How to brief a website redesign around customer tasks

When a local business website feels “old,” the temptation is to ask for a cleaner look and call it a day. But most redesign problems are not really design problems. They are task problems.

A customer is usually trying to do a few simple things: find a service, compare options, decide whether to trust you, contact someone, and maybe buy, book, or request a quote. If your redesign brief starts with those tasks, the final site has a much better chance of helping people instead of just looking newer.

Start with the jobs customers are trying to do

Before you talk about colors, layouts, or animations, write down the top tasks visitors need to complete.

For a local plumbing company, that might be:

• Find emergency service hours
• Compare repair vs. replacement options
• See service areas
• Request a quote or schedule service
• Find phone number fast on mobile

For a retail shop, it might be:

• Browse by product type
• Check whether items are in stock
• Learn store hours and location
• Ask about pickup or returns
• Buy online or reserve in store

The point is to keep the brief focused on what people need, not what the team thinks looks modern. If a page does not help with a task, it should not take up prime space.

Turn tasks into page priorities

Once you know the main tasks, map each one to a page or section. This keeps the redesign from becoming a pile of disconnected ideas.

A simple brief can include:

• Homepage: explain who you serve and what you do in plain language
• Service pages: one page per core service, with clear benefits, process, and next step
• Comparison pages: help people choose between options or packages
• Contact or booking page: make the next step obvious and short
• FAQ: answer common objections, pricing questions, and service-area questions

If a task is important, it should not require three clicks and a detective mindset. A redesign brief should spell out the shortest path from question to answer.

Hypothetical example

Imagine a neighborhood HVAC company with a site that looks polished but buries the phone number and splits service details across five pages. In the redesign brief, the owner lists the main tasks: emergency repair, system replacement, and maintenance plan sign-up.

That leads to a homepage with a visible call button, a simple “repair or replace?” comparison section, separate service pages, and a booking form that asks only for the essentials. The design is still important, but it is serving the task flow instead of distracting from it.

Protect the things that already work

A redesign should not accidentally erase your search visibility, tracking, or accessibility basics.

Your brief should tell the team to preserve:

• Important URLs where possible
• Redirects for pages that must change
• Analytics and conversion tracking
• Form submissions and phone click tracking
• Page titles and meta descriptions that already perform well
• Accessibility features like keyboard navigation, color contrast, alt text, and labeled forms

This is where many businesses get burned. A new site can look better and still perform worse if old URLs disappear, forms stop working, or key pages become harder to use with a phone or screen reader. If you need help sorting out the technical side of that brief, a conversation through /contact can save a lot of rework later.

Decide what “good” means before launch

A redesign brief should include success criteria that are tied to customer tasks, not vague feelings.

Good examples:

• Visitors can find the main service pages from the homepage without hunting
• Contact and booking options are visible on mobile without scrolling far
• Existing page traffic is not lost because pages were renamed without redirects
• Forms are usable, labeled clearly, and confirmed properly after submission
• Core pages meet accessibility checks before launch

Avoid vague goals like “make it feel premium” or “improve engagement.” Those may matter, but they are too fuzzy to guide decisions when the project gets complicated.

Also decide who signs off on content, navigation, and launch readiness. A redesign often stalls because no one owns the final answers.

Watch for common brief mistakes

A task-based brief still goes off track if it is too broad or too opinionated.

Common pitfalls:

• Asking for too many homepage messages at once
• Copying a competitor’s layout instead of your customers’ path
• Hiding contact details in the footer only
• Rewriting every page just because the site is being redesigned
• Treating accessibility as a final check instead of a requirement

A useful brief also leaves room for tradeoffs. For example, a very visual homepage may need to be simplified so it loads quickly and gives service information priority. A fancy mega-menu may look impressive, but if customers mainly need three service paths, a simpler navigation may work better.

If your team needs help turning business goals into a practical site structure, a fractional marketing lead can help shape the brief before design starts. See /fractional-cmo for a straightforward way to get that kind of support.

A short checklist for the brief

• List the top customer tasks in order of importance
• Map each task to a page or site section
• Identify URLs, analytics, and forms that must be preserved
• Require accessibility basics in the scope
• Define what success looks like before design begins
• Assign one person to approve content and launch decisions

A redesign brief that starts with customer tasks is usually clearer, cheaper to manage, and easier to launch well. It also gives the web team something concrete to build around: not a prettier site, but a site that helps real people do real things.