I’ve always found it interesting how much a good design brief resembles a good business contract, specifically a Statement of Work. Good SOWs spell out clearly what *must* be done and what *should* be done, but the best ones seem to always also articulate what *wont* be done: We’re not building this in Flash. We’re not taking any photos. We’re not responsible for moderating the user generated content. This list is, of course, infinite, but it helps to sit down and think of all the ways expectations might take the project team down a costly wrong path, or even a costly but correct path, and enumerate them now. When the client later asks you to do these things, you can rightly point out that it wasn’t in the contract and that it will require some renegotiation.

Likewise, in a design brief, you might want to say up front certain things that will pre-emptively shut down a lot of potential bad directions the designer(s) might find themselves exploring: We will not crowd the site full of features. We will not try to become a whole new social network. We will not use skeuomorphic design. The site must not look like Facebook.

Rules are meant to be broken, and many are eventually broken for good reason, but if design is a game good rules help make the game more fun and rewarding.

Just say no.