How to write a website brief: 5 questions and a free template

A website brief is a short note that tells a studio what your business does, who the site is for and what it has to help you do. One recent agency guide lists nine sections, from integrations to SEO and approval steps ^[1]. For a growing business, five plain answers that fit in one WhatsApp message are enough to start.

This is the brief we ask for at Align Studio, a brand, UI/UX and web design studio in Indonesia. Below are the five questions, a filled-in example and a template you can copy.

Why write a website brief before you contact a studio?

A brief lets a studio tell you early whether they fit, roughly what the work involves and what is still unclear. Without one, the first call goes on basics. Quotes from different studios also end up answering different questions, so you cannot compare them side by side.

How long should a website brief be?

Five short answers, usually 100 to 200 words. Pages, integrations, SEO and analytics all matter ^[1], and a good studio will ask about them in the first call. You should not have to work them out alone before you have even picked who to work with.

What should a website brief include?

Answer these five questions in your own words. They are the questions we ask in the first week of every project.

• What you sell. One or two lines, the way you would say it to a new customer.
• Who buys it. The people you sell to, and how they find you today.
• What is not working today. The problem that made you look for a studio, like orders getting lost in chats or a site that looks older than your business.
• Who will use what gets made. Customers on their phones, your sales team, or the person who updates prices.
• The goal. What should be different once it is live: fewer repeat questions, more bookings, complete orders.

Three optional lines save a round of messages: a budget range, a date you are working toward, and what you already have, such as a logo, photos or a domain. A range is fine. It tells the studio which version of the project to propose.

What does a filled-in website brief look like?

Here is an example for a furniture showroom that sells through Instagram and WhatsApp.

• What we sell: sofas and dining sets, made to order.
• Who buys it: families furnishing a new home. Most find us on Instagram, then message us.
• What is not working: orders get lost in WhatsApp chats, and buyers ask for the same sizes again and again.
• Who will use it: buyers on their phones, and our sales team.
• The goal: fewer questions and complete orders.
• Budget: Rp50–80jt. We would like to launch before the December sale.

That is about 80 words. A studio can already sketch an answer from it: a catalogue people browse by room, sizes saved as they go, and one complete request sent to the sales team. That is the site we designed and built for DOMO SPACE.

What can you leave out of a website brief?

Leave out anything you would have to guess, like a sitemap, a feature list or a tech stack. Working those out with you is part of the studio's job, and a guess in the brief can push the quote in the wrong direction.

Website brief template you can copy

Copy these lines into a message or a document and write one or two sentences after each.

• What we sell:
• Who buys it, and how they find us:
• What is not working today:
• Who will use the new site or app:
• The goal, what should change after launch:
• Budget range (optional):
• Date we are working toward (optional):
• What we already have, such as a logo, photos or a domain (optional):

What happens after you send a brief?

Expect questions back before a price. At Align Studio the designer or the developer reads your brief and replies personally, asks about anything missing, and agrees the scope and price with you before any work starts. Our contact form opens WhatsApp with your brief ready to send.