Appendix A. Project Brief
NOTE: This brief borrows heavily from Happy Cog’s project planner (http://www.happycog.com/), with a bent towards both branding and Drupal projects. I made this available as a download from the the zen kitchen’s website; clients would download it in Word, fill it out and send it back to us before we got back to them with a proposal. This can be very handy for getting a head-start on the discovery process.
Hey there! It’s nice to meet you.
This handy worksheet is designed to help us get a feel for your organization’s background, goals and design needs, and to help make sure that everyone is on the same page so that we can create the most accurate proposal possible for your project. The information in this document is also an important part of the zen kitchen’s proven design process—your answers here serve an important role in clarifying direction, messaging and audience up front. This makes it easier for us to produce award-winning strategic design for our clients.
When you’re finished, save the document as
{organization name}_planner.doc (replacing
{organization name} with the name of your
particular organization), and email the document to
[email protected]. Please allow up to 1 week for a response.
In a hurry? Just let us know and we’ll let you know if we can help you
sooner.
Note
While this project planner includes information that will help us for identity, print and web projects, it also includes some information that is specific to certain types of projects. Feel free to leave out any information that doesn’t apply to your project; however, the background information, look and feel, and other supporting information is something that we need for all types of projects.
Who are you?
- Your name:
First and Last Name
- Your title:
Answer here.
- Organization name:
Answer here.
- Where is your office located? (not necessarily where your organization is, where you are):
Answer here.
- Email address and URL (if you have one):
Enter email address here
Enter URL here
- Business phone including area and/or country code:
Phone number here
- So, how did you hear about us?
Answer here.
- Responding to inquiries generally takes up to a week. If you need us to move more quickly than that, please indicate below:
[ ] I’m in a rush and I need a Proposal/Statement of Work from you as soon as possible
About your project
Tell us about your project. What components will be involved? Check (√) all that apply.
| { } Logo/Identity Design |
| { } Business cards, stationery, etc. |
| { } Brochure, postcards, sales or tradeshow materials |
| { } Design for events |
| { } Annual or Corporate Citizenship/Responsibility/Sustainability Report |
| { } Website Design |
| { } E-mail marketing |
| { } Print advertising |
- Have you ever worked with a designer or design firm before? What was that experience like? What type of project? What worked? What didn’t?
Answer here.
Background
- Tell us in a few words about your organization. What do you produce? Why does your customer need it?
Answer here.
- How many people does your organization employ? Who besides you (if applicable) will be decision-makers on this project?
Answer here.
Goals and Objectives
- What is your organization looking to achieve with strategic design? (i.e., increased visibility? More sales? Build customer loyalty? General image upgrade? Other?) Please be specific and try to stick with one major goal with 1–2 secondary goals.
Answer here.
- How will you define success for this project?
Answer here.
Target Audience
- List some key facts about your intended market or user. Include both demographic data (age, income, education, etc.) and psychographics (what magazines do they read? What websites do they visit frequently? What are their values and attitudes?).
Answer here.
- Does your target audience already know about your product or service? If so, how do they feel about it? How would you like to change that perception (if at all)?
Answer here.
- What motivates them to use your product or service?
Answer here.
- For websites: Who do you consider the primary and secondary users of your site? What are they there for? What information do you want to give them?
Answer here.
Competition
- Who do you consider your peers and competitors? How do they present themselves? Give us their URLs if you have them.
Answer here.
- What are the key benefits/advantages to going with you instead of your competitors?
Answer here.
- How about your competitors? Do consumers perceive any advantages to going with them? (It’s okay to be honest here. Part of good design is knowing what your competitors do well so we can differentiate from them.)
Answer here.
Brand attributes
- Describe briefly, in as few words as possible, the type of feelings that you want to evoke in the audience with your brand and/or web presence, and the brand attributes that you want to convey. (Example feelings may include: warmth, reassurance, excitement, empowerment. Example brand attributes: integrity, honesty, trustworthiness.)
