A creative brief is a document that details a design project. It serves as a roadmap, addressing the who, the what, the why and the when. Typically, the recipient of the project’s output will provide the raw input for the design team to synthesize into a document for review.

Simple enough, right? You’d think so, but a creative brief blends unmistakable clarity and uninterpretable detail. That’s sometimes harder to do than it sounds.

Here’s how we work with our clients to craft creative briefs.

Assume No Prior Knowledge

It’s easy for the creative brief writer to omit details they themselves are already familiar with, but it’s super important to write as if your audience has no prior knowledge of the project.

Be crystal clear in defining the project, its purpose and what the expected milestones, deliverables and timelines are.

If there are relevant background materials such as brand guides or established documentation, include links to those items along with contextual notes.

Lots of Short Sentences > Long Meandering Paragraphs

Again, it’s all about clarity. Designers that execute creative briefs appreciate bite-sized direction. It establishes guardrails. It leaves less room for interpretation. (See what I’m doing here? 😉)

Use Design Elements!

Design is communication and a creative brief is the perfect place to apply some. Utilize different font sizes to establish sections. Use bullets and numbering. Better yet, design a template for your creative briefs. This way the brief is quick and simple to navigate, digest and reference.

If Appropriate, Assign Roles and Responsibilities

Defining who will do what (and in what sequence) will ensure that everyone on the project knows both what they’re responsible for and what they’re not responsible for. (The latter there is just as important as the former.) The more a creative brief can establish accountability and clarity around expectations, the better.

Share Your First Draft with Someone Not Involved in the Project

Does it make sense to them? Can they accurately understand the objectives, the process and the roles? Does anything strike them as ambiguous or open-ended? Ask someone not involved in the project to read the creative brief and describe in their own words what it says. If you pass that test, you’re likely in good shape. And if you don’t, better to know now instead of later!

This week marks the beginning of our first foray into summer hours. For the next three months, we will shift to a four-day work week, giving everyone on the team Fridays off. (more…)

I love email. (Don’t @ me. I’m not interested in any “But I get 536 emails a day!” sentiment. Congrats. You’re a big deal. Or you’re a journalist that gets a firehose of lousy pitches every. Damn. Day. You, I feel for.)

What I love about email is the ability it affords you to orchestrate asynchronous discussion. You can set a stage and guide your audience to where you ultimately want them to arrive. Sixty percent of the time, it works every time.

Email is the perfect blend of art and science. It’s a skill honed over time. The earlier you treat it as such, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

So here are some tips to getting more out of email.
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Over the years, we’ve amassed quite a universe of contacts. Clients past and present. Vendors. Partners. Prospects that didn’t sign that we’re still close with. Employees that moved on to other cool things.

Recently, we decided that we wanted to do something with that universe. That naturally led us to think “newsletter!” We thought about rounding up our most recent blog posts, showcasing our latest projects, and curating a bunch of interesting content from around the web.

But then we thought otherwise.

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In the world of WordPress, there are two ways you can go. You can buy a theme off the shelf or you can do a custom design and build. We do the latter for our clients. Here are a few reasons why.
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Think about your favorite product or site. It’s relevant to you. It’s fast and functions as you expect. It’s easy to use. 

That last one? The one about ease of use? Underneath that delightful, satisfying user experience is a design system, a collection of visual and technical definitions that rule a product. Within that design system exist style guides, component libraries, modules and likely much more.
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Another year (almost) in the books!

We are truly thankful. For each other. For our great clients. For compelling, meaningful projects. For you.

From all of us at Think it First, happy holidays.
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We recently tackled a web refresh project that required the migration of over 4,000 pieces of content, specifically blog posts, rich in SEO value. Maintaining that SEO value was a top client priority.

Here’s how we went about it.
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Content marketing works.

It can help your business generate brand awareness, scale traffic, establish authority, build trust, inform audiences, raise money, facilitate self-education… its applications are just about (but not quite) endless.

