Front-End Project Checklist

1. Planning & Discovery

Project Definition

• Define future features (v2+)
• Write project requirements
• Choose project name
• Choose domain name

Content Planning

• Gather all text content
• Gather images
• Gather logos
• Gather social links
• Gather contact information
• Gather SEO keywords

2. Design Phase

Research

• Analyze competitor websites
• Collect design inspiration
• Create moodboard

Branding

• Choose primary colors
• Choose secondary colors
• Choose typography
• Create logo
• Create favicon

UI/UX

• Create wireframes
• Create high-fidelity mockups
• Define spacing system
• Define responsive breakpoints
• Define component library
• Create design tokens (colors, fonts, spacing)
• Create dark mode design (if needed)

3. Repository Setup

GitHub

• Create GitHub repository
• Add README.md
• Add LICENSE (if needed)
• Configure branch strategy (main/dev)
• Create development branch
• Set up branch protection rules
• Configure GitHub Actions (CI/CD)

Documentation

• Create project notes
• Create setup guide
• Create deployment guide
• Create changelog
• Create contributing guide (if open source)

4. Development Environment

Project Initialization

• Create project folder
• Initialize Vite/Next.js
• Install dependencies
• Configure ESLint
• Configure Prettier
• Configure editor settings (.vscode)
• Set up absolute imports (path aliases)
• Configure environment variables

Git

• Initialize git
• Create .gitignore
• First commit
• Create .env.example file

5. Project Structure

Folder Structure

src/  
├── assets/ # Images, fonts, icons  
├── components/ # Reusable components  
│ ├── common/ # Shared components  
│ └── ui/ # UI components  
├── pages/ # Page components  
├── layouts/ # Layout components  
├── hooks/ # Custom React hooks  
├── services/ # API calls  
├── utils/ # Utility functions  
├── constants/ # Constants  
├── contexts/ # React contexts  
├── redux/ # State management (if using Redux)  
├── types/ # TypeScript types/interfaces  
├── styles/ # Global styles  
└── config/ # Configuration files

Configuration

• Environment variables (.env)
• API configuration
• Constants configuration
• Routing configuration
• i18n configuration (if needed)

6. Core Development

Layout

• Header
• Navigation (desktop)
• Navigation (mobile)
• Footer
• Sidebar (if needed)
• Main layout wrapper

Pages

• Home page
• About page
• Contact page
• 404 page
• Additional project pages
• Dashboard (if needed)
• Authentication pages (login/register)

Components

• Buttons (variants: primary, secondary, outline)
• Cards
• Forms
• Inputs
• Modals/Dialogs
• Loaders/Spinners
• Alerts/Notifications
• Dropdown menus
• Tabs
• Accordion
• Tooltips
• Breadcrumbs
• Pagination
• Tables
• Charts (if needed)

State Management

• Set up React Context/Redux/Zustand
• Implement state slices/reducers
• Create actions/mutations
• Implement selectors

Routing

• Set up React Router
• Implement route protection
• Lazy loading for routes
• Navigation functions

Responsive Design

• Mobile (320px - 767px)
• Tablet (768px - 1023px)
• Desktop (1024px - 1919px)
• Large screens (1920px+)

7. Accessibility (A11Y)

Essential Accessibility

• Semantic HTML
• Proper heading hierarchy (h1-h6)
• Alt text for images
• Keyboard navigation
• Visible focus states
• Accessible forms
• Accessible buttons
• ARIA attributes where necessary
• Screen reader-friendly content
• Color contrast compliance (WCAG AA)
• Skip navigation link

Testing

• Lighthouse accessibility audit
• Keyboard-only navigation test
• Screen reader testing
• Contrast ratio checker

8. Forms & User Input

Validation

• Client-side validation
• Error messages
• Required field handling
• Form validation libraries (Formik, React Hook Form)
• Real-time validation feedback
• Input masking (if needed)

Security

• Input sanitization
• Prevent XSS via unsafe rendering
• Protect secrets using .env
• CSRF protection (if using forms)
• Rate limiting considerations

9. Error Handling

User Experience

• Loading states
• Empty states
• Error states
• Success states
• Skeleton loading screens
• Toast notifications

Error Pages

• 404 page
• 500 error page
• Maintenance page
• Offline fallback page (optional)

