Sk-etchbook

When I started the Major Project Brief it was a matter of going back to the beginning and thinking about myself as a company from and playing the role of the client. I wanted to improve on my knowledge so started looking at documentation and advice about writing the perfect Web Design Brief. I also went about finding several examples and I already had produced one myself. My conclusion is that there are no strict rules to this process and you must use your initiative to tailor the Brief to meet your needs so it extracts enough information for you to understand the creative and functional requirements yet you are not overwhelming the client with questions, they are after all paying you to do the designing and making the majority of the decisions.

Through experience I have also learned that it is best to get specifics then leave room for the ones that want to expand. It is also best to write the brief with the lowest common denominator in mind (idiot proofing).

The problem here has been that many of my target clients know they want/need a web site but they get put off by the effort/expense involved and when you give them a brief to fill in they see it as a daunting task, slip it under the living room rug and forget about it. Due to this I need to either create a brief which has a very limited amount of questions or go through the process with every client.

I've been watching the Web Redesign DVD form Lynda.com recently and although it is more relevant to large corporate projects it mentions an interesting point also relevant to my recent subjectivity of perception studies. If there are more than one people making decisions for the company it is better to give them all a brief, tell them to try filling it in alone then get them to sit together and compile a final brief. This method gives a fuller and more accurate brief as it removes the initial external opinions which would influence an individuals answers.