Design Checklist

Defining the definition of “Done”

During my time at Properly, in an effort to “codify” what good design looks like, I created a definition "Done".

This definition is meant to set the right expectations to our product, marketing, and engineering counterparts. In particular, expectations about the design > developer handoff. Done means more than just design artifacts (i.e. mocks) being ready for developers to build.

More importantly, I didn’t want to create an exhaustive 100-point checklist. I trust designers to make informed decisions about their work, without micro-managing their everyday tasks. Questions like what button to use, how much space to leave between elements, are best answered by our Design System guidelines.

The checklist below is meant to be flexible. There is no one-size-fits-all checklist, and Done often depends on the size of the design project: small, medium, or large.

The core principles of getting a design to Done include:

• Early and constant collaboration is better than one-time handoff

• Get developers involved early

• De-risk knowledge gaps and prevent bottlenecks

Below is a list of tasks that are performed by designers at Properly in order to reach Done state for a particular design project.