Error Boundaries

• React Error Boundaries implemented
• Global error handling
• Error logging service

10. SEO

Metadata

• Title tags (dynamic per page)
• Meta descriptions
• Open Graph tags
• Twitter/X tags
• Canonical URLs

Search Engines

• robots.txt
• sitemap.xml
• Canonical URLs
• hreflang tags (if multilingual)

Structured Data

• Schema.org markup (if applicable)
• JSON-LD implementation
• Breadcrumb schema
• Organization schema
• Article schema (if blog)

11. Performance Optimization

Assets

• Compress images
• Convert images to WebP/AVIF
• Remove unused assets
• Implement responsive images
• Lazy load images
• Use SVGs for icons

Frontend

• Code splitting
• Lazy loading
• Optimize bundle size
• Remove unused dependencies
• Tree shaking
• Implement caching strategies
• Use React.memo where needed
• Optimize re-renders

Verification

• Lighthouse performance audit (score 90+)
• Web Vitals optimization
• First Contentful Paint (FCP) < 1.8s
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) < 2.5s
• First Input Delay (FID) < 100ms
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) < 0.1

12. Security

Frontend Security

• Remove secrets from codebase
• Verify .env is ignored
• Verify API keys are not exposed
• Use HTTPS-only production URLs
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP)
• XSS prevention (DOMPurify if needed)
• Implement JWT token handling
• Secure storage (HttpOnly cookies)

Dependency Security

• npm audit
• Update vulnerable packages
• Regular dependency updates (Dependabot)
• Use package lock files

13. Quality Assurance

Testing

• Test every page
• Test every form
• Test navigation
• Test all links
• Test responsiveness
• Test loading states
• Test error states
• Test edge cases
• Unit tests (Jest/Vitest)
• Component tests (React Testing Library)
• Integration tests (if needed)
• E2E tests (Cypress/Playwright)

Browser Testing

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Edge
• Safari
• Mobile browsers (iOS Safari, Android Chrome)
• Different screen sizes

14. Production Readiness

Cleanup

• Remove console.log statements
• Remove commented code
• Remove unused files
• Remove unused code
• Remove placeholder content
• Remove debug tools
• Disable React DevTools in production

Build

• Production build succeeds
• No build warnings
• No ESLint errors
• No TypeScript errors
• Bundle size optimized
• Chunk splitting configured

Environment

• Production environment variables set
• API endpoints point to production
• Analytics tracking ID set
• Error logging service connected

15. Deployment

Vercel/Netlify/AWS

• Connect repository
• Configure environment variables
• Verify build settings
• Deploy preview
• Deploy production

Post Deployment

• Verify domain
• Verify HTTPS
• Verify favicon
• Verify metadata
• Verify robots.txt
• Verify sitemap.xml
• Verify 404 page
• Verify analytics tracking
• Verify all links work

16. Monitoring

Analytics

• Google Analytics / alternative
• Search Console
• Custom event tracking
• User behavior monitoring
• Conversion tracking

Monitoring

• Error tracking (Sentry)
• Performance monitoring
• Uptime monitoring
• Real User Monitoring (RUM)

17. Maintenance

Ongoing Tasks

• Update dependencies
• Fix reported bugs
• Improve performance
• Improve accessibility
• Review SEO regularly
• Backup project documentation
• Monitor user feedback
• Review analytics data
• Security patches

Future Enhancements

• PWA support (if needed)
• Offline support
• Push notifications
• WebSocket implementation
• Multi-language support (i18n)
• Dark mode toggle
• Theme customization
• User preferences
• Advanced analytics

Additional React-Specific Items

React Best Practices

• Use functional components with hooks
• Proper dependency arrays in useEffect
• Avoid inline functions in props
• Use proper key prop in lists
• Implement proper cleanup in useEffect
• Use React Fragment or <></>
• Use conditional rendering appropriately
• Implement proper prop types/TypeScript types

React Performance

• Use React.memo for pure components
• Use useCallback for event handlers
• Use useMemo for expensive calculations
• Implement virtualization for large lists (react-window)
• Optimize context providers
• Avoid unnecessary re-renders

Code Quality

• Consistent code style
• Proper naming conventions
• Component composition over inheritance
• Single responsibility principle
• DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle
• Comments where necessary

Last Updated: ________
Project Name: ________
Deployment URL: ________