What is a design review? Definition and process
A design review is a structured critique of a design against goals, standards, and constraints — usually conducted before development starts or at a milestone of the design work.
A design review is a structured critique of a design against goals, standards, and constraints — usually conducted before development starts or at a milestone in the design work.
The job of the review is to surface problems while they are still cheap to fix. A misaligned button is a few minutes in Figma; the same misalignment after the engineer has shipped it is a redeploy plus the cost of explaining the change to whoever has already used the screen.
What gets reviewed
The design itself (does it solve the problem stated), the design against the system (does it use the components, tokens, and patterns the rest of the product uses), the design against constraints (accessibility, internationalization, performance, the back end that has to power it), and the design against the user (is the path through it actually obvious).
Visual feedback is the natural artifact. A reviewer walks the prototype, captures each screen, talks through what stands out, and ships the result as a single document. The designer reads it once and knows everything the reviewer flagged, in the order they flagged it.
Frequently asked questions
How is a design review different from a design critique?
A review is more formal and decision-bearing; the output is approval, conditional approval, or a request to revise. A critique is peer feedback in progress, lower-stakes, and doesn't necessarily produce a decision.
Who attends a design review?
The designer presenting, an experienced reviewer or design lead, often a PM and engineer to surface implementation constraints. Adding a researcher or accessibility specialist is worth it for designs that touch their territory.
Capture your first review.
About a minute from open tab to a shareable URL your agent can ingest.
Start capturing