Answer here.
- Using adjectives and short phrases, tell us about the look and feel you’re going for. (Examples: edgy, modern, clean, organic, traditional, classic, user-friendly. Try to avoid terms like “web 2.0” and “cutting edge.”)
Answer here.
- In terms of look and feel, are there any sites or design projects you’ve seen that you feel convey the type of image you’re going for? Share a few of them and tell us why they appeal to you.
Answer here.
Functionality and Technical Requirements
For all projects:
- Are there any current brand standards that we should be aware of adhering to: Fonts, colors, etc.? If not, would you like to talk about having us develop them for you?
Answer here.
- How much of the copy do you have completed for this project?
{ } All of it { } Some of it { } We’d like to hire you to create it
For print projects:
- How will you be handling distribution of design? (Are brochures mailed or handed out? Will ads run on a specific schedule?)
Answer here.
- Do you have a printer currently, or do you want us to handle it for you? (Note: design estimates do not include printing costs, which will be handled separately by the client. Also, as a sustainable design firm, the zen kitchen promotes and works exclusively with companies that utilize sustainably-minded printing methods.)
Answer here.
For web projects:
- Is your current site powered by a content management system (CMS) or publishing platform? How are updates generally handled?
Answer here.
- If “yes,” which platform are you using?
Answer here.
- What do you like/dislike about it?
Answer here.
- Does your site plan involve support for community features, social media, RSS feeds, profiles, commenting, blogs, forums, sharing, user-generated content, etc? Give us a brief rundown of what you’d like to see.
Answer here.
- Does your plan include hosting video, audio or other media-intensive components? This could involve podcasting, photo sharing, etc.
Answer here.
- Does your plan include selling products, event management, or other features that would require a user to give you money through the site?
Answer here.
- About how many pages do you estimate your site will have? What might the top-level navigation look like (main sections, secondary sections, etc.)?
Answer here.
- Would you prefer to do this project in a single pass or split it up into phases (each requiring its own budget)?
Answer here.
- If splitting up into phases, please tell us the general breakdown of each phase that you have in mind.
Answer here.
- Anything else we should know?
Answer here.
To deliver the best experience to the most users and to build pages that will last, we use modern standards-based methods. As a result, our sites may not look exactly the same in an old, non-compliant browser like Internet Explorer 6 as they do in newer browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 7 and 8. Designing your site to work in older, non-compliant browsers will add significant development time and cost to the project budget, and some modern technologies that aren’t supported by the browser may have to be removed from the project scope.
| { } My site has to look and work exactly the same way in older as it does in newer browsers. |
| { } I understand that the site may not look as good or work as well in an outdated browsers. |
Time and money
- If you’re working within a time frame, or have been given a mandatory launch date, list it here. If the project will launch in phases, list proposed milestones and dates.
Answer here.
- Please tell us your budget for this project. (Note: Sharing a realistic assessment of what you have to spend on this effort will help us scope our engagement appropriately. While disclosing your budget might not be something you typically do, sharing this information with us now will greatly reduce the likelihood of both sides spending significant time and resources “shooting in the dark.”)
Answer here.
Thanks again!
We very much appreciate you taking the time to fill out our project planner. We realize it’s a lot to ask up front, but it’s a huge help when it comes time to put together numbers that accurately reflect the work involved in your unique.
When you’re finished, save the document as
{organization name}_planner.doc (replacing
{organization name} with the name of your
particular organization), and email the document to
[email protected]. Please allow up to 1 week for a response.
In a hurry? Just let us know and we’ll let you know if we can help you
sooner.
THIS INFORMATION IS USED TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT PROCEDURES IN CREATING THE PROJECT REQUESTED. BY SIGNING THIS AGREEMENT, YOU AGREE ALL INFORMATION SUBMITTED IS CORRECT.
| Name (print) |
| Approval Signature |
| Date |
| Designer Approval |