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Website design brief
1. Project and contacts
- Company: ____________________________
- Industry / offering: ____________________________
- Main contact (subject matter): ____________________________
- Approver (exactly one person): ____________________________
- Target launch date: ____________________________
2. Starting point and goals
- Why a new / reworked design? ____________________________
- What should measurably improve afterwards (e.g. inquiries, sales, applications)?
- ____________________________
- What works well on the current site and should stay?
- ____________________________
3. Audience
- Who visits the site (role, age, prior knowledge)? ____________________________
- With what intent do visitors arrive? ____________________________
- Most important action on the site (call, form, purchase): ____________________________
4. Scope and content
- Pages needed (list): ____________________________
- Who provides copy? (client / agency / together): ____________________________
- Who provides images/video? (existing / shoot / stock): ____________________________
- Multiple languages needed? If yes, which: ____________________________
- Existing content that must be carried over: ____________________________
5. Design and feel
- Three reference websites you like (with reasons):
- 1) ____________________________
- 2) ____________________________
- 3) ____________________________
- Existing brand assets (logo, colors, fonts): ____________________________
- Hard no-gos (what must not happen)? ____________________________
6. Technology and requirements
- CMS preference or existing system: ____________________________
- Integrations (newsletter, calendar, shop, CRM): ____________________________
- Forms and who receives them: ____________________________
- Legal pages (privacy, terms, cookie solution) in place? ____________________________
7. Budget and timeline
- Budget range: ____________________________
- Fixed dates (trade show, campaign, season): ____________________________
- Desired milestones: concept ____ / design ____ / build ____ / sign-off ____
8. Feedback and approvals
- Number of agreed feedback rounds: ____________________________
- Response deadline per round (working days): ____________________________
- Feedback channel (one place, e.g. a review link): ____________________________
- Final approval documented in writing as a sign-off record: ☐ yes
Why blocks 2 and 8 decide the project
Most briefs answer blocks 4 to 6 in detail — page list, colors, technology. But projects rarely fail on the page list. They fail when goals stay vague (“look more modern”) and when the approval rules are missing. Then the client’s whole company reviews at the end, every department wants something different, and nobody can decide when the project is done.
- Block 2 (measurable goals) turns taste questions into goal questions: “Does this homepage reach your audience?” can be discussed — “I don’t like it” can’t.
- Block 8 (feedback and approvals) fixes: one approver, an agreed round count, one feedback channel, a written sign-off. Four lines in the brief that save weeks later.
Block 8 in practice: one link instead of email chaos
With bepeq, the agreed feedback channel becomes concrete: your client reviews the design right on the page, no login. The Pilot sharpens vague notes automatically, rounds have a deadline and a close, and the sign-off generates its own record.
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“Not sure about the section up top.”
✦ bepeq Pilot asks back
What exactly bothers you: color, image or text?
Hero image brighter, headline higher contrast.
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About this template
Created by David Malewski, founder of bepeq (DAMA Solutions GmbH), based on real web projects with agencies and web designers. The template is free to use and adapt. Last updated July 9, 2026.
Common questions about design briefs
What goes into a design brief?
The eight blocks of this template: contacts and the approver, starting point and measurable goals, audience, scope and content, design direction with references, technology, budget and timeline, and the rules for feedback and approval. Any block you skip comes back later as a conflict in the project.
Who fills in the brief — the client or the agency?
Ideally both: the client fills in a first draft, the agency sharpens it in a conversation. A brief written by the client alone tends to stay vague (“modern, fresh”), one written by the agency alone misses internal requirements on the client side.
How long should a design brief be?
As short as possible, as concrete as necessary. Two to four pages is almost always enough. What matters isn’t length but that measurable goals, a named approver and the feedback rules are in there — the three items that are missing most often in practice.
What’s the difference between a design brief and a creative brief?
A creative brief frames a campaign or brand message; a design brief frames a concrete design project — here, a website. The blocks overlap, but a web design brief adds scope, technology, and the approval process, because a website project lives or dies on those.
Why do feedback rounds belong in the brief?
Because the review phase is the most expensive and most underestimated part of the project. If the brief already fixes how many rounds are included, who approves and through which channel feedback flows, you later negotiate about extra work instead of about misunderstandings.