, integrations with other software, and an admin area so you can edit content yourself. Example: "Must have: contact form, online booking for a free consultation, a news page we can update. Nice to have: client login to download documents."

6. Content and assets

Say what you already have and what still needs producing: written copy for each page, logo files, brand guidelines, photography, testimonials and case studies. Be honest about what is finished and what is a rough draft. Example: "We have no logo yet and would like one designed. Draft text exists for most pages. No professional photography. Three early client testimonials."

7. Design preferences

Give your three to five example websites with what you like and dislike about each, and your adjectives for the feel you want and want to avoid. Example: "We like the clear pricing on example-one.co.uk and the warm photography on example-two.com, but example-three.co.uk feels too corporate. The site should feel professional, friendly and clear, not cold or cluttered."

8. Competitors

List two or three competitors and their websites, what you think they do well and badly, and how you want to position yourself against them. Example: "X has a polished site but feels impersonal. Y's site is out of date. We want to look as professional as X but more approachable."

9. Technical details

Note your domain name and who controls it, whether you have an existing website, who provides your email, and whether analytics is set up. If you do not know some of these, say so. Example: "Domain registered last month, we have the login. No existing website. Email is Google Workspace. No analytics yet."

10. Budget

Give a range. It does not commit you to spending the top figure, but it tells designers what kind of website is realistic. If you genuinely have no idea, our startup website design prices page will give you a sense of the market. Example: "Between £2,500 and £4,000 for the website and logo, plus ongoing hosting."

11. Timescale and deadlines

Say when you would like to launch and whether there is a hard deadline such as a launch event, a trade show or a contract ending. Mention anything that might slow things down at your end. Example: "We would like to launch by the end of March to coincide with the business opening. No fixed deadline beyond that."

12. Contact and decision-makers

Give the name and contact details of the person running the project, and say who has the final say on design and content. One decision-maker makes projects run faster. Example: "Day-to-day contact is Sarah. Final approval rests with Sarah and her co-founder, who will give combined feedback."

Tips for a Better Brief

• Be honest about your budget. Designers scope to it. Hiding it wastes everyone's time.
• Describe problems, not solutions. "Customers should be able to book online" is better than specifying a particular booking plugin.
• Send the same brief to every designer. Otherwise you are not comparing like with like.
• Expect questions back. A designer who asks nothing has either not read the brief or is not planning to tailor the website to you.
• Keep it current. If the scope changes during quoting, update the brief and resend it.

A Fill-in-the-Blanks Summary You Can Send

If you only have ten minutes, copy this, fill in the blanks and attach your logo and any example links. It gives any designer enough to come back with sensible questions and a realistic quote:

1. My business is ________ and we help ________ with ________.
2. The website is mainly for ________ (describe your typical customer).
3. The most important thing a visitor should do is ________.
4. I want the site to feel ________, ________ and ________. I do not want it to feel ________.
5. Websites I like are ________, ________ and ________, because ________. I dislike ________ because ________.
6. The pages I think I need are ________.
7. Must-have features: ________. Nice-to-haves for later: ________.
8. Content I already have: ________. Content I still need: ________.
9. My budget is roughly ________ and I would like to launch by ________.

What Happens After You Send It

A good designer will read the brief, come back with questions, and then send a proposal covering what they will build, the price, the payment terms and a realistic timescale. From there the project moves through planning, design, development, testing and launch; our guide to the website design process and timescales explains each stage, and how to find and choose a website designer covers comparing the quotes that come back.

At DigitalPod the brief is the starting point of the requirements stage of our process. We read it, ask the questions it raises, advise on the pages and features a startup in your sector actually needs, and then give you a fixed quotation before any design work begins. If you would like a quote from us, our contact form asks for the essentials and you can paste your brief, or just the fill-in-the-blanks summary, straight into the message box. If you would rather talk it through first, you can book a call with our senior software engineer.