Writing a Redesign Brief

Ranjit Dhillon Shares 20 Years Of Digital Experience On Writing A Redesign Brief, Business Brief, Marketing Plan, Marketing Strategy And Strategic Planning

Writing a Redesign Brief

A good redesign or site transformation brief is often hard to come by however, below are some high-level pointers you may want to consider asking youself to get you moving in the right direction – ‘When we get it right everyone in your team will benefit’.

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SECTION 1 – Introduction

About the company
Size, turnover, markets, company mission statement, key metrics, footprint etc…

Online User & Brand experience
UX, tone of voice, brand identity – what expectations are to be set when a customer visits your website?

Products & services
Description of key products and services, price points, revenue by product/channel, etc;

Unique selling points
What is unique and/or strengths of the company and the products services, why/how are these better than the competition?

Competition
Who are the main competitors in this space (name and website URL of each) and what are the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each?

SECTION 2 – Audience

Overview
Who are we talking to? Who are the primary and secondary audiences?

Segmentation
For each audience, what segmentation exists? Are there defined personas for each?

Scale and demographics
How big is each audience, and how is this split by country/region?

Audience specific objectives
For each audience, what are the primary and secondary objectives of the website?

Audience research
Is there any user/customer research which exists about these audiences and their views on company/products? If so, please summarize findings here and attach the details if possible.

SECTION 3 – Existing site

Background
What is the overall purpose of the current site? When was the site created? When was the last major update?

Traffic and conversion
How much traffic is the site getting? Where is this traffic coming from? And what is the conversion rate? If possible, please supply details copy of the web stats and/or online access to them.

What we like
Any elements of content, design or functionality which are considered good and should be kept?

What we want to change
Anything elements which are not liked and should be changed?, And-why?

Website testing/benchmarking
Has there been any recent user testing and/or benchmarking study conducted? If so, please summarize findings here and attach the details if possible.

Tracking/Platforms
What tracking is in place for to measure consumer behavior and marketing channels?

SECTION 4 – New site proposal

Business objectives
What are the overall business objectives? And what do we want the site to do to help achieve these objectives?

Proposition and communications objectives
What are the key communication objectives? And what is the single most important thing we want to tell people?

KPIs and Targets
What are the specific KPIs, How are these split by channel/audience? And for each, what are the specific targets for this year, next year?

Design/Creative
What, if any, existing brand guidelines apply? And what creative assets exist (e.g. image library, videos etc)? How should these be developed/ extended for the new website?

Content
For all the existing content, what should be kept as is, what should be adapted (and how), what should be excluded and what additional content is required? In the case of adaptation or creation of new content, how much of this should be created by the client and how much by the agency?

Browser and mobile
What versions of what browsers should the site be tested to work in (e.g. IE7, 8, 9, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc)? Should the design site be fully responsive, have specific mobile/tablet themes or is this not a requirement now?

Accessibility
What level of accessibility is required (e.g. A, AA or AAA)

Marketing channels
What marketing channels do you currently run and what are your strategic plans. Are there noticeable gaps for improvement that you are aware of and can you share any learning’s the may influence the redesign?

STAGE 5 – Deliverables, process, timing and budget

Deliverables
What are the key deliverables, if template based, how many different types of pages are there?

Timings
What are the key stages and timings, from vendor review selection, through to required live date?

Budget
What is the overall budget for this project? If an exact figure is not available, what is the approximate range?

Additional requirements
Are there any additional requirements, such as Security/Load testing, PPC, Off-page SEO, Affiliate marketing, email etc? If so, please summarize each of these below.

Always attach any relevant information, such as:

  • Current website statistics
  • Online brand guidelines
  • Media, search plans and/or activity reports
  • User research
  • Site evaluation studies
  • Etc

Although I could write a book to explain how to write a great, marketing, campaign, creative, redesign or site transformation brief, I hope the shared tips help lead you in the right direction.

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