Read the page without its effects
Start with the hierarchy. The first screen should tell a visitor whose work they are looking at and where they can go next. Headings need enough room to read naturally, body copy needs a comfortable line length, and labels should explain the action before a person takes it.
Then look at the quiet details. Do related elements align? Does the spacing make relationships clear? Is a line or box doing useful work, or could a little space communicate the same thing? Removing decoration often reveals the decisions that still need attention.
Try a keyboard and a small screen
Move through links and controls with the keyboard. Focus should be visible and reach the controls in a sensible order. A menu should open predictably, close with Escape and return focus to the button that opened it.
On a phone, check the experience with the browser chrome visible, with a long heading, and with the keyboard open in a form. A layout that looks good in one screenshot can still place an action beyond reach. Readability and comfortable targets come before ornamental detail.
Watch what happens before media arrives
A video is not ready just because its URL exists. It needs a useful frame while it loads, a quiet state when autoplay is unavailable, and a way to avoid leaving a black rectangle when playback fails. Images need space reserved for them so surrounding content does not jump.
For a visual portfolio, those states are part of the design. A carefully chosen poster can carry the composition while the moving image becomes ready. It deserves the same attention as the edit.
Give motion a reason
A transition can show where a menu came from, confirm a click or help the eye follow a change. Competing motion can make all three harder to understand. I check whether each effect clarifies the interaction and whether it stops when it is no longer useful.
Reduced-motion preferences need their own pass. Turning off an effect should leave the content and controls usable. The goal is not to hide the experience behind animation; it is to make movement one considered part of it.
Finish with a real route
Follow a path from arrival to enquiry. Read an article, return to the work, open the menu and reach the contact action. Check the actual destination, not just the appearance of the button.
This is a working checklist, not a claim of complete accessibility or performance certification. Its value is that each question can reveal a specific correction before the site is shared.