Introduction to Design Briefs and

Proposals
Dr. Will Kurlinkus
 Teams

1. Breakfast Titans: Ethan, Brady, Mac, Griffin

2. Ocean Outlaws: Hunter, Emily, Mauri, Ivan

3. Irrational Clouds: Andrew, Jake, Jesus, Uriel

4. Space Llamas: Bryar, James, Craig

 2. Structure Your Meetings: PPP

¤ Begin your meeting with

showing off your work and
reviewing it together.
1. Progress: What are your
accomplishments,
finished items, and
completed tasks.
2. Problems: Challenges.
Items that you are stuck
and can’t finish alone.
3. Plans: Goals and
objectives for the next
reporting period. These
should become Progress
next week.
 3. Dividing and Conquering
¤ Always end the meeting with
clearly defined objectives for
each group member (ideally
based in their skills).
¤ Make sure these objectives are
broken down sequentially to
actually show the labor and
process/timeline involved in
them. “First, I’ll do this, then I’ll
do this.”
¤ At the beginning of the next
meeting tick off your
objectives list.
¤ Keep this list so you know
who’s done what type of work
throughout the project. And so
you can show your
boss/client/professor what
stage of the project you’re at.
 4. Use Your In-Class Time Wisely

¤ Separate work separately, collaborative work

collaboratively: Use your time together efficiently.
¤ Put things together as a group
¤ Make sure you have times that you think collectively and
collaborate
¤ Write questions you have for the group down and ask them
 5. Giving Feedback

¤ Feedback comes after PPP to make sure it’s goal oriented.

¤ Start with compliments
¤ Ask the creator to explain what they like and struggled with
¤ Position good or bad feedback in terms of the product not the
person
¤ Position good or bad feedback in terms of the projects objectives
¤ Praise in public, critique in private
¤ Offer specific suggestions
¤ Give an opportunity to respond
 6. Someone Isn’t Pulling Their Weight

1. Speak Up Early. Don’t let people get away with not doing their work. The
more you do, they more they won’t. The sooner you speak, the less mad
you’ll be, and the easier the conversation will be.
¤ Don’t accuse, ask them what happened and how they see the situation. They may
not have the skill to complete the task or may need further support.
¤ Don’t go one-on-one. Speak with the rest of the team before you speak with this
person.
¤ There is no reason to not do work. Even if you have a sick child at home, you still
have to do your job.

2. Give an Opportunity for them to make up work or do extra work on the next
step.

3. Speak to the Boss: If these first 2 steps don’t work, then speak to the boss
(me). Make sure you have ample evidence (your objectives list, for
instance, and who was assigned what).
¤ In this class, if I am approached by an anonymous team member(s) that someone
is not doing their work and there is proof of this slacking then that person will
receive 25 points off their team’s final grade.
Who are you?

1. You are a team of web designers who is trying to get a

client to pay you to both usability test and redesign their
website based on that usability testing data.

2. You already kind of know this business, they’ve invited

you to submit a proposal.
Hybrid Form: Design Brief+Proposal
Design Brief
¤ A document describing the design
problem and establishing a
foundation of objectives, principles,
and requirements.
¤ It is given to a client/potential client
at the beginning of a project so that
they know what you are going to do
and why you are going to do it.
¤ It’s goal is to show there is a problem,
develop the context the problem
exists within, and shows in some way
how you as the designer are going to
solve that problem.
¤ Another large goal is simply to
develop trust and confidence.
Showing off your knowledge set.
Design Proposal
¤ Similar to the grant, a design
proposal is a pitch to a client
that there is a problem and that
you have a solution that’s worth
funding.
¤ You must demonstrate that you
know who the client is, that you
know what they need, that you
know web design, that you have
a solution.
¤ At the same time you don’t
want to give them too much of
a solution for free
 Proposals and Design Briefs: Intros
¤ [the site]: You will choose a small-scale website (preferably
from a local business/academic department) that you think
has several design flaws which you can improve upon.
¤ The goal of this proposal is pitching a usability test to a company,
so you need to mention a little about why you are writing to them
in your intro. Give me a one one or two sentence executive
summary: “In this design brief we aim to show…”
¤ In your design brief/proposal you want to start by describing the
company who owns the website or app as an entity. Give me a
paragraph on what the company wants to portray about itself on
its website?
¤ Remember that you are writing to this company as if you were
working for them. They are your client. “We understand that you
want to…”
 Proposals and Design Briefs: Users and
Purposes
¤ [users and purposes]: Identify what the primary goals (what
do users hope to accomplish on the site?) of the site are
and who you think the target audience for the site is.
Specifically, you must identify three main purposes of the
website (2 of which you will test) and you must write a “user
persona” for a typical primary and secondary user of the
site.
¤ Remember that user personas are written very specifically for a
reason. So, in your user persona, show the goals and activities
that users might want to achieve (and that you will test). And
you might even hint at what users find frustrating about the
current site.
¤ Give a typical scenario of use in the user persona as well.
1. Create Your First Proto Persona

