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Reference — generated from the toolkit

Source of truth: toolkit/gates/design-review.md. Edit it there; this page is regenerated on build.

Gate: Design Review

Transition: Design → Tech selection / Build Owner: Design (with Product) Runs: once per product/feature leaving Design

Purpose

Confirm the design is complete and buildable before Build agents start — so they never invent flows, data shapes or layout. The AI design-crit runs first, so humans review exceptions, not basics.

Entry criteria

  • Definition of Ready passed for this scope.
  • UX flows, data model and key-screen specs drafted from their templates.
  • AI design-crit run (Nielsen heuristics + accessibility + design-system conformance).

Exit criteria

  • Flows cover every PFD scenario, including error and empty states.
  • Data model passes Data + Security review (PII/sensitivity tagged, retention noted, ACORD-aligned where relevant).
  • Every screen maps to named design-system components and tokens (no raw hex/px).
  • Screen-level accessibility criteria attached (WCAG 2.2 AA as concrete per-screen criteria).
  • SME sign-off on the flows recorded.
  • Design handoff pack assembled and repo-stored (flows, data model, screen specs, component mapping, prototype link, PFD→flow→screen traceability).

Evidence required

  • Links to flows (Mermaid + narrative), data model (Mermaid/DBML), screen specs, prototype.
  • axe-core / design-lint results.

Automated vs human

CheckAutomated in CIHuman sign-off
Accessibility regressions (axe-core/Pa11y)
Non-token styling / unknown components (stylelint/ESLint)
Flow coverage of PFD scenariosProduct + Design
Data modelData + Security
Domain fitSME

Sign-off & waiver

  • Signs: Design, Product, Data, Security, SME.
  • May waive: Design lead may waive polish items; a data-model or security concern cannot be waived here.
  • Waiver record: logged in toolkit/registers/ with expiry.