Chapter 04 / 07
QUALITY
Quality is decided before the first screen, not checked after the last one.
It is not inspected in. It is built in — by the choices made at the start, and by the checks that run at every stage rather than at the end.
Four measures
What quality means here
Four things we can measure, so that “quality” is a number and not a mood.
Speed
Time to the first readable word, on a phone, on a bad connection. Not the demo laptop.
Accessibility
Keyboard-reachable, screen-reader legible, contrast that survives daylight. WCAG as the floor, not the target.
Consistency
One design system, one vocabulary, every screen. The same action looks the same wherever it appears.
Durability
Still right in two years, after the team, the phones and the framework have all changed.
Seven checkpoints
Built in, not inspected in
The checks that run through a project, in the order they run.
- 01Concept and feasibility review, before anything is designed
- 02Design-system consistency check
- 03Cross-browser and device testing
- 04Performance benchmarking on real networks
- 05Accessibility audit: keyboard, screen reader, contrast
- 06Validation with the people who will use it
- 07Final review before release
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.
— John Ruskin