Brief Claude like a pro client

A web designer you hired wouldn’t start until they understood your business, saw what you liked, and knew which pages you wanted. Claude is no different. The brief — what you tell it before it builds — is where your website is really decided. Spend fifteen minutes here and the first draft comes back close to right. Skip it, and you get something generic you’ll spend hours fighting to fix.

You set up a Project in Set up Claude the right way to hold all of this. The brief is what goes into your first chat there.

What makes a good website brief?

A good brief tells Claude four things: what your business is, who it’s for, what pages you need, and how it should look and feel. The more specific each one is, the closer the first draft lands.

Think of it as the conversation you’d have with a designer over coffee. You wouldn’t say “make me a website” and walk out. You’d describe your business, mention a couple of sites you admire, and list what the site needs to do. Vague instructions produce vague, templated results — the kind that look like every other AI-built page. Specific instructions produce something that feels like yours. You don’t need to write it formally or get it perfect; you just need to tell Claude the things only you know.

What does Claude need to know about my business?

Five things: what you do, where you are, who your customers are, what makes you different, and the one action you want visitors to take.

• What you do and where — “a family-run bakery in Newton, NJ.”
• Who it’s for — “neighborhood regulars, plus people looking for custom-order cakes.”
• What makes you different — the honest reason someone picks you. Sourdough made fresh every morning; thirty years in the same spot; the only gluten-free menu in town.
• The one action you want visitors to take — this is the most important line in the whole brief. Call you? Book online? Walk in? Send a message? Every good site is built around a single main action. Tell Claude which one.

The clearer these are, the less Claude has to guess — and guessing is exactly where “generic” comes from.

Which pages does my website need?

Most small-business sites need just four or five: Home, About, Services (or Menu, or Products), and Contact. Start there — you can always add more later.

Here’s what each one does. Home introduces who you are and points at your main action; it does the most work, so most of your attention goes here. About is the human story — why you do this, who’s behind it. Services / Menu / Products is what you offer, with prices if you’re comfortable sharing them. Contact is how to reach you: hours, location, phone, and a simple form. Resist the urge to ask for ten pages. A tight site is easier for visitors to navigate and far easier for you to keep current. If you’re unsure, tell Claude about your business and ask it to suggest a page list — but you keep the final say.

How do I tell Claude what it should look like?

Describe the feeling in plain words — “warm and welcoming,” “clean and modern,” “calm,” “upscale” — give your colors if you have them, and point to a site or two whose look you like. You need zero design vocabulary.

You don’t have to know a serif from a sans-serif; Claude does. Your job is to describe the impression you want a visitor to walk away with. “Cozy and handmade” leads somewhere completely different from “sleek and high-end,” and Claude can run with either. If you have brand colors, just name them (“a warm terracotta and cream”), or paste the color codes if you happen to know them. And the single most useful move: show examples. “I like how [a site you admire] feels — simple, with lots of space” gives Claude a sharper target than any adjective on its own.

Can I give Claude my logo, photos, and brand materials?

Yes — and you should. Claude can look at images you upload: your logo, photos of your work or your space, even a screenshot of a website whose style you like. To have Claude actually see an image, attach it right in the chat where you’re building.

In the chat, click the attachment button (look for “Add files or photos”) or simply drag the file onto the window, and attach your logo, real photos of your product or storefront, and any screenshots of sites you admire. Claude will look at them and build to match. Use clear, reasonably sized images — a tiny or blurry picture is harder for it to read.

One practical note worth remembering: images you want Claude to look at go directly in the build chat. Your Project’s knowledge base (from the last guide) is best for text you want on hand in every chat — an existing services list, your hours, the copy from an old brochure. Pictures meant for visual reference belong in the conversation itself.

And use real photos wherever you can. It’s your business — a genuine photo of your work beats generic stock every time, and it’s a big part of what makes a site feel like you instead of a template.

Putting it together: the website brief

Here’s a complete brief you can paste into your build chat and fill in. Attach your logo and photos in the same message, and you’ve handed Claude everything a good designer would have asked for:

Compare that to “make me a website for my bakery.” Same business, wildly different outcomes — because one version did the briefing, and the other left every decision to chance.

With your brief written and your photos ready, you’ve done the part most people skip — and it happens to be the part that matters most. Now you get to watch it come to life: paste the brief, see the first draft appear, and shape it from there. That’s Build the site with Claude, the next guide in this series.