Dates slip for a duller reason than “the design is hard.” They slip when the pages, the stack, and the acceptance check are unnamed before kickoff. A one-page brief is enough when it is specific.
One paragraph on the job
Who the customer is, what they should do on the site, and what counts as success. “We need a modern site” is not a job. “A quote request leaves from the first screen” is a job. The heading is built from that paragraph, not from a palette.
The page list
Home, work, contact, languages, articles — whatever is actually in the date. Each page has one job. If a page is not on the list, it is not in the estimate. “A blog later” with no topics is the next agreement, not a tail on this one.
Stack and acceptance
- Static or a CMS, where it is hosted, whether you need a form or a bot
- The page opens on the live address
- The form arrives where you agreed
- The raw HTML has its own title, description, and one h1
- On a phone the text does not jump while images load
What to leave out of the brief
Twenty references with no mark on what to take. Pick one screen you like and one constraint that cannot move: the date, the stack, the tone, a ban on third-party widgets. The rest is taste. Talk about it on a layout, do not hide it in an appendix.
How that paragraph becomes the first screen — the note on landing structure. How delivery shows up in a portfolio — the note on a case. To send the inputs — use the contact form.