“We need a modern website” is a reasonable starting point. It leaves a studio guessing, though: do you need five pages that explain your services, an online booking system, or a multilingual catalogue your team can update?
You do not need a technical specification before contacting a studio. A short brief with the information below makes the first conversation more useful and gives you a better basis for comparing proposals.
Start with one business goal
Describe what you want the website to help someone do. “Request an appointment”, “understand our services” and “send us a project enquiry” are clearer than “look more professional”. You may have several goals, but choose the most important one for launch.
Add who the website is for. A first-time customer needs different information from a returning client who already knows your services. State the countries and languages you want to serve, too.
For example, an illustrative salon brief might say: “Help new clients understand our treatments and contact us to request an appointment. Start in Romanian and English.” This describes a task and audience without prescribing the design.
List pages and actions separately
A page list tells a studio what information you need to present. An action list explains what people must be able to do.
| Information to present | Action to support |
|---|---|
| Services, team, gallery and contact details | Call, send a message or request an appointment |
| Opening hours and location | Find directions |
| Frequently asked questions | Read an answer before making contact |
Be specific about what happens after a click. A link to an existing booking service is a different scope from a system that manages staff availability, takes payments and sends reminders. Write down the system you already use, if there is one.
Mark each item as needed for launch or possible later. A smaller first version can still be useful if it supports the main customer journey.
Say what content is ready
List the logo, service descriptions, photographs, translations and existing website content you can provide. If something is missing, say so. Copywriting, photography and translation need an owner and a place in the schedule, even when development itself is straightforward.
Two or three reference websites can help. Explain the part you like: the navigation, the tone, the way services are presented, or the photography. “We like this site’s clear service comparison” gives a designer more direction than “make ours like this”.
Explain how you will maintain the site
Who will change the content, and how often? A site whose pages change twice a year may need a different editing setup from one with weekly offers and frequent gallery updates.
Mention your existing domain, hosting and tools. For the brief, names are enough; passwords and access tokens are not needed. Ask proposals to explain who will own the source, domain and accounts, and what handoff or ongoing support is included.
Share constraints early
An approximate budget and target date help a studio propose a realistic scope. Explain whether the date is tied to an opening, event or campaign, or is simply a preference. Ask what the studio needs from you to meet the proposed schedule.
If discovery through Google matters, include the services, languages and customer locations you want the website to describe. Google’s starter guide explains that search engines need to discover and understand your pages; it also makes clear that there is no automatic first-place ranking. Treat SEO work as a defined part of the proposal, with progress you can measure.
A brief you can copy
We are a [type of business] serving [audience and locations].
Our main website goal is [customer action].
For launch, we think we need [pages] and [functions]. Later, we may add [items].
We already have [domain, existing website, content and tools]. We need help with [missing items].
The site should be available in [languages]. [Person or role] will update it [frequency].
Our approximate budget is [range]. We would like to launch by [date and reason].
Please explain your proposed scope, exclusions, responsibilities, handoff and support options.
A brief does not have to settle every decision. It should give the studio enough context to ask good questions and give you a proposal you can understand.
Lucidity Soft brings UX/UI design and full-stack development together for small and medium websites. Explore our website services, or tell us what you are planning using the brief above.
Prepared with AI assistance by Lucidity Soft.
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