Design handoff

A design file shows one width, with content someone chose, in one state. A website has to hold every width, every headline an editor will write, and states nobody drew: loading, empty, error, focus. The handoff is where that gap gets closed, and it gets closed either deliberately, by agreeing the missing decisions, or accidentally, by the developer improvising at the last minute.

A good handoff therefore includes more than the file. It includes the type and spacing scales as named values, the intended responsive behaviour, the component map showing what repeats, and a named person who can answer questions in a day rather than a week.

Between agencies and developers the handoff is also a relationship contract: what naming convention, whether the developer is visible to the end client, and what counts as a change to scope. Settling those before the file moves is what keeps the project from being renegotiated in the middle.