“I love the Western U.S. and seeing how

different Oklahoman artists represent it”

Add image that

represents this Goals Frustrations
● Find new local artists ● Finding out info about
persona
● Travel the state local artists can be
● Learn more about difficult
these artists before ● Some gallery owners
buying their works don’t know about their
artists or don’t like to
talk
Bryan Larson
Age: 53 Bryan is a history professor who studies “the West” and is
Education: PhD History interested in western U.S. art and culture. On the weekends he
Hometown: Norman, OK travels around Oklahoma to find small art galleries that display
Family: Wife local artists. He loves discovering new artists and finding out
Occupation: Professor more about them.
2. Create User Persona 2: With a Slight
Difference in User Goal This Time

“Oklahoma is…different. I’m trying to start a

new home here.”

Add image that

represents this Goals Frustrations
● Meet new people ● ”I don’t know anything
persona
through art about Oklahoma and
● Find art about cities am new to the area so
● Learn about local finding local galleries
artists who have and knowing about
moved too how to talk to them is
hard”
Mel Petersen
Age: 40 Mel just moved to Oklahoma from New York City after
Education: MD completing her MD and working for a year. She works for the
Hometown: Oklahoma City local university medical center. She’s experienced a culture
Family: none shock but has found that art, particularly art about
Occupation: Doctor metropolitan areas, and the people she meets exploring local
art is fun pastime.
 What Are User
Stories?
User Stories: Fictional, one-sentence stories, told from the persona’s point of view to inspire and inform design decisions. They
connect the needs of a potential user to a specific action and benefit.

Type of User + Action + Benefit

1. "As a.... ” type of user

2. "I want... ” What the user hopes to happen.

3. "So That... ” Why the user wants that to happen.

¤ As a dog owner, I want to trust my dog walker so I can hire them for regular walks.

¤ As a mother of two, I want to limit the amount of access to my home so I can keep my family safe.

¤ As a former police officer, I want to track my dog walker so I am comfortable with the safety of my
pets.
 Proposals and Design Briefs: Flaws
Analysis
¤ [flaws]: Identify the design flaws of the website. You must
analyze 3 specific pages—a homepage and two secondary
pages. You need to do this visually, using screen captures and
labels. Furthermore, you need to describe these flaws in terms
of your target users and their goals on the website (this section
should reference the web design PowerPoint and our web
design meetings).
¤ Remember you are focusing on problems of use not simply ugliness.
¤ Think about flaws in terms of your user persona’s needs.
¤ To cite your sources, most technical documents use a footnote or
endnote style. No need to say, as this web design blog says. Rather
just paraphrase them and footnote the source.
¤ Remember that images need to labeled in three ways: Referred to
in the text, have a caption, and have a label.
¤ Be kind. Be generous. Someone at the company (or their nephew)
probably made this site.
 Proposals and Design Briefs:
Competitor Review
¤ [Competitor Review]: Identify 2 other website that are of the
same kind, purpose, and or business as the website you’re
redesigning. Describe how this site works better/solve the
problems your chosen website is having.
¤ Directly refer (one-for-one) to your flaws section
¤ Provide plenty of pictures
¤ Suggest ways in which your new redesign could be better than
the competitors
 Proposals and Design Briefs: Proposal
¤ [proposal]: Conclude by proposing a usability test to your client
(the website owner). Which 2 tasks/flaws will you specifically run
the usability test for and why? For each user objective write a
bulleted protocol of questions and tasks you might have the
user do in the usability test. In this section you also need to do a
little bit of convincing on WHY a usability test will be beneficial
to your client. And you need to describe a little bit more
general information on the type of usability test you will perform
(this section should reference Krug).
¤ You can imagine that your client knows their website is generally
bad.
¤ Don’t imagine that your audience knows what a usability test is or
why it’s important.
¤ Your goal is to describe a little bit about what you will do/test and
how.