Project Briefs & Communication
Keep the requested outcome separate from your first solution
Imagine a fictional organiser asking, “Make the timetable easier to find.” A designer immediately proposes adding a menu item. This original worksheet slows the jump from request to implementation long enough to identify what remains unclear. It is a planning example, not a report that a navigation change has been built or evaluated.
01
Record the objective and the situation supplied
Copy the request into a field labelled “Stated objective” and note that it concerns the event website. Add any context the organiser actually supplied, such as the page or device they were discussing. Leave absent information marked as unknown. Do not rewrite the objective as “Add a menu item,” because that replaces the requested outcome with the designer’s first idea. The source wording gives both people a reference point when they discuss what easier to find means in this particular situation.
02
List the proposed response and its assumption
Write the menu item under “Proposed response.” Beside it, state the assumption that visitors are looking in the menu and not finding a suitable route. That assumption may be plausible, but the original sentence does not establish it. Another possibility is that the timetable link is present but its label is unclear. Keeping these possibilities visible prevents the brief from silently treating a design suggestion as an agreed requirement. The worksheet should show the reasoning that needs discussion, rather than hide it behind a finished-looking mock-up.
03
Ask for context and record the clarified brief
A follow-up could ask, “Where were you expecting to find the timetable, and what made it difficult in that situation?” Record the organiser’s answer separately from your interpretation of it. Then restate the objective in the clarified context and identify the next design decision. If the answer points to an unclear label, the menu proposal may need revision. The completed sheet retains the original request, proposed response, assumption and clarification, making the next step understandable without pretending that the first idea was the intention all along.