For those having their first website built, putting together a brief can be a daunting prospect.

With little technical or design knowledge it can be very difficult to pin down exactly what you want. You probably have an idea in your head, but may find it tough to set it down in a clearly set out brief.

However, going ahead with a patchy brief can cause a lot of headaches, cost a lot of money, and ultimately end in a site you’re not happy with.

Finding the right person

Not all design companies or freelancers have the same capabilities. The range of technologies involved in building websites is vast, as is the depth of knowledge required.

If you don’t have a clearly defined brief setting out exactly what you want your site to look like, and what you want it to, you may find yourself hiring someone who isn’t capable of delivering what you want – or worse, isn’t even aware that it’s possible.

The same goes for the design side of things. Very few designers are able to work in every conceivable style, most have a strong personal aesthetic. Choosing the right designer is a very personal process, so a clear idea of what you’re looking for is essential. Otherwise you could end up with a look very different to what you had in mind.

Staying within budget

Design companies will either charge for the time spent building the site, or agree a total project fee based on the brief and their estimate of how long it will take.

Either way, costs can very quickly rise with an inadequate brief. If your brief isn’t clear enough, you may find your budget spent on a series of mock-ups without anything concrete having been achieved.

On the other hand, you may keep adding features or design ideas as you go along. Aside from possibly straying outside of the designer or developer’s competencies, you’re adding to the time it takes to build the site.

Some web design companies tolerate a little bit of overrun, but it’s rare – particularly as in web development, ideas are usually much more difficult to implement than think of.

Getting a good end result

The upshot is that without a good brief, you won’t get the site you want. At the very least the designers won’t have a clear enough picture of what you want, and therefore can’t deliver it for you.

At worst, you end up spending your entire budget with no site to show for it.

If you liked this article you may also want to read: 10 questions to ask a web designer

Image Credit: net_efekt

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2011 at 11:02 am and is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.