Reviewed by LAB/02 editorial check (AI-assisted)
What should you give your developer before the build starts?
A practical design handoff checklist for business owners: customer journeys, responsive layouts, interface states and clear responsibilities.
A beautiful screen is not a complete instruction
If another team will build your product, a visual direction needs to travel with enough context to preserve its character. Your developer needs to understand what customers are trying to do, which choices the interface supports and what happens after an action. A screenshot rarely answers all of those questions.
For a cultural discovery service, the design might look strong on a large screen but still leave mobile navigation, saved items and empty search results undefined. Those omissions become decisions during development. Some are small; others change the experience people actually receive.
Make the customer journey explicit
Document the key tasks in ordinary language. Explain how a visitor discovers an offer, compares alternatives and reaches the next step. Show the content hierarchy and the decisions that matter. Keep a distinction between design intent and technical choices your delivery team should assess.
Your business context matters as much as the interface. Who owns the content? What needs approval? Which requests reach a human? What is outside the first release? These questions help a developer understand the product rather than reproduce isolated screens.
Include states and responsive behaviour
A handoff should explain agreed layouts across screen sizes and the relevant component states: default, selected, empty, loading and error where they apply. Organised assets and clear notes help avoid guessing. The exact package depends on the agreed scope; an exhaustive component library is not automatically necessary.
Check the decisions against accessibility requirements. Can the intended experience work with a keyboard? Are field names and error states clear? Can content reflow when text grows? Design guidance and an accessible implementation are related responsibilities, but a design file alone does not establish conformance.
Keep design and implementation responsibilities separate
An Agency-Ready package is for a business that already has a chosen delivery team. LAB/02 supplies agreed design decisions and handoff materials; implementation is a separate scope. The indicative starting budget is from EUR 2,500, not a fixed offer for every project.
Before commissioning work, agree the included journeys, responsive views, states and handoff format. Ask your developer to review the package and identify open questions before coding. This creates a practical next step without implying that the product has already been built or tested with real users.