Skills

  • Use the Web site development planning process
  • Defining a Websites Purpose
  • Identifying a sites target audience

Resources

Setting the Scope Before Your First Web Design Job:

Resource Article

Writing a Creative Brief:

Resource Article

 

Examples:

Step 1 of the Web Design Process: Design Brief

Overview

After developing ideas for a B2C website to be designed, you will use the web development planning process to create the site. You will be designing the site throughout the rest of the unit. This week you will be writing the Design Brief, using Step 1 in the developmental process. See detailed instructions below.

Objective

To understand how the web development planning process works using the first step in the process.

Instructions

1. Explore ideas for a new business that you would like to develop a website for. Determine what type of company you would like to create a company for and then create a name for the company.

2. Consider the research questions you would ask the client, and imagine the answers. You may want to use the questions in this sample site analysis sheet (below)to help you “fill in the blanks,” or the table below:

Get to know the Client:

  • ·Who is the Client?
  • What do they do?
  • What are they about?
  • Who is their Competition?
  • What is their mission?
  • Why do they have a website?
  • Why is their product unique?
 Goals: Results you want your website to accomplish

  • Primary Goal
  • Secondary Goals (A combination of goals that support your primary goal)
Objectives: Methods the website developer uses to accomplish the goals Call to Action: A suggestion or offer that requires the visitor interact with the website
Target Audience Profile: Identifies potential website visitors by defining who they are and why they are likely to visit your website

  • What is the age range for your likely audience?
  • What are audience members’ gender, educational background, and marital status?
  • What are the typical careers and income levels of audience members?
  • What types of devices do your audience members typically use to access the website?
  • What social media outlets do your visitors use?
  • Where do your audience members live?
  • What are audience members’ social group affiliations, lifestyle choices, interests, and purchasing preferences?
 Target Audience Needs Assessment: Determining your target audience’s wants, needs, and expectations

  • What do your audience members expect to gain from a visit to your website?
  • What usability or accessibility issues are important to audience members?
  • Are audience members generally experienced or inexperienced web users?
  • Do audience members frequently use social media tools to share and comment on website content?
  • Will audience members have any cultural biases, norms, or customs that you must accommodate in the website’s design and organization?

3. You can download these questions in a Word file.

4. Based on your imagined client interview and your own research and observations, write a draft Design Brief for a redesign of the website. This should be a document written in plain English that summarizes your answers and defines the project. Below are some examples that include some background info and explanation.

5. Use Microsoft Word or another layout program, to layout your Brief. Feel free to be creative and original with the visual presentation of your Brief as well, but the content is the most important factor.

6. “Print to” PDF your finished document. Name the PDF “DesignBrief(your initials).pdf

Assessment

You will be graded according to the following criteria for a total of 25 Points:

  • You have a company overview that tells us about the company. ex. What they do, what makes them unique, how long they have been around, who owns the company? (5 Pts)
  • You have a complete purpose statement that explains the main goal and secondary goals of the new website. It also identifies the objectives on how it will reach the goals (5 pts)
  • You have a complete target audience profile that is made up of demographic and psychographic characteristics of the typical website consumer you are trying to reach (5 pts)
  • You developed a needs assessment which defines what the website visitor wants from the site (5 pts)
  • The Design Brief is free of spelling and grammatical errors. It is displayed in a professional manner that fits the new websites look. (5 Pts)