Start with the change you need

A redesign is a means to an outcome. Write down what customers struggle to do today, where your team loses time, and what a better experience should make possible. A useful brief describes a problem before it describes a page layout.

Choose one primary journey: requesting a proposal, exploring a service, buying a product or completing a task. Explain who takes that journey and what they need to know before making a decision.

Bring the practical context

Share your current website, available content, brand files and the systems that need to connect. Identify who owns copy, photography, approvals and ongoing publishing. These decisions affect the delivery plan as much as visual design does.

Distinguish essential launch requirements from later improvements. Include a realistic budget range and any fixed dates, together with the reason behind those dates. This helps the team suggest a sensible scope rather than guess.

Agree how you will review the work

Name the decision maker and plan review points for structure, visual direction, content and the working build. Gather feedback in one place, explain the underlying concern and resolve conflicting instructions before the next stage.

Define acceptance criteria in everyday language. Visitors should find the right service on a phone; your editor should update an article without a developer; an enquiry should arrive at the agreed destination. Test these journeys before launch.

Leave room for a recommendation

A strong brief gives a delivery team enough context to challenge an assumption. Keep the business objective firm and allow the solution to develop through discovery. The result is a clearer proposal, fewer surprises and a more useful website.