The new DoneDone: the issue detail page

The new DoneDone release is right around the corner on October 1st. Between now and then, we'll be sharing some newness here starting with what we call the big three: the dashboard, the project landing page, and the issue detail.

This is the 3rd and final installment. If you're new to the new DoneDone, get caught up here. And, if you can't wait until October 1st to try it out, sign up for a test DoneDone account.

Out with the old

In the old DoneDone, the issue detail page struggled to communicate what was content and what was functionality. There's a whole lot of styling within the page distracting the user from the issue's title, description, and subsequent communication with his/her team.

The old DoneDone issue detail pageOne fantastic feature of the old DoneDone, however, was the omnipresent "What's Next? component", seen above in yellow. Akin to a tour guide, this feature always lets the user know what the options are to get this issue further down the road.

In with the new

The new DoneDone issue detail pageIn the new design, we peeled back the functionality to help draw more attention to the content. We increased legibility and reduced the cadence of the page to a single thread of conversation between the users. In addition, we overhauled the What's Next component. It's at the bottom of the page now, and inline with the conversation itself, instead of the speech-bubble format used in the older DoneDone. Another nuance you'll notice in the new DoneDone is that conversations now flow from top to bottom chronologically. Believe it or not, this was a tough decision for us, but one which ultimately was obvious once we moved What's Next downtown.

Text formatting with Markdown

This time around, we also added in Markdown support, so we can all format our issues now in a simple, text-based approach.

Text formatting with Markdown, before

Text formatting with Markdown, after

CC users & opt-out of email notifications

Well, there goes the youth. You can now CC anybody in any of the companies on your project, and they'll receive email updates just like tester/fixers do.

CC team members on your issues

Wrap up

This is the most important page in DoneDone. More time is spent on this page and its sister, the Create new Issue page, than all the other DoneDone pages combined. So, it's important that both are predictable, legible, and focused on the dialog between the users. Once the user is ready to make an amendment to an issue, the UI silently speaks up now, as opposed to yelling.