The second way to breathe life into a design brief is to remind ourselves that it was never as complete as it originally sounded.
We do this by exploring the Five Elements of a Design Brief:
- The explicit – what is actually written.
- The implicit – what is meant by what is written
- The assumed – what is assumed in the writing and in the reading.
- The missing – what the brief writer forgot to tell you.
- The unknown – what the writer didn’t include in the brief because they hadn’t realised they wanted it yet.
In practice, read the brief aloud, slowly. For each sentence, ask:
- What is explicit here?
- What is implicit?
- What is assumed?
- What is missing?
- What might be unknown?
The questions test both our understanding of the brief, and also whether we have the right requirements. And open to the door evolving the brief.