Design Brief Example: What to Include, How to Write It, and Why It Matters

• A good design brief sets out your project’s goals, audience, scope, timeline and success metrics, acting as a shared reference that saves time and money.
• Great briefs vary by project: brand identity briefs cover business overview, values and deliverables; website briefs centre on user journeys and technical constraints; product or MVP briefs define problems, user personas and core features, leaving the rest out.
• Clear briefs lead to better collaboration. They reduce misunderstandings and allow teams to focus on solving the right problem while leaving room for creativity and iteration.

Design brief example is more than a buzzword; it is the working document that anchors a project. A design brief is a short document that defines the goals, scope and constraints of a design project and gives the designer and client a shared reference point before any work begins. It outlines your project’s goals, audience, requirements and constraints and acts like a roadmap for a project’s lifecycle.

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In the following guide, you’ll learn what a design brief is, why it matters, how to write one and what a good brief looks like from the agency side. Written for startup founders, product teams and marketing leads, this article brings a London‑based design studio’s perspective on design briefs so you can brief your next project with confidence.

What is a design brief? (And why most projects go wrong without one)

A design brief is a document that defines the core details of an upcoming design project – its purpose, scope, strategy and constraints. It sets out what the designer needs to do and under what conditions, functioning like a roadmap for the project from conception to completion. When you create a brief, you clarify goals, define who you are designing for and explain any constraints around budget, timeline or technology. An effective brief should help everyone agree on deliverables, budget and schedule.

Projects with no brief tend to drift. Without a shared document, teams rely on calls, chat messages or links to reference points. The result is confusion, scope creep and unnecessary revisions. A well‑crafted brief reduces the risk of misunderstandings and ensures that the client and designer remain on the same page. It also fosters direct communication: even the most detailed brief cannot replace a conversation, but it lays the foundation so conversations focus on nuance rather than fundamentals.

So who writes it? In most cases, the client prepares the brief because it should reflect their vision and expectations. However, creating it is a collaborative effort between the client and the designer or project manager; a professional designer will guide the questions and help fill in gaps so the document reflects the problem being solved. At Rattlesnake, founders work directly with clients and personally review every brief to ensure that goals, user behaviours and marketing context are considered alongside design and engineering.

Design brief examples: what good ones actually look like

Not all briefs follow the same format. The structure depends on whether you’re building a brand identity, a marketing website or a functional product. Below are three mini‑examples showing how Rattlesnake thinks about each type. In each case, we start by asking probing questions and ensuring that design, development and marketing objectives are aligned.

Brand identity design brief example

1. Business overview. Summarise what the company does, its mission and value proposition. Designers need a detailed description of what your organisation does and what your big goals are. A clear overview helps designers align creativity with business aims.
2. Target audience. Define your ideal customer. Include demographic and psychographic traits and any pain points you expect to solve. Knowing who you’re speaking to informs your choice of colours, typography and tone.
3. Competitors and differentiation. List your main competitors and explain what sets you apart. Designers use this to position your brand visually in a crowded market. For example, when we redesigned a venture capital firm’s identity, we studied the visual language of leading funds before crafting a geometric logo that signalled precision and trust.
4. Values and personality. Outline the brand values and adjectives you want associated with your identity: approachable, sophisticated, playful or authoritative. This helps create a coherent mood board.
5. Deliverables and timeline. Specify what assets you need (logo, colour palette, typography, social templates) and when you need them. Set a realistic timeline with milestones for consultation, concept development and delivery. At this stage, we also ask about budget constraints to manage scope early.
6. Reference materials. Share any visuals you like and examples you dislike. Include existing brand guidelines if you have them.

By writing a brand identity brief this way, you help your designer explore creative options while ensuring the final identity aligns with your business goals. It also acts as a baseline for our team to propose further strategy work. See our brand strategy template for a deeper dive into positioning and messaging.

Website design brief example

1. Purpose and goals. Explain the purpose of your site: is it a marketing site, a transactional portal, a lead‑generation tool or a content hub? Clarify the outcomes you need: increased sign‑ups, better conversion rates or brand awareness. Nuclino suggests treating this section as a project overview covering the what and why behind the design.
2. User journeys. Map the key user journeys. Identify entry points, decision points and conversion goals. For example, your flow might be “arrive on homepage → read about product → book a demo”. Visualising these flows early helps us design navigation and page architecture.
3. Content ownership and brand assets. Identify who will provide copy, photography and illustrations. Detail any existing brand elements the site must adhere to. Without clarity on content, designers can’t plan layout or visual hierarchy.
4. Technical constraints and integrations. List any platforms (CMS, CRM, e‑commerce) or third‑party tools (analytics, forms) you must integrate. Highlight performance or SEO requirements. This ensures that design decisions mesh with development realities. Rattlesnake’s development team works alongside designers from day one to ensure technical constraints are addressed early.
5. Pages and structure. Outline the pages you think you need: home, about, services, blog, contact, and any special layouts. Provide examples of websites you admire so your designer can understand your taste. If your project includes web applications or dashboards, specify data sources and interactive components.
6. Budget, timeline and success metrics. Define your budget range and deadlines. Agree on what success looks like: more leads, improved session duration, lower bounce rate. Setting metrics helps you judge whether the new site meets its goals.

Explore our portfolio and discover how a well-crafted brief shapes truly distinctive websites.

