How to Brief a Web Designer on a Single Page
Nobody teaches you how to brief a web designer, so most people approach one with a single sentence. I need a website for my business.
That sentence cannot be quoted accurately, so what comes back is a guess, usually padded to cover the unknowns. Then the project starts, reality emerges, and the price or the timeline moves.
Learning how to brief a web designer properly takes about thirty minutes and one page. In return you get faster quotes, more honest prices, and a project that starts on the day it says it will.
Why One Page Is Enough
Knowing how to brief a web designer starts with accepting that long briefs are not better briefs. A twenty page document written by somebody who has never built a website usually contains a great deal of description and very few decisions.
What a designer actually needs is small. Who you serve, what you sell, what the site must achieve, how many pages, what functions, what budget, when, and what you already have.
Everything else emerges in conversation.
The Eight Things to Include
1. What your business does, in two sentences, written for somebody outside your industry.
2. Who your customers are. Be specific. Newly promoted managers in Nairobi is useful, while everyone is not.
3. What the site must achieve. Enquiries, bookings, applications, or credibility. Name one primary goal rather than five.
4. The pages you think you need. An approximate list is fine, and a designer will tell you what is missing or unnecessary.
5. The functions you need. Contact form, booking, payments, blog, member login. Each of these changes the price materially.
6. Your budget range. Withholding this does not protect you. It simply guarantees a quote aimed at the wrong level.
7. Your deadline, and whether anything real depends on it, such as a launch event or a tender.
8. What you already have. Domain, hosting, logo files, photographs, written copy, testimonials.
That is the whole brief. It fits on one page and answers almost everything a designer needs to quote accurately.
What to Leave Out
Knowing how to brief a web designer includes knowing what not to specify.
Design instructions. Avoid dictating colours, fonts, and layouts unless a brand guide already exists. You are buying judgement, so leave room for it.
Technical choices you are not qualified to make. Specifying a platform because somebody mentioned it constrains the solution before the problem is understood.
Your company history in detail. Save it for the about page.
Everything you might want one day. Future ambitions inflate quotes. Mention them as future phases, clearly marked.
Reference Sites Do the Heavy Lifting
Include three website addresses. Two you admire and one you dislike.
Then explain why in a sentence each. I like how quickly this explains what they do. I dislike how long it takes to find a price.
This single item communicates more than three paragraphs of adjectives, because it shows a designer your taste rather than describing it.
Common Briefing Mistakes
Describing features instead of problems. I need a chatbot is a solution. Clients ask the same five questions before booking is a problem, and it may have a simpler answer.
Sending the brief to eight people. Three candidates is enough to compare, and more turns into a project you abandon.
Leaving out the budget, which produces quotes you cannot compare.
Promising content you have not written. Be honest about what exists today, because content is the most common cause of delay. Our post on how long a website takes to build explains why.
Approving by committee without saying so upfront. Three approvers changes the timeline, and a designer should know that before quoting.
What Happens After You Send It
Once you know how to brief a web designer, the replies change. A good response asks questions rather than sending an immediate figure. Expect a designer to probe your goal, your audience, and your content readiness before pricing.
Silence followed by a bare number usually means somebody has pattern matched your brief to a template.
You should receive a written scope naming pages, functions, exclusions, timeline, and payment terms. Our guide to questions before paying a web designer covers what to establish before money moves.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a website brief be? One page. Anything longer usually adds description rather than decisions.
Do I need to know how to brief a web designer technically? No. Describe the business problem and let the designer propose the technical answer.
Should I really share my budget? Yes. A range lets a designer scope something appropriate instead of guessing, and it saves everybody several rounds of revision.
What if I do not know how many pages I need? Estimate and say it is an estimate. A designer will refine it.
Can I brief somebody over a call instead? Discuss on a call, then send the page afterwards. You want the conversation and the record.
What if my content is not ready? Say so in the brief. An honest start date beats an optimistic one that slips twice.
Thirty Minutes Now, Weeks Saved Later
Knowing how to brief a web designer is the cheapest project management available. One page, eight items, three reference sites, and an honest budget.
At Africa Web Experts we quote from your first message rather than after a discovery call. Websites from KES 65,000, live in seventy two hours from the day your content arrives.
