How to write great design-to-development handoff documents

You conducted user research, gathered insights, ideated, iterated, tested, and finally created a perfect design solution, but the work isn’t over. Unless you can effectively hand it over to developers, your efforts will be wasted and your designs may never see the light of day. Here’s how to execute a seamless design-to-development handoff.

First of all, let’s get aligned on some terminology used throughout this article:

Design handoff (aka design-to-development handover) is the step in the product development process when the design team hands over their work to developers.

Design handoff document (aka design handover notes or simply design document) is the technical write-up that sums up what the design solution is and how it should be implemented. It’s typically accompanied by other assets, such as design files and content repositories, but should work as a stand-alone piece that fully explains the design solution.

The recipe for success

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of the design document’s content, here are some things to keep in mind as you get started:

1. Keep it detailed but concise