Experience design review
Design fidelity and visual quality assurance (QA)
- Verify layouts match designs across breakpoints (desktop, tablet, and mobile)
- Check spacing, alignment, and grid consistency
- Validate typography (font, size, weight, line height, and color)
- Ensure color usage matches tokens/design system (including states like hover, focus, and disabled)
- Review iconography and imagery for accuracy and quality
Component and design system integrity
- Confirm components are implemented according to the design system specs
- Validate states (hover, active, focus, error, loading, and disabled)
- Ensure consistency across pages using the same components
- Flag any deviations or undocumented variations
Interaction and behavior QA
- Test interactions: clicks, taps, hovers, transitions, animations
- Ensure that components behave as intended (navigation, modals, dropdowns, etc.)
- Validate microinteractions (feedback, transitions, and timing)
- Confirm edge cases are handled (empty states, errors, and long content)
Content and user experience (UX) clarity
- Review copy for accuracy, tone, and line wrapping issues
- Ensure labels, buttons, and messaging match design intent
- Check for overflow, wrapping, or misalignment with dynamic content
- Validate error messages and helper text
User experience testing and research
User flow validation
- Walk through key user journeys end-to-end, ideally with end users
- Ensure flows are intuitive and match expected user behavior
- Validate success/failure paths (e.g., form submission, errors)
- Catch friction points that weren’t obvious in design
Responsive and cross-browser testing
- Review experience across screen sizes and devices
- Identify layout breaks or awkward transitions between breakpoints
- Spot inconsistencies across browsers (Chrome, Safari, etc.)
Accessibility testing
Accessibility (A11y) review
- Check color contrast compliance
- Check browser zoom support up to 400%
- Validate focus states and keyboard navigation
- Confirm interactive elements are usable without a mouse
Screen reader testing (in partnership with an A11Y specialist)
- Ensure labeling is clear and that the page/content structure is properly defined
- Confirm the correct application of semantic heading hierarchy and alt text for imagery
- Test to ensure that any links that open in a new window are properly announced
Iteration planning and coordination
Collaboration and communication
- Provide clear, actionable feedback (e.g., annotated screenshots, recordings)
- Prioritize issues (blocking accessibility vs. visual design iterations)
- Work with developers to clarify intent vs. constraints
- Update designs or specs when implementation realities require changes
Documentation and handoff updates
- Capture any deviations from original designs and review with engineering
- Update design files to reflect “as-built” decisions if needed
- Contribute to QA/UAT checklists for future releases
Pre-launch sign-off
- Confirm experience meets design quality standards
- Ensure no critical UX or visual issues remain
- Prioritize fixes that impact the user experience