After six months of designing and coding, we're excited to announce that DoneDone is getting a major update. DoneDone's always been the simple, effective issue tracker. Now it's the beautiful, easy-to-use issue tracker too. We can't wait to share all the updates with you in about a month.
Throughout this process, all our design decisions have filtered through our vision: We're the bug tracker for non-programmers. When an issue tracker is clear and easy-to-use, it lowers the bar for issue tracking. Designers, project managers, customers, and clients feel empowered by the software – rather than overwhelmed or confused. When everyone is using the issue tracker, it lets the programming team focus on squashing bugs rather than managing spreadsheets, stickies, IMs, and emails full of notes about bugs. We believe an issue tracker that works for non-programmers is the app best set up to serve programmers for the long haul.
Over the last year, we added on big features like due dates, global search, and public issues. With the addition of new features, we've inadvertently introduced further complexity and burdened a user interface that hadn't really properly accounted for those features. Our newly redesigned interface not only accommodates for these big feature additions but creates a design language to accommodate future additions.
A sneak peek at the new Issue List Dashboard.
We've combed through the entire application looking for ways to make things easier and simpler for you, the user. Yet, when the new DoneDone releases in about a month, you'll find it to be surprisingly familiar. Our hope is that all the things you've loved about DoneDone still hold true, while also easing or eliminating any pain points you were encountering.
In our research leading up to the redesign, we found that most users view DoneDone on large, widescreen displays (1600px or wider). So we loosened things up and made the app more responsive and fluid at larger screen sizes. DoneDone is still great for tablet and mobile devices, but now we're serving up a more optimal experience for widescreen too.
The typography has been completely reworked to emphasize legibility and clarity. We've refined stuff like bulk issue editing to make it more contextual and useful. You'll be able to filter by issue type to help you narrow into the Public Issues from your customers. We've managed to cut out about 40% of the pages within the app – all with the goal of making it quicker to enter and test issues.
A sneak peek of the new Issue Detail page
These changes and a new marketing website are set to roll out in March. We'll be spending the next few weeks getting you familiar with the new design and helping you understand what's changed and why it's changed. We know that a design change to an app you use frequently brings with it some growing pains. Re-learning an interface on top of trying to get your work done can be a nuisance. For that, we'll do everything we can to make the transition smooth as silk. In the end, we believe you'll think it was worth it.
As with anything we design or develop, your comments, questions, and concerns are all welcome. Our goal with this or any design update is to make the product more functional for you. To read up on all the new changes, you can follow the New DoneDone tag.
