Why a Design Brief is important

A design brief is very important to the practitioner and his/her client because if they both do not have a brief, the client will not know what the practitioner is doing in the relevant project. The three following reasons from a bad brief are:

1) The brief may be very tight.
2) The client will not give you the relevant information needed beyond the size of the appropriate document, and (s) he may not know what the practitioner will be up to at this moment.
3) Second hand brief.
4) High expectations, but poor budget/deadline.
5) The brief may change at different times.
6) The information may be too contradicting, making not one, but two project briefs at the same time.
7) Too many options to choose from.

The following requirements needed for a better brief are:

1) Information about the company. The more you have, the better your product will look when assembled.
2) Budget.
3) Project message/theme.
4) Who their competitors are.
5) Where the corporate guidelines have been included.
6) Target audience/Market.
7) Tech spec.
8) Needs to look and feel required.
9) Deadline.
10) Expectations.
11) Good examples of previous projects they have done before.