TrackIt Issue Tracker

Purpose

TrackIt was developed to provide organisations of all types an intuitive, lightweight system to log, track and resolve issues without the admin burden. In a live environment, this application would be deployed within an organisation. For example, a non-technical employee (Submitter) submits a 'Bug' to flag an internal software issue. A technical staff member (Assignee) is then assigned the Ticket and works to resolve. Or say an employee has a time-saving idea for a new software feature, they can submit a 'Feature Request' which is then assigned and tracked through to implementation. As proof of concept, the site itself was used track bugs and features during development.

UX
- 5 Planes of UX
- User Stories
Features
- Existing Features
- Potential Future Features
Databases
- Data Models
- Data Migration
Technologies
Testing
Deployment
Credits

UX

5 Planes of UX

Strategy

Setting the UX strategy requires understanding the needs of the target users:

Ticket Submitters want:

a straightforward ticket submission process
feedback to be assured that their issue is being worked
to spend minimal time on the site so they can return to their core tasks

Ticket Assignees want:

Lots of detail about the ticket, including screenshots
Input from other users who may be experiencing the same Bug or want the same Feature Request
Ability to reassign to another Assignee if required
Graphs to gain insights - for example High Priority or aging tickets that require attention

Taking the above into account, the User Experience must be clean, fast, and intuitive.

Scope

Functional Specifications

Existing issue trackers were researched (eg Jira, GitHub Issues) to identify key functionality users expect:

Submitting and tracking of 'Bugs' and 'Feature Requests' through to resolution.
Contributions from other users to speed up resolution.
Dashboard View of all tickets
KANBAN View

Content Requirements

Data tables
Input boxes for ticket filtering
DC.js, D3.js and crossfilter for dashboard charts
Dropdowns for selecting and editing fields
File Upload buttons

Structure

Interaction Design

Unobtrusive navigation bar, always accessible and fixed to top
On mobile and tablet devices, navigation links collapse into a menu button
All interactive elements provide feedback to the user to encourage interaction and confirm user actions
Each row in tickets table changes opacity on hover
Navigation and pagination links change opacity on hover
All buttons have border transition on hover
Tooltips on icons on hover
Form validation exists for relevant fields
Dropdown messages confirm: User Logged In , User Logged Out, Ticket Added, Ticket Edited, Ticket Upvoted, Comment Submitted, Payment Provided.

Information Architecture

A multipage architecture was used to break up the large amount of information presented in the site. For example, the Add Ticket, Edit Ticket and Checkout pages require many fields and so require separate pages.
Pagination is employed in the tickets table to reduce cognitive overload. User can select how many tickets to display per page via dropdown.

Skeleton

Wireframes

Two sets of wireframes were created in the early development stage to set out the structure and layout on different device sizes.

Desktop & Mobile Wireframes

Surface

Colours: Intuitive ticket colours used consistently to represent Ticket Status - Green: Resolved, Yellow: In Progress, Grey: Cancelled, Blue: New.

User Stories

As a Guest User...

I want to quickly learn the key features of the site
I want to know if sign up is free and which features are behind a paywall
I want to see a visual preview of the features before having to sign up
I want to know if this site is credible and used by well-known organisations
I want to see some customer testimonials
I want my initial questions to be answered
I want to be able to contact the developer for further information

As a Registered User...

I want to submit a Feature Request that would improve my productivity
I want to submit a Bug I am experiencing without being distracted from my core tasks
I want to be able to check how many free tickets submissions I have remaining in the month on my Basic plan
I want to see a list of all tickets I have raised
I want the option to see all tickets in a KANBAN-style column view
I want to contribute to the resolution of an open issue by leaving a comment under it
I want to raise the profile of an existing ticket by upvoting it
I want the ability to unlock PRO features via online credit card payment
I want to control which personal information I share with other users
I want to be able to upload a profile image so my colleagues can put a face to the name
I want to access contact details of other users
I want to be able to request Staff access

As a Registered Staff (Admin) User:

I want to easily contact a ticket's Assignee by launching a draft email from the ticket view
I want to graphically identify which tickets require attention, ie. aged and high priority tickets
I want to see which tickets have the most upvotes, to help inform work prioritisation

Features

Pages

Home

The Home page provides a quick introduction to the site, featuring minimal, easy to digest sections on Features, User Testimonials, Trusted By, Plans and Frequently Asked Questions. If the user is not signed in, the call to action buttons are to Create Free Account. If the user is already signed in, their username and profile picture will be displayed in the navigation bar and links to the Account page. If the user is signed in but not a Pro User, the call to action buttons are to Go PRO, The Go PRO buttons link to the Checkout page, where the user can pay to upgrade their account.

Tickets

The Tickets page allows sorting and filtering of existing tickets, and a link to create a new ticket. The table shows key information for each ticket. Clicking on the row opens the View Ticket page for further details. Each field can be sorted both directions, and general and field-specific search input is available.

