01 / Why it matters
A handover is where a design either survives or gets approximated
The design was agreed. Then it gets built, and the spacing is not quite right, the hover does something else, and the page falls apart at an awkward width. Nobody was careless. The file simply did not say.
A handover is not a formality at the end. It is the part that decides whether what you approved is what you get.
02 / One
The values, named
Not “that grey”, a named token with a value. Colours, type sizes, weights, line heights, the spacing scale, corner radii, border widths.
Named values mean the same grey everywhere, and one place to change it later. Unnamed values mean four greys within a month, and no one can say which is correct.
03 / Two
Components, with their variants and states
A button is not one thing. It is primary and secondary, large and small, and each of those has hover, focus, active, disabled and loading. If the file shows one button, the developer invents the rest, and focus, the one keyboard users depend on, is the one most often invented as nothing.
04 / Three
What happens between the two widths you drew
Most handovers contain a desktop frame and a mobile frame. The site will be viewed at every width in between.
Say what reflows and when: where the columns collapse, what the navigation becomes, which elements change order, and what a long heading does at the awkward width where it nearly fits.
05 / Four
The states nobody demos
Empty, loading, error, too-much-content. If these are not in the file, they will be invented during the build by whoever hits them first, under time pressure, without you.
06 / Five
Motion, described in numbers
“Smooth fade” is not a specification. Duration, easing, what triggers it, and what happens for someone who has asked their device to reduce motion. Two lines of detail, and the difference between a site that feels considered and one that feels twitchy.
07 / Six
The content rules
How long can this heading be? What if there is no image? What is the fallback? Design files are drawn with ideal content; content is entered later by someone who was not in the meeting.
08 / What to ask for
One question that tests a handover
Ask: can someone build the page you have not drawn? A handover that only covers the frames in the file is a set of pictures. One that defines the system lets a developer build the ninth page correctly without asking.
That is the difference between paying for screens and paying for a design.
Tell us what you are handing over and we will tell you what is missing before it costs you a round of revisions.