How to Write a Project Brief for a UX Designer. The Marketer’s Guide.

Whether you are looking to get a new website designed or a redesign of an existing one, It’s a good idea to have a clear picture of what exactly you are looking for before approaching a designer.

What is a UX design brief?

A comprehensive, detailed brief becomes the guiding document for the entire UX design process and spells out exactly what the UX Designer needs to do, and the constraints within which they need to do it. It starts with what the overall objectives of your project (such as increase sales, find new customers) and will help you pick the right UX Designer to achieve those objectives.

Research

Do your research on the UX Designer you plan to send the brief to. Eliminate any companies who don’t offer what it is you are looking for. That might seem obvious but you’d be surprised how many people don’t do this. Have a look through their website and shortlist the ones that offer the services you’re looking for. It’s a good idea to call the ones you’ve singled out and have a chat about your needs. You don’t have to go through the brief line by line at this stage but you will quickly eliminate those who can’t or won’t take on the project. You’ll also get a good feel for the designers that understand your needs the best and identify the ones you would feel most comfortable working with.

Process

The UX design process are the methodical steps the designer works through to complete the project. Each designer will have their own process and the process used will be matched to the projects budget, ambition and requirements.

The UX Brief

1. Objectives

You need to outline what your objectives are. What it is you want to achieve from engaging a UX designer. Are you looking to get people through the door of your retail store, pick up orders online or requests for your services? Be specific about what you want but allow the flexibility for your designer to decide what the best course of action is required for your needs. You might not want to carry out research on your target market because you feel you understand their needs. This is an all too common mistake. You are not your user. Leave this decision to the discretion of the designer but by and large, designing a website that’s based on user research is far more likely to be a success.

“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.”

— Dr. Ralf Speth, Chief Executive Officer, Jaguar Land Rover

2. Budget

Telling the designer what the budget you have available doesn’t automatically mean that they will make their quote match it down to the last penny. Most UX Designers will have a suite of different services that they can offer their clients. Services such as UX research, UX design, Content Strategy, Branding, Digital marketing, SEO, SEM, Social, Web or. App development. Knowing the budget allows the agency to tailor the solution to the specific needs of the project. By the same token, there are companies that will have a limited range of services and take shortcuts in the design process. They might position themselves at the lower end of the market in term of pricing so sharing your budget is a good indicator if there is a match between you and a designer.

3. Deadline or time constraint

Is there a particular deadline that you’re aiming for like a launch or an event?

This is absolutely crucial to whether on not an designer can take on a project. Here at timosullivan.ie , our process to plan, design and develop a typical brochure website may take 4–12 weeks end-to-end. And likewise, if you have a deadline in mind but it’s not set in stone, be sure to let us know so we can agree on a delivery date which allows a bit of flexibility.

4. Background

Give the designer a full picture of where you’ve been, where you are now and where you are going.

Typical questions I like to ask are

• What is your product or service — how does it work? Who has tested it? 
• Describe your customers or target audiences.
• Your competition — who are they, how do you differentiate yourself from them?
• Talk to us about your existing site? What are the issues you or your users have with it?
• What about content? Does it need to be redone, freshened up or have you already rewritten it?
• What features & functionality will be needed for your website? Any integrations such as CRM or E-commerce?
• Research. Have you looked at other competitors/sites for style and functionality? Have you a good understanding of your users or do you think you need to carry out research to gain a better understand of them?
• What marketing are you doing/plan to do? For example, search, Email, social strategy?
• What support will you require after your website goes live? Will you be in a position to carry low-level maintenance such as content updates and blog posts or will you need help in this area?
• Do you need hosting, support, backups, software updates and security scanning?

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

— Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

5. The Team

Provide us with some background as to who is involved in the project. What their job titles are and how they’ll be involved. Are there other 3rd parties or agencies involved that we’ll need to work with or who’s involvement will affect the project? We work a highly collaborative process and we prefer to work closely with you or your team but this might not be possible on your side due to other commitments. It’s best to outline in the beginning how we’ll work together. We can agree on the number of workshops required or the frequency of touch points throughout the course of the project.

After submission of the proposal

It would be helpful to know what the next steps are and how you will be scoring the proposals and what the timeframe will be for a response.

Covering all the above points in as much detail as possible allows the agency to come up with a more tailored proposal and will help to eliminate ambiguity from the outset. Taking a little extra time to write a tight UX brief is time well spent and can even save time and effort down the line if the understanding of expectations is clear from the from the get-go.

Keep the brief close to hand throughout the process so that you can refer to it if you feel the project is veering off course. You should also keep note of any key decisions that were agreed that will have an impact on the overall direction of the project.

A good design project brief will ensure that you get a high-quality design for your website and one that will meet your user’s needs and achieve your business goals.