How to Brief a Web Designer (and Get the Website You Actually Want)

(and Get the Website You Actually Want)

Let me start by saying I love that AI tools exist. I use them myself. They’re brilliant for sparking ideas, unblocking your brain and getting a quick answer at 11pm when you really should be in bed.

But there’s something I’ve been seeing more and more as a web and brand designer: clients arriving in my inbox with a brief that’s essentially a printed-out AI conversation.

I get it. You asked ChatGPT what do I need to tell my web designer?” and it gave you a very neat, very confident, very generic list. The problem? None of it is actually about you or your business.

So in this post, I’ll show you how to brief a web designer properly, what to prepare before you start, and how to use AI in a way that actually helps.

AI doesn’t know your business. You do.

When you ask AI what you need for a website, it draws on millions of general examples. It’ll tell you things like “include a clear call to action” and “make sure your homepage communicates your value proposition”. All technically correct. Also completely useless as a brief.

What AI can’t tell me is why your clients keep coming back to you. It doesn’t know that your tone is a bit no-nonsense but genuinely warm, or that your ideal client is a woman in her 40s who’s finally investing in herself. It has no idea that you’ve been running your business from the kitchen table for five years and you’re ready for it to look like the professional operation it actually is.

That’s the gold. And it has to come from you.

Skipping the thinking costs you later

Briefing a designer well means sitting with some uncomfortable questions. What do you actually want your website to do? Not “get more clients”, but specifically. Book calls? Sell products? Show straight away that you’re premium, not the cheapest option?

When you outsource that thinking to AI, you skip the part where you get clear on what success looks like. Then six weeks later, when the design is finished and something feels “off”, you can’t say what it is, because you never defined what “right” was in the first place. That usually leads to round after round of changes, which costs everyone time and energy.

Your designer isn’t a mind reader

When I receive a generic brief, I spend the early stages of the project interviewing you to find the real brief underneath. What did you mean by “modern and professional”? Does “clean and minimal” mean you love white space, or did you just copy the phrase from somewhere?

That’s time we could spend moving your project forward. My job is to turn your vision, your voice and your goals into something that looks beautiful and works. But I can only do that if I know what those things are.

What to prepare before you brief a web designer

You don’t need a polished document. Messy notes in your own words are perfect. Just make sure you’ve thought about these:

• Your goals: what should your website do for your business? Book calls, sell products, collect enquiries, build trust?
• Your dream client: who are you trying to reach, and how do you want them to feel when they land on your website?
• Your brand: do you have a logo, colours and fonts you love? Or is it time for a brand refresh first?
• Your words: who’s writing the copy? If it’s you, start early, as content is the number one thing that delays websites.
• Your photos: do you have recent, professional images of you and your work? If not, consider booking a brand photoshoot before your website is built.
• Websites you love (and hate): share two or three you love and one or two that make you click away, with a line on why.
• The practical stuff: how many pages do you need? Do you want online booking, a shop, email marketing, forms or other tools connected? Every one of these changes the scope, timeline and cost.
• Your logins: have your domain, hosting and any existing website logins ready, so nothing holds up the launch.
• Your budget and timeline: be honest about both. A good designer will tell you what’s realistic and help you prioritise.

How to use AI the right way

I’m not saying don’t use AI at all. Use it to help you think, not to think for you.

Ask it: “What questions should I answer before briefing a web designer?” Then answer those questions yourself, in your own words. Think about your business a year from now. What does it look like, and does your current branding reflect that future version of you?

Those answers, however messy, are the brief I can actually work with.

The bottom line

AI is a tool, not a substitute for knowing your own business. Your website should be a genuine reflection of you, and only you can provide that insight. When you hand that job to a bot, you get a website that could belong to anyone.

You deserve better than that. So does your brand.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re not sure how to put a brief together, don’t worry. I’m always happy to walk you through it before we even get to a proposal, and that conversation usually makes everything that follows much smoother.

Ready to get started on a website that actually sounds, looks, and feels like you? Then why not book a call, click the link here

Yvette