UX QA Gate

Self-review gate for UI/UX work before delivering to the user. Run automatically after building, modifying, or completing any user-facing feature, page, component, or flow. Triggers on: finishing a build task, completing a UI change, delivering a web app feature, wrapping up frontend work. Also use when asked to QA this, review the UX, check for usability issues, or run the gate. What it does: (1) Functional completeness check — verifies every button, link, form, and flow works end-to-end, (2) Heuristic review — walks through all 10 Nielsen Norman usability heuristics with a detailed checklist, (3) State and edge case sweep — checks empty, loading, error, success, partial, overflow, and auth states, (4) Interaction and responsiveness — verifies clickability, keyboard access, and responsive layout, (5) Severity classification — blockers and major issues fixed before delivery, minor items noted. Catches missing functionality, broken flows, empty states, and usability problems before the user sees them.

Run this gate after completing any user-facing work. Do not deliver work to the user until this gate passes.

When to Run

• After building or modifying any page, component, or flow
• After completing a feature request
• Before saying "done" or presenting work to the user

Process

1. Functional Completeness Check

Before examining UX, verify the feature actually works end-to-end:

• Every button/link has a working handler
• Forms submit and process data correctly
• Navigation flows connect (no dead ends)
• Data displays where expected (not placeholder or undefined)
• The feature does what was asked — re-read the original request

2. Heuristic Review

Walk through each of Nielsen's 10 heuristics against the work just completed. Load references/heuristics-checklist.md and evaluate each applicable item. Not every heuristic applies to every change — skip items that are clearly irrelevant to the scope of work, but err on the side of checking.

3. State & Edge Case Sweep

Check these states exist and are handled for every data-driven view:

State	What to verify
Empty	No data yet — helpful message, not blank screen
Loading	Spinner, skeleton, or indicator while fetching
Error	Clear message with recovery path (retry, go back)
Success	Confirmation after actions (toast, redirect, message)
Partial	Some data missing — graceful degradation, not crash
Overflow	Long text, many items, large images handled
Auth	Protected routes redirect or show appropriate state

4. Interaction & Responsiveness

• Click every interactive element — does it respond?
• Tab through focusable elements — logical order?
• Resize viewport — does layout hold at mobile/tablet/desktop?
• Check touch targets on mobile — minimum 44×44px

5. Severity Classification

For each issue found:

Severity	Meaning	Action
🔴 Blocker	User cannot complete the task	Fix before delivering
🟠 Major	User struggles significantly	Fix before delivering
🟡 Minor	User notices but can work around	Note to user, fix if quick
🔵 Enhancement	Polish or improvement	Note to user for backlog

6. Decision

• Any 🔴 or 🟠 issues → Fix them, then re-run the gate
• Only 🟡 or 🔵 → Deliver the work with a brief note of known issues
• No issues → Deliver confidently

Output Format

When reporting to the user, keep it brief:

✅ QA Gate passed — [summary of what was checked]

Or if issues were found and fixed:

🔧 QA Gate — found and fixed [N] issues:
- [brief description of each fix]

Or if minor issues remain:

⚠️ QA Gate — [N] minor items noted:
- [brief description + severity]

Do not produce a full heuristic evaluation report unless the user asks for one. The gate is a self-check, not a deliverable.