But lots of content marketing efforts die. They lose steam; they go dormant.

They’re abandoned.

There are a number of reasons why this happens. More often than not, though, a lack of organizational commitment is what kills a content marketing strategy.
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Related to web projects, prospective clients often ask us, “What about SEO?” Usually they are asking this question because they loosely know that a website and SEO have something to do with each other. Sometimes they’re asking it because they think that’s what they’re supposed to ask. Whatever the driver, we almost always answer that question with… (more…)

Here’s how to speed yours up

Google wants to present searchers with a fast internet. As such, sites that take too much time to load get penalized and slip their way down the SERPs. (more…)

It’s not about buying a website; It’s about applying a thoughtful methodology to create value for your business

This post isn’t about Ben Harden or Jo-Jo or Sam Hinkie’s 7,000-word resignation letter. It’s not about a perplexing inability to win on the road against bottom-half teams. Aside from borrowing a hashtag, this post has nothing to do with basketball.

This post is about our process; the Think It First process. We want to share it because we believe in it. We believe in the value it offers to our clients. We believe it’s what makes us different and a true strategic partner to our clients. So let’s dig in. (more…)

Here’s why that’s a good thing

Back when newspapers reigned supreme, there was a layout concept that publishers adhered to called “the fold.” The idea was to put the most important headlines and stories at the top of the front page, quite literally above where the paper folded, in order to attract buyers. By and large, it worked.

As the internet became a thing, and people made career moves from print layout to web design, “the fold” concept followed along, albeit in a slightly different way. Instead of representing a physical line, “the fold” became known as the initial viewable real estate of a webpage, prior to any scrolling. Everything of importance had to go above it because there was no way visitors were going to bother scrolling. They probably didn’t even know how to operate a mouse.

It’s not hard to see why this approach was flawed. (more…)

Here’s why most wireframing sucks, and how we make it better

Wireframing is a crucial part of the digital application building process. It’s how we represent the design and the relationships between different screens. The most important job a wireframe does is enable us to make important decisions related to the user experience, ultimately allowing us to craft a desired behavioral outcome from elements on the screen.

Most wireframing, however, sucks. (more…)

Earlier this year, we shared Part I of our “Questions We Regularly Get (And You Likely Have)” piece. Let’s get going on Part II!

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Here’s what that is and why we think it matters

Want to know a secret about most business awards?

They’re pay-to-play opportunities that usually happen in one of two ways. Either the business applies and pays an application fee to be considered or it’s “nominated” and asked to purchase a branding or marketing package in order to “receive” the award.

Yuck, right?

There are, however, awards programs out there that are above the board, transparent and data-driven. The Clutch 1000 is one of those programs—and we’re pumped we made the 2019 edition* and as a part of its Best Design Firms list. (more…)

Accessibility is an increasingly popular topic amongst web design and development circles—and for good reason. At a high level, accessibility is about making your site, your app, your product usable to everyone. Yes, that includes people with auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech or visual disabilities, but it also includes those without. (Think the elderly, someone with a broken hand that will eventually heal, rural users with slow connections.) Software developer, Isaac Zepada, says it best:

Do you offer Maintenance?

The answer is yes — of course! A Think it First website is a flexible and durable marketing tool that’s designed to evolve with you and the changing tech world around us. And our goal has always been to help you get the most from your website investment long after launch. Today, it’s so important to keep your site maintained, updated, and secure so that you present an optimal experience to your customers on all the devices they use. Investing incrementally in maintenance is the best way to protect your site’s overall appeal and value, keep you safe and secure, and spot and fix bugs on the regular. (more…)

Most businesses don’t know the answer to that question. Let’s fix that.

Nobody needs to be convinced that web security matters. We all read the latest breach headlines. We all know a colleague whose company’s site was hacked. But what most businesses don’t know how to do is gauge the security of their own site. That’s usually a result of not knowing where to start.

So let’s start. (more…)