Copy. Adapt. Keep a record.

Website Design & Development Brief

For website design, website development or an ecommerce website, describe the complete visitor journey and platform requirements.

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Your editable project brief

WEBSITE PROJECT BRIEF
Replace the prompts below with your project details. Do not put passwords or customer records in this brief.

1. BUSINESS GOAL
Primary audience:
One main visitor action:
How we will tell whether the site is useful:
Project owner and approver:

2. PAGE AND FUNCTION SCOPE
Page list and purpose of each page:
Required functions (forms, booking, checkout, search, or integrations):
Specific behavior and success/error states:
Languages:
Existing platform and hosting, if any:
Design only, development only, or both:
Excluded work:
Budget and launch deadline:
Content-ready date and review checkpoints:

3. CONTENT AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Who supplies final copy:
Who supplies images, with usage permission:
Who enters content:
Who handles domain, hosting, subscriptions, and renewals:
Existing URLs that need a migration plan:
Who approves privacy, cookies, and other legal content:
Ongoing costs to list in the quote:

4. BUILD AND REVIEW
Required browsers and phone/desktop sizes:
Accessibility requirements and agreed testing scope:
Forms: validation, delivery, spam handling, and confirmation:
Editing tasks our team must be able to perform:
Performance expectations and measurement conditions:
Analytics or marketing integrations, only if required:

5. HANDOVER AND ACCEPTANCE
Check navigation, forms, links, mobile layout, and keyboard use.
Test one complete visitor journey with agreed sample data.
Receive source/export, asset inventory, license list, and instructions.
Confirm owner-controlled hosting and administrative access.
For database-driven sites, confirm both file and database backup.
Agree responsibility for DNS cutover, restore testing, and post-launch fixes.
Support duration and excluded maintenance:
Use secure delegated access; never send root passwords in a project brief.
Questions for the developer:

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A five-page website built around one enquiry journey

Fictional teaching example. Business, budget and schedule are illustrative—not a client case, seller quote or market-price estimate.

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WORKED EXAMPLE — WEBSITE PROJECT BRIEF
Fictional teaching example by BestSift. Alder Ledger is an invented business, not a client. The budget and timing are illustrative assumptions, not seller quotes or market benchmarks. Confirm all requirements in the actual offer.

1. BUSINESS GOAL
Audience: Local small-business owners considering a monthly bookkeeping service.
Main action: Send an enquiry asking for an introductory conversation.
Success check for delivery: A visitor can understand the service and send a test enquiry that reaches the owner's designated inbox. This is a functional test, not a lead or revenue guarantee.
Owner and approver: The business owner supplies content, reviews each checkpoint, and controls accounts.

2. PAGES AND FUNCTIONS
Platform: WordPress on business-owned hosting; agree the theme and editor before implementation.
Home: Introduce the service, show three supplied service summaries, and link to the enquiry form.
Services: Explain the three supplied service packages without online checkout.
About: Publish the owner's approved introduction without invented credentials or testimonials.
FAQ: Present eight owner-approved answers in accessible expandable sections or plain headings.
Contact: Name, email, and message fields; visible labels, validation, spam handling, a submission-in-progress state, success confirmation, and a useful failure message. No financial document uploads.
Language: U.S. English only.
Scope: Design, responsive development, supplied-content entry, form setup, testing, and launch.
Excluded: Logo creation, copywriting, payments, customer portal, booking integration, analytics, and ongoing SEO.
Illustrative cap: USD 2,400 including checkout charges and first-year required hosting/theme/plugin costs. Itemize project fees and recurring costs; reduce scope if the quote exceeds this cap.
Proposed timing: Content ready before the order starts; four-week production window with two-business-day buyer reviews. Agree actual dates in the offer.

3. INPUTS AND OWNERSHIP
Owner supplies: Final copy, approved logo exports, licensed photos, and privacy wording before work starts.
Freelancer supplies: Page designs, implementation, content entry, and documented test results.
Owner controls: Domain registration, hosting billing, WordPress administrator access, and email delivery provider.
Access: Use delegated accounts with required permissions, then remove temporary access after handover. No passwords in this document.
Existing URLs: This fictional business has no existing public site to migrate.
Costs: List licenses, who purchases them, renewal frequency, and consequences if they lapse. Do not depend on an untransferable freelancer license.

4. REVIEW AND TESTING
Checkpoints: Sitemap and content inventory; one representative page design; complete staging site; launch readiness.
Feedback: One consolidated list at each checkpoint. Agree included revision rounds and charges for changes to approved scope.
Devices: Current Chrome and Safari on desktop and phone; proposed layout checks at 390, 768, and 1440 px. Agree the actual test devices and versions.
Accessibility: Check keyboard navigation, visible focus, field labels, image alternatives, and readable contrast. This preliminary review is not a full conformance audit.
Performance: Review a representative mobile page under recorded test conditions; agree a measurable target after the theme and assets are selected, before accepting the offer.

5. ACCEPTANCE AND HANDOVER
Test: Navigate Home to Services to Contact; submit agreed dummy data; confirm inbox delivery and visible success; test missing/invalid inputs and a simulated delivery failure on staging.
Editing: Owner changes a heading and an FAQ answer without editing code.
Receive: Theme/custom source as agreed, asset and license inventory, editing instructions, account inventory without passwords, and files-plus-database backup with restore instructions.
Launch: Freelancer prepares a cutover and rollback checklist; owner approves timing. Confirm who executes DNS changes.
Support proposal: Fourteen calendar days for defects against agreed requirements; new pages, plugin updates, and ongoing maintenance quoted separately. Confirm in the offer.
Question: Which requirements remain assumptions, and what must be resolved before you can provide a complete quote?

Why this brief works

Describe what each page lets a visitor do, then define form success and failure behavior.
Assign copy, images, hosting, subscriptions, and launch work to a named project role.
State the editing tasks and handover evidence you need. A page count cannot define those.
Use the sample budget and review sequence as planning examples, not price or delivery promises.

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A five-page website built around one enquiry journey

Why this brief works

Match the brief to the service