UI/UX handoff for MVPs: fast, clear, no-nonsense

You’ve got screens in Figma. Developers are waiting. Everyone’s behind. Welcome to the handoff phase - one of the most overlooked but make-or-break moments in early-stage product building. At this stage, clarity wins. So let’s ditch the fluff and focus on how to pass designs to devs in a way that’s fast, obvious, and doesn’t require a Slack thread full of “is this ready?” messages.

What UI/UX handoff actually is (and isn't)

Handoff gets treated like an afterthought, but it's where things often go sideways. It’s not just dumping a Figma link and walking away. And no, it’s also not about writing a 20-page PDF of design specs. Think of it like passing a baton in a sprint: fast, focused, and smooth. You’re not throwing it behind your back and hoping for the best, you’re matching pace, making eye contact, and handing it over cleanly.

What handoff should do:

• Tell devs exactly what to build
• Flag the weird stuff or tricky logic
• Reduce back-and-forth questions later

If you do it right, you’ll barely hear from devs until it’s in staging. If you don’t, you’ll spend days answering questions you could’ve covered in five minutes.

Set up your Figma for devs, not designers

Designers love exploring. Developers want clarity. Your Figma file should be less "creative playground" and more "instruction manual."

Create a "Ready for Dev" page

This is where the real stuff lives. No experiments, no rough drafts, no duplicates. Just final screens, flows, and states. Label the page clearly. If you’re shipping a signup flow, call it “Signup – Ready for Dev.” If you’ve got multiple features, create one page per feature.

Group screens logically

Use frames to show how a user moves through the product. Order matters, lay them out left to right or top to bottom, so the flow is easy to follow. Don’t make devs play detective.

Name everything clearly

“Frame 38” tells nobody anything. Use names like “Login – Error State” or “Dashboard – Empty.” If you’re using variants or components, label those too. It’s a 5-second habit that saves everyone hours.

Use components

If your design has repeating UI elements (buttons, modals, cards), turn them into components. That tells devs: "Hey, this thing appears in multiple places. Build it once, reuse it."

Encourage using Dev Mode

Figma’s Dev Mode is your best friend. Developers can pull spacing, colors, font sizes, and even assets directly from it. As long as your layers are tidy, this is a near-zero-effort way to avoid redline hell. Bonus move: include a "UI kit" or "Components" page with all core elements. That gives devs a quick reference when styling new screens later.

Use Notion to glue it all together

Figma is for visuals. Notion is for context. Set up a central Notion doc for each feature or release. Think of it as your hub:

• Title of the feature or flow
• Figma link directly to the "Ready for Dev" page
• Loom walkthrough embedded or linked
• Behavior notes (anything that isn't obvious from visuals)
• Open questions or flags (e.g. "copy TBD", "API still in development")
• Checklist for the dev team (e.g. "needs error state", "confirm mobile responsiveness")

The rule is: if someone lands on the Notion page, they should know what to build and where to find every piece of it. If they have to ask in Slack, your doc’s not done.

Record a Loom walkthrough

A Loom video might be the highest ROI tool in your handoff stack. In less than 10 minutes, you can:

• Walk through the user flow
• Explain how things work
• Flag tricky logic or edge cases
• Mention anything still in progress

Devs can replay it at 1.5x, pause, take notes, or rewatch when they start implementation. And it saves you from being the bottleneck in every question thread. You don’t need to prep much. Just open the Figma file, hit record, and narrate like you’re explaining to a new teammate. Be casual. Clarity over performance.

Clarify ownership of assets

This is where teams accidentally create bottlenecks.

If devs are expected to export assets:

• Mark all icons/images as exportable in Figma
• Use consistent naming and file formats

If designers will prep a ZIP:

• Export all assets ahead of time
• Drop them into a shared drive or attach to the Notion doc

Pick a method and stick with it. Otherwise, someone’s stuck screenshotting icons or hunting down the right image version.

Don’t make them guess behavior

Designs don’t speak for themselves. A clickable prototype helps, but it won’t explain everything.

You’ve got two options:

• Show the state (error, hover, empty, loading, etc.)
• Or describe it (in Notion or in the Loom video)

Don’t let developers assume what happens when someone submits a blank form or clicks a disabled button. They’ll guess wrong, every time.

Keep a simple list of things to cover:

• Hover states
• Click interactions
• Loading behavior
• Empty states
• Form validation rules
• Animations (if any)

Even a short note like “loader fades in and replaces button” or “error shown below input field” is enough.

Real-world pitfalls that kill momentum

A few common handoff mistakes that slow teams down:‍

1. ‍Figma files are cluttered with half-baked ideas: Dev opens the file, doesn’t know which screens are ready, and ends up coding something outdated. Solution: keep only polished, final work in a clearly labeled section.‍
2. Loom walkthrough gets skipped: You assume the flow is obvious. Devs assume too. Nobody checks. The result? A misunderstood interaction or a flow that dead-ends.‍
3. Designers vanish post-handoff: Your job’s not done after you send the link. Stick around. Be ready to unblock.‍
4. No shared doc with decisions: If you’ve made calls during design - about logic, behavior, or edge cases and they’re not written down anywhere, they might as well not exist.

Common objections (and how to deal with them)

The design isn’t 100% done yet.
‍That’s fine. Handoff doesn’t mean every pixel is frozen. Just be clear what’s ready and what’s still WIP. Flag it visually or note it in Notion.

We don’t have time to record a Loom.
‍You don’t have time not to. The 10 minutes you save now will turn into 3–4 hours of follow-up questions if skipped.

The dev team is external, we don’t know them well.
‍Even more reason to be thorough. Use Loom and Notion to share context. Over-communicate until they prove they don’t need it.

Designers shouldn’t have to write specs.
‍Specs don’t need to be documents. A clean file, a few notes, and a walkthrough = a spec. Think of it as removing blockers, not writing essays.

FAQ: Stuff startup teams actually ask

What should be included in a Figma handoff?

Final UI screens, organized by flow. Clear labeling. Components if reused. Error, empty, and hover states. Use a "Ready for Dev" section to make it obvious.

Can I skip the design spec doc?

Yes, but only if your Figma file is clear, and you’ve added notes or a Loom. A spec doc doesn’t have to be formal. It just needs to explain the gaps.

How detailed should behavior explanations be?

Detailed enough that a dev wouldn’t need to guess. You don’t need to write out pseudocode. Just flag the basics: form rules, transitions, conditional states.

Should designers join dev standups during handoff?

If possible, yes. Even just the first few. It signals that you're available and helps you spot issues early.