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Templates

Web design project checklist

This is the checklist we run a typical brochure or marketing site against: brief, copy, design, review, approval, build, QA, launch and handover. Each line says who usually owns it, so it doubles as a list of who is waiting on whom.

By Ali Demirci, founder of Woofocus. Updated October 24, 2026.

Most of the delays we see in our own projects are not hard problems. They are a missing logo file, copy that nobody was asked to write, or a form whose recipient was never agreed. Each of those is one line on a checklist, asked for on day one instead of found on day twenty.

The owners in brackets are the usual ones in a small studio: a producer or project manager, a designer, a developer, sometimes a copywriter, and the client. In a team of two, one person wears several of these. The phases follow the order we work in; on a small fix you would skip most of them.

The template

Web design project checklist

Tick each line as it is done. The owner in brackets is who usually does it.

 

Brief and kickoff

  • Goals of the site and how success will be judgedUsually: Producer, client
  • Who the site is for, and the two or three things they come to doUsually: Producer, client
  • Sitemap: every page in this phase, and what is left for laterUsually: Producer
  • Agreed scope, budget, revision rounds and the launch targetUsually: Producer, client
  • Platform chosen (WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Shopify or custom) and whyUsually: Developer
  • Logins: domain registrar, DNS, hosting, current site, analyticsUsually: Client
  • Brand assets: logo files, fonts, colours, photos and their licencesUsually: Client
  • Sites the client likes and dislikes, with what they like about themUsually: Client
  • Who approves on the client side, and how quickly they usually answerUsually: Producer

Copy

  • Who writes each page, and the date it is dueUsually: Producer
  • Page copy drafted with headings, calls to action and meta descriptionsUsually: Copywriter or client
  • Facts checked: names, prices, opening hours, addressesUsually: Client
  • Copy approved per page before design uses itUsually: Client

Design

  • Direction agreed first: type, colour and one key pageUsually: Designer
  • Home page and each page template, at desktop and mobile widthsUsually: Designer
  • States designed: forms with errors, empty results, menus openUsually: Designer
  • Contrast and text sizes checked for reading on a phoneUsually: Designer
  • Internal review before anything goes to the clientUsually: Creative lead

Client review

  • One review link or file for each round, with the version on itUsually: Producer
  • Feedback collected in one place, each note tied to the page and spotUsually: Producer
  • Notes sorted: fix now, discuss, or new request outside the scopeUsually: Producer, designer
  • Rounds used counted against the rounds agreedUsually: Producer

Approval

  • Design approved per page, with the version and the dateUsually: Client
  • Anything approved with changes has those changes listedUsually: Producer
  • New requests from the review priced or parkedUsually: Producer

Build

  • Staging site set up, hidden from search enginesUsually: Developer
  • Templates built from the approved design versionUsually: Developer
  • Content entered, images compressed and given alt textUsually: Developer or client
  • Forms connected and sending to the agreed addressesUsually: Developer
  • Redirects mapped from old addresses to new onesUsually: Developer
  • Analytics, consent banner and any tracking the client needsUsually: Developer

QA

  • Built pages compared with the approved design at the same widthsUsually: QA or designer
  • Checked in Chrome, Safari and Firefox, and on a real iPhone and Android phoneUsually: QA
  • Every form tested, and every message receivedUsually: QA
  • Links, buttons and menus clicked through, no broken linksUsually: QA
  • Page speed checked on mobile, large images fixedUsually: Developer
  • Keyboard use and alt text checked on the main pagesUsually: QA
  • Client reviews staging and signs off for launchUsually: Client

Launch

  • Launch checklist run (DNS, SSL, search engine settings, redirects)Usually: Developer
  • Live site checked page by page after the switchUsually: QA
  • Client told it is live, with what to check and who to callUsually: Producer

Handover

  • Client logins created with the right roles; agency logins kept or removed as agreedUsually: Developer
  • Short guide or recording on editing pagesUsually: Developer
  • Backups, updates and hosting: who looks after them from nowUsually: Producer, client
  • Open notes and phase two ideas written down in one listUsually: Producer
  • Final invoice and the support period confirmedUsually: Producer

Web design project checklist, Woofocus, app.woofocus.com/templates/web-design-project-checklist

On the board

Running this checklist on the board

In Proofyard each phase above is a phase on the project's flow, and a task goes through only the phases its kind of work needs: a landing page goes through all of them, a footer fix only through build and testing. Claude suggests the flow when the task is made, and a person keeps it or picks another.

Save the lines of a phase as a Library checklist and use it in that workflow phase; each item can go to a person. A phase can refuse to let a task leave until its checklist is complete, or until there is a recorded client approval. Project rules then do the routine next step, such as adding the QA subtasks when a task moves into testing.

Questions

Web design project checklist

How long should a web design project take?

It depends far more on how fast copy, assets and approvals arrive than on the design or build. Put dates on the client's lines in the brief phase, because those are the ones that move.

Who should own the checklist?

One person, usually the producer or project manager. Others tick their own lines, but one person checks the list each week and chases what is late.

Does the checklist change by platform?

The phases do not. The build and launch lines do: a Shopify store needs payment and order email tests, a Webflow site needs its staging subdomain hidden from search engines, a WordPress site needs its plugins and updates agreed.

Is there a separate launch checklist?

Yes, the launch phase here points to it. It covers the week before, launch day and the week after.

Run it on a board instead of a document

Open a workspace, add a checklist to one phase of a project and send one design for approval. Free for 14 days, no credit card needed.

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