The communication brief is a short paper (about 2 pages) written immediately after meeting the client for the first time. The primary purpose is to articulate the goal of the redesign project. What is the purpose of the site? Who is it for? What specific problems need to be addressed during the redesign? This should start with the client's goals, of course, but it is also important to decide what your group's goals are. Later in the process you will have to make design decisions; it's a good idea to know what your own primary goals for the project are in advance so that you'll have a target to aim for.
Sample Communication Brief
The following is a sample communication brief. The University Writing Center redesigned their web site last summer. This communication brief articulates the high level goals and the expected results of that project. Note that the brief is short, direct, and unambiguous. Most of the text is aimed at clearly identifying the primary audiences of the site, organized in order of importance with the most importance audience described first, and the least important audience described last.
The brief also identifies "perception guidelines" and "communication strategy." Both of these are borrowed from advertising. In many ways, the web site is the public face of the person or organization it represents, and so it makes sense to think about how the site's owners want it to be perceived. The "perception guidelines" identify a series of keywords characterizing the impression that the visitor should take away. The "communication strategy" briefly states how exactly the site should go about conveying that impression.
Lastly, it breaks down the overall project into a series of smaller steps. Those steps are not detailed here, but thinking about the large project by breaking it into smaller parts helps make it more manageable.
Project Summary
The web site of the University Writing Center (UWC) will undergo a complete redesign. The existing site has proven difficult to maintain, and difficult for visitors to navigate. The primary goals of the project are to rectify those two problems.
Target Audience
The UWC web site has these audiences:
- Undergraduates
- The UWC exists to help undergraduates with their writing assignments. The most important audience for their web site is therefore those same undergraduates. These students need to be able to find and use: the UWC's opening hours schedule, contact information for making appointments, instructions on what to bring to a writing consultation, and handouts and advice they can use even when the UWC is closed.
- Instructors
- Instructors make frequent use of the writing center on behalf of their students. They need to know: what services the UWC offers to students, what services the UWC offers to instructors, how to schedule a UWC presentation, and assorted other information such as the UWC's ethics policy.
- UWC Staff
- The UWC Staff have different needs than the other audiences. They need access to: training materials for writing consultation, professional development materials such as links to relevant journals, copies of internal policies and guides, and access to handouts that they can give to students who consult with them.
- The general public
- The site should also offer a few materials for the general public, including: an overview of what the UWC does, contact information, and announcements about upcoming public-outreach events.
Perception Guidelines
helpful, professional, competent, useful
Communication Strategy
We want the UWC to be perceived primarily as helpful. To support that goal, the site must be built so that it itself is helpful to the visitors: it should get them the information they need with as little fuss as possible.
Stages of Development
The redesign will take the following stages: an analysis of existing content on the site, brainstorming new content the UWC should add, organizing both types of content into a clear and navigable site structure, designing a smooth and appealing look for the new site, and lastly converting that look to work with our new content management system. At intervals we will pause to assess the site for accessibility compliance.
Results
The result of the redesign project should be a site which looks better than our existing site, is easier to use, and is easier for the UWC staff to maintain.
In a professional environment, the communication brief would be presented to the client by the web developer at the very beginning of the process, as a foundational document. The client would be expected to review it, make any particular changes or expansions they would like, and then sign off on it.
The basic purpose of the brief is to ensure that the client and the developer both clearly understand what one another's expectations for the project, so as to minimize the possibility of later conflicts due to misunderstanding. It provides written documentation of what the project is supposed to do. Getting everything in writing helps prevent "he said she said" situations in which it is one person's word against another's with no external evidence.
Since this is a class, I will be playing the part of the client. Once you have finished your Communication Brief, I would like EACH of your group members to submit a copy as a work sample. I'll write comments on it and then paste it into all three work samples so that each student has a copy of everything.