Design QA

Design — Design QA

Verify the built prototype actually matches the intended design + requirements. Catch drift before it ships. Unlike design-audit (open-ended critique of any UI), QA is a conformance check against a known source of truth — it answers "does this match what we agreed to build?"

When to use

• A prototype is built and you need to confirm it matches the mockup/spec before review.
• Final gate before design-share or dev handoff.
• "Does it match the design?", "conformance check".

When NOT to use

• No spec/reference to compare against → that's open critique → design-audit.
• Nothing built yet → build it first.

Inputs

• The built prototype (local URL or path).
• The source of truth: reference image/mockup, ./design/context.md, ./design/ideate/*.
• Acceptance/success criteria (from context).

Workflow

1. Capture the implementation via a browser-automation tool — screenshots of key screens and states (loading/empty/error/success).
2. Visual conformance — compare to the reference: layout, type scale, spacing rhythm, palette, radii/shadows, iconography. Note every drift with the expected vs actual value.
3. Behavioral conformance — walk the flow: do interactions, states, and navigation match the intended UX?
4. Requirements conformance — does it satisfy the goal + success criteria from context? Any scope item missing?
5. Accessibility sanity — contrast, focus order, target size, keyboard reachability (flag what needs manual AT testing — automated checks aren't full WCAG).
6. Write ./design/qa.md: PASS items + prioritized fix list (severity × effort) + a verdict.

Output: ./design/qa.md

prototype: http://localhost:5173   source: ./mocks/onboarding.png + context.md
visual:
 ✓ layout matches  ✗ body type 14px (spec 16px)  ✗ accent #7C3 (spec #6366F1)
behavior:
 ✓ happy path  ✗ no error state on empty name (spec requires inline error)
requirements (vs success criteria):
 ✓ 3-step wizard  ✓ progress saved  ✗ missing "skip" affordance (scope v1)
a11y:
 ✗ CTA contrast 3.1:1 (<4.5)   manual: screen-reader pass still required
verdict: NOT READY — 4 fixes (2 HIGH: error state, contrast). Loop to design-prototype.

Quality bar

• Compared against the locked source of truth, not personal taste.
• Every miss cites which source it violates (mock / context / success criteria) + expected vs actual.
• A11y findings distinguish automated checks from what needs manual AT validation.
• A clear verdict: READY, or NOT READY with the blocking items named.

Common pitfalls

• QA by opinion — drifting into "I'd prefer..." instead of "spec says X, build shows Y".
• Skipping states — only checking the happy path; error/empty/loading are where drift hides.
• Passing HIGH drift — don't green-light something with blocking visual/behavioral mismatches.
• Overclaiming a11y — automated contrast/focus ≠ full WCAG conformance; say so.

Handoff

PASS → design-share. FAIL → loop the fix list back to design-prototype (or design-image-to-code for visual drift), then re-QA. Don't share stakeholder-facing prototypes with unresolved HIGH items without explicitly flagging them.

Tooling

Needs a browser-automation tool to capture screens/states for comparison. Without one, do a code-level + manual review and flag that visual conformance is unverified.