Project brief
Website design brief
Everything we need to quote your website properly, in one form you can fill in at the kitchen table.
Nothing on this form is compulsory except your name and an email address so we can reply. The more you answer, the closer the first quote is to the final one. "Not sure" is a fine answer; we'll help with it on the call.
01Your business
Start with who you are and who buys from you. The site gets designed around the second one.
Why we ask: It sets the brief in plain terms before we look at a single page.
Why we ask: The site has to make sense to them, not to us or to you. This shapes the structure, the words and the design.
Why we ask: Local businesses need a different site structure (and different SEO) from national ones.
- One town and the area around it
- A county or region
- The whole UK
- UK and abroad
Why we ask: We look at what they do well and where there's a gap you can take.
02What the site has to do
A site that shows what you do and gives people a phone number is one job. A shop with stock control is another. This is where quotes diverge most.
Why we ask: Everything else in the brief is measured against this.
- Bring in enquiries (calls, forms, quotes)
- Sell products online
- Take bookings or appointments
- Explain what we do and look credible
- Support an existing customer base (portal, accounts, resources)
- Something else
Why we ask: Each one adds build and testing time. Ticking it here means it's in the quote rather than a surprise later.
- Contact and quote forms
- Online shop
- Online booking
- Customer login or members' area
- Quote or price calculator
- Blog or news
- Case studies or portfolio
- Reviews pulled in from Google
- Live chat
- Multiple languages
- Links to other systems (CRM, accounts, stock, booking software)
Why we ask: Integrations are specified before we build, not discovered halfway through.
Why we ask: A five-page brochure site is a different job from a forty-page site with a page for every town you cover.
- Up to 5
- 6 to 15
- 16 to 40
- More than 40
- No idea, help me work it out
03Content and design
A surprising amount of a website's cost is content. Who writes it, who takes the photos, and what already exists.
Why we ask: If you're supplying the text, the price is lower and the timescale depends on you. If we're writing it, it's higher and faster.
- We will, we have it ready
- We will, but it needs writing
- We'd like Codesky to write it
- A mix: we draft, you tidy
Why we ask: Real photos of your people and your work outperform stock every time. We need to know what we're working with.
- We have good photos we own
- We have some, but they're dated
- We'll need photography arranging
- Stock images are fine for now
Why we ask: If the brand needs sorting first, that's a separate line in the proposal, not a hidden cost.
- Logo files (vector, ideally)
- Brand guidelines
- Colours and fonts we use
- None of these, the brand needs work too
Why we ask: This is the quickest way for our designer to understand your taste before drawing anything.
Why we ask: Saves a round of revisions.
04What you have now
If there's an existing site, we need to know what to keep, what to lose, and what Google already trusts.
Why we ask: We check what ranks, what's linked to and what must be redirected so you don't lose visibility when the new site goes live.
- WordPress
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Shopify
- GoDaddy or 1&1 builder
- Custom built
- Not sure
- No current site
Why we ask: The domain should be registered in your name. If it isn't, we help you get it back before anything else.
- We own the domain and know where it's registered
- A previous agency or developer has it
- Not sure who controls it
- We need a new domain
05Timing and budget
Ranges are fine. We don't publish a starting price because the honest range is too wide to be useful, but knowing roughly what you have in mind stops us proposing the wrong kind of site.
Why we ask: A small business site usually takes about two weeks from sign-off, and almost everything we build is finished within two months. A fixed date changes how we sequence the work.
- As soon as possible
- Within the next two months
- Three to six months
- There's a fixed date (tell us below)
- No rush, planning ahead
Why we ask: Not to pad the quote to match it. It tells us whether to propose a starter site, a business site built for enquiries, or a shop or system, and what to leave out if the budget is tight.
- Under £2,000
- £2,000 to £5,000
- £5,000 to £10,000
- £10,000 to £25,000
- Over £25,000
- I'd rather you tell me what it should cost
Why we ask: Building a site and getting it found are different jobs. If you want both, the proposal covers both.
- Managed hosting
- Maintenance and updates
- SEO
- Google Ads
- Just the build for now
06How to reach you
Last bit. Who should we come back to, and how? Your name and an email address are the only two things we need; everything else on this form is optional.
Why we ask: We send a copy of your answers here, so you have them too.
- A quick phone call
- Either is fine
- Google search
- Recommended by someone
- Social media
- Saw a site you built
- Existing client
- Other