This is the final part. So far we have handed over rules, aligned names, drawn the states, validated with real content, decided the editable regions, built a scale and reviewed by rule. What remains is the last pass before release.
The order matters below: each stage is arranged so that a failure earlier makes the later checks meaningless.
Stage 1 — were the rules kept?
This stage is not about looking at screens; it is about reading a list of values. Skim the stylesheet for colours outside the palette or numbers outside the scale. One problem caught here typically corrects many screens simultaneously.
Stage 2 — are the states implemented?
Checking is straightforward: apply any filter until the list returns nothing, open the item with the longest title, and type a URL that does not exist. Three screens, about three minutes.
Stage 3 — real devices and accessibility
On real devices, check that nothing scrolls horizontally, that touch targets are big enough, and that fixed elements do not cover the content. None of that is visible from a narrowed browser window.
Accessibility is not a separate task but part of design quality. Contrast between text and background, a visible focus indicator when moving by keyboard, alternative text on images — those three alone catch most of it.
The editor scenario comes last and is skipped most often. Write an actual post in the editing screen, add an image, make the title absurdly long. If the worst screen an editor can produce is still tolerable, the design is ready to ship.
Closing the series
One argument ran through all eight parts: what you hand over is rules, not screens. Screens are finite and content is not, so without rules the handoff never finishes.
Two companion series if you want to keep going. Getting the rules into an actual theme is worked through step by step in planting a design system in WordPress, and if you want to take stage three further, accessibility is quality covers checking it on real screens. Rebuilding structures that collapse on phones is the subject of layouts that hold up on mobile.
If you would rather have the build, the performance work and the security review handled as one job, that is our optimization program, and the order we work in is published on the process page.