A design brief is the foundation of every successful project. It aligns the team, sets expectations, and defines what success looks like before a single pixel is placed. Yet many briefs we encounter read like wishlists rather than strategic documents. At Kosmoweb, we have refined our approach to design briefs over dozens of projects, and the ones that produce the best outcomes always share one trait: they put the user at the center from the very first sentence.
Why a Design Brief Matters
Without a brief, projects drift. Designers interpret goals differently from developers. Stakeholders introduce conflicting priorities mid-stream. Deadlines slip because no one agreed on the scope in the first place. A well-crafted brief prevents these problems by creating a shared reference point that everyone can return to when decisions get difficult.
We once took on a website project for a logistics company that had no written brief. The CEO wanted a bold, modern brand presence. The operations manager wanted a detailed service catalog. The sales team wanted lead capture forms on every page. Without a brief to mediate these competing visions, the first two months produced three different design directions, none of which satisfied anyone. Starting over with a proper brief saved the project, but the lost time and budget were painful lessons for everyone involved.
Start with a Clear Problem
Every design brief should begin by articulating the problem the project is solving. Not the solution you envision, but the problem itself. "We need a new website" is not a problem statement. "Our current website generates fewer than ten qualified leads per month despite receiving 15,000 monthly visitors" is a problem statement. The distinction matters because it keeps the team focused on outcomes rather than outputs.
Frame the problem from the user's perspective whenever possible. "Visitors cannot determine our pricing without calling sales" is more actionable than "We need a pricing page." The former invites creative solutions; the latter prescribes a specific one that may or may not address the underlying issue.
Know Your Users
A user-centric brief requires user knowledge. Document who your primary and secondary audiences are, what they need from your website, and what barriers currently prevent them from getting it. If you have existing research, reference it. If you do not, acknowledge the gap and build discovery into the project plan.
Personas can be helpful, but only when they are grounded in real data. A persona based on interview transcripts and analytics is a strategic tool. A persona based on the team's imagination is fiction dressed up as strategy. We encourage our clients to include at least three verbatim quotes from actual users in their briefs. These quotes anchor the document in reality and remind everyone that the website serves real people with real frustrations.
For a recent project with a private healthcare clinic, the brief included anonymized patient feedback collected from post-visit surveys. One recurring theme was that patients could not easily find specialist availability online and resorted to calling reception. That single insight shaped the entire information architecture of the redesign.
Set Clear Goals
Goals should be specific and measurable. "Improve the user experience" is an aspiration, not a goal. "Reduce the average time to complete a booking from four minutes to under ninety seconds" is a goal you can design toward, build toward, and measure after launch. Include both business goals and user goals, and note where they align and where they might conflict.
Limit the number of primary goals to three. A brief with twelve objectives is a brief with no priorities. If everything is equally important, nothing receives the focus it deserves. Secondary goals can be documented separately, but the primary goals should be visible on the first page of the brief.
Detail the Deliverables
Spell out exactly what the project will produce. Will there be wireframes? A clickable prototype? A full design system? Development-ready assets? Specify file formats, screen sizes, and any platform-specific requirements. Ambiguity in deliverables is one of the most common sources of project disputes.
Include a timeline with milestones, not just a final deadline. At Kosmoweb, we structure deliverables around review cycles. Each milestone includes a deliverable, a review period, and a revision window. This cadence creates natural checkpoints that keep the project on track and prevent surprises at the end.
Keep It User-Centric
Throughout the brief, return to the user. When describing visual direction, explain how it serves the audience. A minimalist aesthetic is not a style preference; it is a strategy to reduce cognitive load for time-pressed visitors. When listing technical requirements, connect them to user needs. Fast load times are not about server performance; they are about respecting the user's time and attention.
Include user scenarios that describe how different audience segments will interact with the final product. These scenarios help designers and developers empathize with the people they are building for. "A small business owner visits the site on her phone during a lunch break to compare pricing plans" conveys more context than "The site must be mobile-responsive."
Stay Flexible
A brief is a living document, not a contract carved in stone. As the project progresses and new information emerges, the brief should evolve. User testing might reveal that an assumption was wrong. Market conditions might shift. A new technical constraint might surface. Build in a process for updating the brief that includes stakeholder approval so changes are deliberate rather than accidental.
Flexibility does not mean anything goes. It means the team has permission to adapt when evidence supports a change, while maintaining alignment on the core problem and goals. The strongest briefs we have worked with include a section explicitly titled "What We Might Learn" that acknowledges uncertainty and frames discovery as a feature rather than a flaw.
Practical Steps
Begin by interviewing key stakeholders individually before bringing the group together. Individual conversations surface honest perspectives that might be suppressed in a group setting. Compile findings into a draft brief and circulate it for written feedback before scheduling a review meeting.
Use plain language. A brief loaded with jargon excludes team members who are not specialists in design or technology. Everyone involved in the project should be able to read the brief and understand it fully. Finally, keep the document concise. The best briefs we have seen at Kosmoweb are between three and six pages. If your brief is longer than ten pages, it probably contains information that belongs in a separate research or strategy document.