For projects with design comps, we always expect that any final comps are obeyed. In all projects there are grey areas, since comps cannot be responsive, and cannot possibly display all application states, so frontend devs are expected to use good judgment in extending the design team’s intent throughout the full site experience. The exceptions are when:
- There seems to be a mistake in the comp. In this case, clarify the mistake with the design team and proceed with the way it should be.
- The design is inconsistent in some regard (ex. two blog posts have different font sizes), making it harder to modularize code. In this case, speak with the design team about your concern and validate with them that it’s okay to consolidate or modify styles before doing so.
- The frontend team sees an opportunity to create a cleaner codebase or improved user experience by modifying the design. Sometimes in their zeal designers create impractical solutions that can be implemented much faster if tweaked. All team members should be able to "stop the assembly line" and flag concerns with one of our products. In this case, bring up the concern with the design team and project manager, and if a modification is sensible, we’ll do it.
Other than that, please pay very close attention to detail in frontend work. Comparing the comp to your frontend at the same screen size, any differences should stem from one of the above reasons.