By Mehdi HassanWhat should a web design brief include?
A web design brief should include twelve answers: your product, your audience, the site's main job, current problems, pages, features and integrations, copy ownership, brand assets, platform, editing needs, budget and deadline, and who decides. With those, an agency can quote in a day. Without them, the first call becomes discovery and the quote becomes a guess.
This web design brief template is the list of questions we actually ask before we quote. It's shorter than most because every question earns its place: each one changes the price, the timeline or the approach. If you're inviting several agencies to bid, wrap these answers into our startup-friendly website redesign RFP template instead.
The web design brief template: 12 questions
Copy these questions into a document and answer each in one to three sentences. If you don't know an answer, say so. That's useful information too, because it tells the agency where you'll need help.
- What do you sell, and to whom? One or two sentences. Name the buyer's role and company type.
- What's the single main job of the site? For example: book demos, start free trials, sell a product, recruit, raise.
- Where does traffic come from? Search, ads, outbound, social, events or referrals. This shapes the landing pages.
- What's wrong with the current site? List specific problems, ideally with evidence from analytics, sales calls or customers.
- Which pages do you need? List them, and for repeating content give the template plus a rough count, such as one blog template with about 30 posts.
- Which features and integrations? Forms, CRM, scheduler, search, gated content, pricing calculators, localization, analytics.
- Who writes the copy? You, the agency, or a mix. Say what already exists.
- What brand assets exist? Logo, colors, fonts, guidelines, photos, illustrations. Are they staying?
- Which platform? Required, preferred or open: Next.js, Framer, Webflow or other. Why?
- Who edits the site after launch, and how often? This decides how the CMS is set up.
- What's the budget range and deadline? Give a range and any fixed dates with the reason.
- Who decides, and who else gives feedback? Name the final approver and the reviewers.
Two more optional lines help a lot: three sites you like, with what you like about each, and three competitors, with what you want to do differently.
Which brief answers change the quote most?
Three answers move a website quote more than everything else combined: who writes the copy, how many distinct page templates you need, and how complex the CMS and integrations are. Get those three right and the quote will be close to final.
Brief answer | Lower-cost answer | Higher-cost answer |
|---|---|---|
Copy | Final copy supplied and approved | Agency writes all copy from interviews |
Page templates | Five or six unique layouts | Many unique layouts, each designed separately |
CMS | Blog only | Several linked collections: blog, case studies, careers, docs |
Integrations | One form to email | CRM, scheduler, product data, gated assets |
Decision-makers | One founder approves | Several reviewers with conflicting views |
Copy is the biggest single swing. Several landing-page cost sources note that two quotes can differ tenfold depending on whether strategy and writing are included. Our guide on agency vs in-house for website copy and design helps you decide which side you're on.
Filled-in example of a web design brief
A strong brief is short and specific. Here's a hypothetical example for an imaginary company to show the level of detail that works.
Hypothetical example: brief for a fintech startup's marketing site
What we sell: expense software for finance teams at 20 to 200 person companies. Main job of the site: book demos. Traffic: mostly paid search and outbound.
Current problems: sales says prospects arrive confused about whether we replace their card provider. The homepage has no product screenshots. Only engineers can edit pages.
Pages: home, product, pricing, security, about, contact, plus templates for blog and customer stories. Features: HubSpot form, scheduler embed, analytics. Copy: we need the agency to write it; we have sales call notes. Brand: logo and colors staying, no guidelines.
Platform: open, but the marketing manager must publish without a developer. Budget: $8,000 to $15,000. Deadline: before a trade show in about ten weeks. Decision: the CEO approves; the head of sales reviews.
That brief is about 150 words, and it answers every question an agency needs to quote. If yours is a single conversion page rather than a site, use our landing page brief template. If it's an identity project, use the brand design brief template. For a longer walkthrough with a fuller example, see our website design brief template for startups.
How does a brief lead to a fixed quote?
A clear brief lets an agency turn your answers into a line-item scope, and a line-item scope can carry a fixed price. Vague briefs force agencies to price risk, which shows up as padding, hourly billing or change orders later.
You send the brief
Answers to the 12 questions, ideally a day before the call.
Scoping call
The agency asks about trade-offs and gaps rather than basics.
Scope and price
You receive a proposal listing pages, templates, copy, CMS, rounds and exclusions.
Statement of work
The agreed scope becomes the document both sides sign. Our statement of work template shows the line items.
Good scope is also what keeps a project on budget. Our guide to change orders and scope creep explains what to do when something new comes up mid-project.
What happens with your brief at Designify?
At Designify, we read the brief before the intro call, then use the call to test the hard parts: who the buyer really is, what's stopping them today, and what the site must say first. Because our packages are fixed, the brief mainly decides which package fits and whether extra pages apply, not a custom hourly estimate.
We're copy-first, so question 7 is where we spend the most time on the call, and we'll tell you exactly how copy fits the package you need. If the scope doesn't fit our packages, or you need something we don't do well, we'll say that plainly. You can also compare options in our list of website agencies for early-stage startups under $10k.
