Design Brief
Getting a very clear idea of the problem that has to be solved to prevent miscommunication between client and designer in an early stage. The lack of a clear design brief in a design project can be compared to not having a proper shopping list when going to the supermarket.
What
A design brief is a document that describes all key information about a design project in your own words. It helps you as a designer and your client to get a shared understanding of the project and to match your expectations about the work that will be done in that project.
Use when
A design brief is made at the very beginning of a project, before any design has started.
Why
A design brief helps to get a shared understanding of the project. The lack of a clear design brief in a design project can be compared to not having a proper shopping list when going to the supermarket. What if your friend asks you to do some groceries and gives you a shopping list that sais “cheese, bread, milk”. You can take the list without asking further question. Once in the supermarket, you will probably realize you don’t know what kind of cheese, bread or milk your friend wants. It’s easy to make the wrong choices and later on, you will have to go back to the supermarket and spend more time and money than intended.
In short, a design brief has the following goals:
- Getting a very clear idea of the problem that has to be solved.
- Prevent miscommunication between client and designer in an early stage.
- Inspire the design team that will be thinking of solutions for the problem.
How
The main condition for getting to a good debrief is a dialogue with the client: ideas should be able to go back and forth between client and designer in a face-to-face conversation. Therefore, in this dialogue the designer should go beyond asking questions about the client’s briefing while the client should go beyond answering questions.
There is no universal template for a good design brief. The exact format will depend on the specifications of the project. However, there are some subjects that will always help in making a good brief:
- Background and problem indication
- Clients profile
- Problem statement
- Goal
- Deliverables
Examples
A design brief for TOM’s shoes:
Other examples can be found on http://project-brief.casual.pm/#samples
Please note that the example briefs already include some details on the design (e.g. navigation structure, list of features). We don’t recommend putting this in this project’s brief.
Tools
There are several templates for design briefs. The website http://project-brief.casual.pm/ offers some templates available for download. For this course, we will make a specific template available for download.
Assignment
Write a debrief to communicate your interpretation of the assignment, including all information that you got. Use the template that you can download from blackboard. The template can be found as a download at Course Documents > Other materials > Contents design brief_1920.pdf
Tutorials and Talks
Further Reading
Must read before class: http://project-brief.casual.pm/#about-project-brief
Must read before class: https://designschool.canva.com/blog/effective-design-brief/