Recommended length: 6-8 pages
1. Project summary (~80 words)
One paragraph. The business outcome the redesign serves — "convert demo requests 30% more efficiently," "ship the new brand by board offsite on October 12," "consolidate three legacy stacks into one." End with the headline scope (number of pages, key templates) and the headline price.
2. Scope of work (~200 words)
The single most important section. A precise inventory of what is being built. Page count by template type. Component library counts. Content management decisions (CMS, headless, static). Browser/device support matrix. Performance budgets (Lighthouse targets). Accessibility compliance level. Integrations included by name (analytics, CRM, marketing automation, payments). What is explicitly out of scope: copywriting, photography, legal review, hosting, ongoing maintenance.
3. Phased plan and timeline (~180 words)
A four-phase plan: Discovery (week 1-2), Design (week 3-6), Build (week 7-12), Launch (week 13-14). Under each phase: the activities, the deliverables, the client review windows, and the go/no-go gate. Specify what happens if the client misses a review deadline — typically a day-for-day slip on launch with no fee adjustment.
4. Design and engineering approach (~150 words)
How the work gets done. Design system first, content patterns next, page templates last. Component-driven engineering in {{framework}}. Figma source of truth for design, GitHub for code. Two rounds of design revisions per page template included. Performance and accessibility tested before handover, not after.
5. Deliverables and acceptance (~120 words)
A numbered list of everything the client owns at the end: Figma files, source code repo, CMS configuration, deployment instructions, training session recording. Acceptance criteria for "done" — the launch checklist that must be 100% complete for final invoice to issue.
6. Investment and payment schedule (~80 words)
Total fixed fee. Payment schedule typically 30% on signature, 30% at design sign-off, 30% at build complete, 10% at launch. Out-of-pocket items (premium fonts, stock, third-party plugins) handled at cost. Hosting and ongoing maintenance separate.
7. Change-order policy (~100 words)
The boundary protection clause. New pages or templates added after design sign-off are quoted at a published per-page rate. Scope reductions do not reduce the fee (work already done). Two written change orders typical in a project this size; the rest is absorbed under "design revisions." A clear change-order policy keeps the relationship friendly when scope creep inevitably arrives.