Product (MVP) design brief example

1. Problem and riskiest assumptions. Describe the problem your product solves and the assumptions you need to test. A minimum viable product (MVP) is the smallest functional release that delivers value and collects feedback. At Rattlesnake, we insist on articulating the job to be done, defining your ideal customer profile and mapping the core user journey. If you cannot name the riskiest assumption about your idea, you’re not ready to build.
2. User personas. Define who will use the MVP: early adopters, beta testers or paying customers. Include their goals and contexts. This ensures features are prioritised for those who matter most.
3. Core features and scope. Use a prioritisation method such as MoSCoW to sort features into must‑haves, should‑haves and could‑haves. Must‑have features are essential to deliver the core loop (e.g., user registration, core transaction flow, payment integration); should‑have features improve the experience but are not critical for the first release; later features are nice to have and will be built after launch. Maintaining an “out of scope” list helps prevent scope creep.
4. Out‑of‑scope items. Explicitly state what is not included in the MVP. This discipline keeps budgets under control and prevents derailment.
5. Technical and architectural constraints. Highlight any technical decisions or existing stack requirements. Rattlesnake chooses a modular monolith with a single PostgreSQL database for most MVPs to keep development fast and simple. Our architecture emphasises speed over complexity, while leaving room to scale, we avoid early microservices and event‑sourcing patterns that slow down delivery.
6. Definition of done and success metrics. Define what a successful MVP release looks like: activation rate, time to first value, retention and conversion. Without clear metrics, you cannot decide whether to iterate, pivot or scrap the idea.

At the end of the build, we conduct a handoff process: we transfer code to your servers, provide Figma design files and design system documentation, document the codebase on GitHub and sign over IP rights after each milestone. We continue supporting your product post‑launch through flexible contracts so that you can request improvements without being bound by rigid retainers.

How to write a design brief: the elements that matter

Every brief, regardless of project type, should capture a set of essentials. Think of these elements as the scaffolding that holds your project together. Here’s what to include and why it matters:

1. Project overview. A concise description of the project’s what and why, the problem, desired outcome and business context. This sets the scene and helps your designer understand the purpose behind the project. Without it, the design may solve the wrong problem.
2. Goals and success metrics. Distinguish between goals and objectives. Goals describe the overall purpose, such as creating a memorable brand identity, while objectives are concrete measures of success – for example, delivering assets within four weeks or achieving a specific conversion rate. Clear metrics help you judge whether the project succeeds and prevent scope creep.
3. Target audience. Identify who the design is for, including demographic and psychographic traits, problems to solve and desired behaviours. Understanding your audience guides creative and functional choices.
4. Scope and deliverables. List the specific outputs you expect: visual assets, web pages, interactions, prototypes or production‑ready files. Clarify formats and sizes to avoid mismatches. Aligning on deliverables early reduces revisions.
5. Budget and timeline. Provide budget constraints and an anticipated timeline. Designers need to know how flexible the budget is and what internal deadlines the project must align with to plan the work realistically.
6. Design references and inspiration. Share examples of designs you like or dislike. Include existing brand guidelines or mood boards. References help designers understand your taste and avoid directions you dislike.
7. Approval process and stakeholders. Define who approves each stage and who needs to be consulted. Creative projects involve multiple stakeholders, so clarifying the approval chain reduces delays. You may also specify how feedback will be collected (e.g., through a collaborative document or regular reviews).
8. Constraints and technical notes. Highlight any non‑negotiables: compliance requirements, platform limitations or legacy technology. These constraints keep the design within realistic boundaries and prevent rework later.

Including these elements in your brief ensures that your designer has enough context to start work confidently. It also helps you, as the client, think through your project strategically rather than reacting to ideas later.

Design brief template: a starting point you can adapt

Below is a simple template you can copy and fill in. Feel free to adapt or extend it to your project. The fields mirror the elements above and provide guidance on what to include.

Project name/client/date

Project overview: Briefly describe what you’re building and why (e.g., “Redesign brand identity to appeal to Gen‑Z audience”).

Goals & success metrics: State the high‑level goals and how you will measure success (e.g., “Increase conversion rate by 20% within three months”).

Target audience: Describe your ideal customer: demographics, behaviours, needs.

Scope & deliverables: List the outputs required. Specify file formats, sizes and any devices or platforms involved.

Design references & inspiration: List websites, brands or visuals that inspire you. Include what you dislike.

Budget: Provide a budget range or maximum spend.

Timeline: Specify key milestones and final deadline.

Approval process: Name stakeholders who must approve each stage and describe how feedback will be gathered.

Adapt this template to different project types. For a brand identity project, emphasise values, competitors and personality. For a website project, add sections on user journeys, SEO and integrations. For an MVP, include problem statements, riskiest assumptions and core feature lists.

The difference between a design brief and a creative brief

People often conflate design briefs and creative briefs, but they serve different purposes. A design brief defines the scope, deliverables and constraints of a design project. It acts as a blueprint for designers and project managers, focusing on what must be built and within which parameters.

A creative brief, by contrast, is a document that defines the broader scope and goals of a creative project and outlines key elements such as messaging, tone and audience. It provides direction for creative teams, ensuring that everyone is aligned on the concept, but it doesn’t prescribe specific design solutions. Creative briefs serve as roadmaps for campaigns, advertisements or video projects and typically focus more on narrative and messaging than on technical deliverables.

Both briefs can coexist. The creative brief informs the overarching story and brand message; the design brief translates that message into tangible deliverables like logos, interfaces or websites. In our projects, we often start with a creative brief during brand strategy work and then craft a design brief to guide the actual build. Understanding the difference helps you provide the right information to the right team and avoid confusion.

Working on a design project? Start with the right brief. Rattlesnake, a London‑based design and product studio, guides startups and scale‑ups through structured discovery before any work begins. Our boutique model means our founders stay personally involved and communicate directly with you. Whether you need branding, web design or an MVP, we bring together design, development and marketing to ensure your project gets the attention it deserves.

Start a project.