Hi everybody - across my career and hobbies, one thing I’ve always enjoyed is working with designers on various UI-heavy projects. Sometimes, these designers would be external to the company I’m working at. When looking to work with external designers (or a design agency), there is an all-important document that we need to share with them before any work can begin.
That document is the…design brief:
Knowing how to write an effective design brief is the difference between a successful design effort and an unsuccessful one! Even if you aren’t writing a design brief yourself, you may be part of reviewing a design brief instead. All of this is to say that you need to familiarize yourself with writing a design brief, so let’s dive right in!
What is a Design Brief?
Before we look at how to write a design brief, let’s first dive into what a design brief actually is. A design brief is similar to a Product Requirements Document (aka PRD) in that it describes to someone besides yourself what you would like to achieve. Sadly, that’s where the similarities end.
Unlike a PRD that describes in great detail what the solution should be, a design brief shies away from defining the solution:
The actual solution is going to be part of an iterative process between you and the designer(s) to hone in on together. With the design brief, what you will do is spend a lot more time on the background, the motivation, and what you hope to achieve as part of this design activity.
To get more specific, here are some of the things your design brief should call out:
Project Overview: Who are you? What are you looking to do? Why now? What is your budget?
Scope: What will be the final deliverable? What is the timeframe?
Branding Guidelines: Do you have an existing style guide? What are some constraints?
Inspiration and References: What are some examples similar to what you are trying to achieve that you like? What are some examples of visual styles you don’t like? Who are your top competitors?
Project Management Details: What tools will you use for collaboration? Who are the decision makers? What is the communication plan going to look like?
Now, this list is not exhaustive. Different projects and design teams may have additional (or fewer) requirements, but these five are almost always safe bets that you will need to include.
An Example (Mine!) of a Design Brief
To take what we just saw and make it more real, I’m going to share with you all the exact design brief (from late 2023) I used for the KIRUPA redesign when working with Pasquale D’Silva:
You can view it for yourself by going here. As you browse through my design brief, you will see how I emphasized various elements from the earlier list in the various sections. I also added a few of my thoughts to help Pasquale contextualize how I view this effort:
As you navigate through the site, you'll notice many inconsistencies given my evolving (or devolving!) taste over the past 25 years I've been doing this. The visual style you all suggest will be one that I hope to carry forward for the next 25 years, so in due time, all of those inconsistencies will be addressed.
As you read through the design brief, take a moment to also glance at how my experimentation with various design changes influenced what went into the design brief.
Till Next Time
Writing a design brief may seem like busy work, but it is one of the more productive things you can do as part of engaging with an external designer. It helps you articulate your vision better, and it may even uncover some prework (such as dusting off the old style guide or refreshing your design system!) that will help the overall process go smoothly.
If you’d like to discuss this further or want to share your own design briefs, post in this forum thread or add a comment by replying to this message.
Cheers,
Kirupa ⚗️
Hi there, I read the article and was curious to check the brief, but the Google Doc link is not working. It says the document is deleted. Can you please check and restore it? Thank you!