What to prepare before a website redesign

A useful redesign brief explains what people need to do on the website and what currently prevents them from doing it. A list of preferred colours and reference sites helps later, but it does not establish the scope.

Begin with three or four important tasks. For a service company, these might be understanding a service, checking whether it fits a project and sending an enquiry with enough detail for a useful reply.

Describe the current problems

Replace broad requests with observations the project can address. For example, “the contact form feels old” is difficult to assess. “Customers cannot attach the specification we need, so we request it in a second email” identifies a specific missing step.

Collect examples from the people who answer enquiries or maintain the site. Record frequent questions, incorrect assumptions and repetitive manual tasks. Identify which problems need content changes, which need interface changes and which require a technical integration.

Choose a small number of outcomes to assess after launch. They could include fewer incomplete enquiries, easier editing or a shorter path to an important document. Establish what can actually be measured before attaching a target.

Inventory pages and content

Create a spreadsheet with the current URL, page purpose, owner and proposed action: keep, rewrite, merge or retire. Mark pages containing useful documents, incoming campaign links or information customers regularly request.

For each planned service page, prepare:

• Who the service is for and what it includes.
• Information needed to estimate or start the work.
• Relevant limitations, dependencies or exclusions.
• The next action the visitor should take.
• A person responsible for approving the content.

Gather original logo files, brand guidance and images you have permission to use. Note missing material early. A layout designed around photography will need that photography or a different visual approach.

List functions and connected services

Document forms, payments, bookings, language versions, restricted pages and external systems. Include what happens after a visitor submits a form: who receives it, where the data is stored and how follow-up works.

Separate essential launch functions from later improvements. A short list with clear acceptance criteria is easier to estimate than an open-ended request to modernise everything.

Prepare access and URL decisions

Identify the owners of the domain, DNS, hosting, repository, email delivery, analytics and any licensed tools. Access should be granted through appropriate accounts rather than scattered passwords in the brief.

If addresses change, prepare redirects. Google’s guidance for site moves with URL changes covers URL mapping and updating links. A redesign can keep existing URLs where they still make sense.

Agree how approval works

Name one person who can resolve conflicting feedback. Agree when structure, copy and design are reviewed, and what constitutes approval at each step.

Finish the brief with a realistic budget range, timing constraints and responsibilities for supplying content. Unresolved decisions can remain visible as questions; they should not quietly become assumptions inside the estimate.