A website design brief is a short document that tells every web studio the same thing about your project. When three studios read the same brief, their quotes can be compared line by line. Without one, each studio guesses, and the cheapest quote is often the one that left out the most.
This guide shows what to put in a brief, in plain order. You do not need a lawyer to write it, and it fits on two pages.
Start with the goal, not the pages
Open the brief with one paragraph on what the site must do. Say who it is for and what you want a visitor to do. A visitor might book a call, request a quote, or buy a product. Studios can design for a goal. They cannot design for a vague wish to look modern.
Add the facts that shape the work. List your current site address, if you have one. Note the number of pages you expect, the devices your customers use, and any hard dates, such as a trade show or a product launch. Name one person on your side who answers questions and signs off.
Add a few sites you like and say why. Keep this to what you like about them, such as clear menus or fast pages. Do not ask a studio to copy another business, because the work may then copy another firm's layout and text.
Spell out the scope in a list
Scope is where quotes drift apart. Write it as a plain list so nothing hides in a phrase like "standard features". Cover each item below and mark it as in or out.
- Number of page designs and the number of rounds of changes included.
- Who writes the text, who supplies photos, and who loads them onto the site.
- Forms, booking tools, online payments and any link to your accounting or customer records.
- Moving content from an old site, and whether old web addresses are redirected.
- Basic search engine set-up, such as page titles and a sitemap.
- Testing on phones, tablets and the main browsers.
- Training for your staff to edit the site.
Then ask the studio to price each line, not just the total. A line-by-line price shows which studio included training and which one did not. It also gives you a fair price when you later add or remove something.
Say who owns what
Ownership is the clause buyers skip most often, and it matters most. Under Australian copyright law, the person who creates a work is usually its first owner, unless the contract says otherwise. That means paying for a design does not by itself make the design yours.
A transfer of copyright, called an assignment, does not take effect unless it is in writing and signed by or for the owner. A licence is different. A licence only lets you use the work in set ways, and the studio keeps ownership. Both can be fair. You just need to know which one you are getting.
In the brief, say what you expect. Most buyers want to own the final design, the text and photos made for them, and the finished site files. Studios often keep the right to reuse their own tools and code that appear in many client sites. Ask each studio to state which parts they would assign to you, which they would license, and when the transfer happens. Many studios assign on final payment.
Also ask who owns the domain name, the hosting account and the logins. These should be registered in your business name, not the studio's.
Ask for accessible design and say how you will check it
Ask for a site that people with disability can use. The common yardstick is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, known as WCAG. Version 2.2 became a W3C Recommendation on 5 October 2023. It adds nine new success criteria, which include larger touch targets and easier sign-in steps.
WCAG has three levels: A, AA and AAA. Level AA is a sensible target for most business sites. Write "built to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA" in the brief and ask each studio how they test it. A good answer names a method, such as keyboard-only checks and a review with a screen reader. A weak answer is "we follow best practice".
Ask for the test notes at handover, so you hold proof of what was checked on the day you accepted the site.
Set the timeline, price basis and quality terms
Give the studio your dates and ask for a schedule in return. Ask what they need from you and by when, because late text and photos are the most common cause of delay. Ask how a change in scope is priced before work on it starts.
Ask for the price as a fixed amount for the listed scope, or as a rate with a cap. Ask for GST to be shown on its own line, and for the studio's ABN, which you can confirm on the free ABN Lookup site.
Know the baseline protection too. Under the Australian Consumer Law, a business that buys a service for less than $100,000 including GST is generally covered by the consumer guarantees. Services must be done with acceptable care and skill, and within a reasonable time if no date was agreed. Some business purchases are excluded, so do not treat this as a substitute for clear terms in your contract.
Finish the brief with how you will judge quotes. For example, you might weigh scope fit, ownership terms, accessibility method, schedule and price. Share the list with the studios. It tells them what you value and keeps your own decision honest.
A short checklist before you send it
Read the brief once as if you were the studio. Is the goal clear in the first paragraph? Is every scope item marked in or out? Does it name who owns the design, text, domain and logins? Does it ask for WCAG 2.2 Level AA and a test method? Does it ask for line prices and a schedule? If you can answer yes to each, send the same file to every studio on the same day.
The limit of any brief: it makes quotes comparable, but it does not tell you which studio will do good work. Ask each one for recent client sites you can open and use yourself.