View Ticket

The View Ticket page provides additional ticket information, including the Description, Tags, Days to Resolve (if Resolved), Age (if not Resolved) and Recent Activity. If the user is the Submitter or Staff, the Edit Ticket and Status buttons will be displayed and the user will have permission to change the Status via the dropdown, and to access the Edit Ticket page. The Upvote button displays how many upvotes the ticket has received, and increments on click. Profile pictures for Submitter and Assignee are displayed.

The Change History tab allows the user to see a timeline of what has changed, when, and by whom. The Recent Activity section shows this in a more intuitive way. The Comments section displayed below the ticket allows anyone to leave a comment, which helps to speed up resolution of the ticket.

Add Ticket

Basic users can submit up to 10 tickets per month via the Add Ticket form. A message is displayed showing how many they have used in current month:

Edit Ticket

The Edit ticket form is accessible by the ticket's Submitter and Staff. Possible edits include reassigning the ticket, upgrading/downgrading its Priority, editing Description, Tags, Summary, uploading a screenshot.

Dashboard

Dashboard page allows visual interaction with the tickets data across 6 interconnected charts. Clicking a segment on the row and pie charts or dragging to select a date range will filter all charts.

KANBAN (PRO Feature)

Tickets are displayed in KANBAN columns by Status: New, In Progress, Resolved, Cancelled. Given that Cancelled tickets may be less important to some users, the 'Hide Cancelled' checkbox hides them. If Basic users click the KANBAN navigation link, they are redirected to Checkout page:

CI Assessors: please be sure to Go PRO with a test Stripe payment to access KANBAN.

Checkout

The user can upgrade their account from Basic to PRO by online credit card payment, processed by Stripe. On successful payment:

Team

The Team page acts as an address book of users of the site, listing some key details. Users are split into Submitters and Staff.

Account

The Account page is where users can view and edit their account information. Users can upload a profile picture from their device, add First and Last Names, add personal Zoom Meeting IDs. The user's account status (Basic or PRO) is displayed, including a 'Go PRO' button if basic user. Submitters can request Admin Access via a link.

Existing Features

Submit a ticket
Edit a ticket
View, search and filter tickets in table view
View any ticket in further detail
Upvote any ticket
Leave a comment on any ticket
View list of other users and their details
Update their own details, including First Name, Last Name, Zoom Meeting ID
Upload a profile image
Explore tickets in Dashboard view
Visualise tickets in KANBAN
Pay to upgrade account to PRO, which allows unlimited ticket submissions per month, and KANBAN view

Potential Future Features

Make tickets in KANBAN View draggable, so that ticket status can be changed via dragging into other column
Add filters and searching to KANBAN View, including a toggle to show only My Tickets
Limit upvotes to 1 per user per ticket. Add tooltip to show which users who have upvoted - if more than 3 users, display eg. 'Joe and 4 others'.
Add phone number field to user profile with ability to click to call via 'callto:'
Additional graphs in Dashboard view, including Age vs Priority bubble chart
Allow the Assignee to set an Estimated Resolved Date for each ticket
Reset Password function
Dark Mode setting toggle in Account page

Databases

Sqlite3 was used during development. For deployment, data tables and data was migrated to a PostgreSQL database.

Data Models

Accounts App

In order to record additional user fields, a Profile model was created:

Profile Model

Field	Type	Notes
is_pro_user	BooleanField	If user has paid to upgrade to PRO account.
pro_user_since_date	DateTimeField	Records date user went PRO.
image	ImageField	Profile image, which is referred to throughout site.
zoom_id	CharField	Zoom Personal Meeting ID

Tickets App

Ticket Model

Field	Type	Notes
ticket_type	CharField	Choices: Bug or Feature
summary	CharField	Short summary of ticket
created_date	DateTimeField	Autoadds date and time of ticket creation
resolved_date	DateTimeField	Date and time set recorded when ticket is set to 'Resolved'
priority	CharField	Choices: Low, Medium, High
submitted_by	ForeignKey(User)	Linked to User Model
assigned_to	ForeignKey(User)	Linked to User Model
description	TextField
tags	'TaggableManager' Django App	Django app to save comma-separated tags.
upvotes	IntegerField	Count of upvotes.
screenshot	ImageField	Image file related to ticket.
history	'HistorialRecords' Django App	Django app to record field changes.

Note on API: Using the Django REST Framework, the Django data models are serialised to JSON via a serializers so that the data can be consumed by dashboard.js to display the charts.

Comment Model

Field	Type	Notes
ticket	ForeignKey(Ticket)	Linked to Ticket Model
user	ForeignKey(User)	Linked to User Model
comment_body	CharField	Comment body text
date	DateTimeField	Date and time comment was posted

Checkout App

Order Model

Field	Type
full_name	CharField
phone_number	CharField
country	CharField
postcode	CharField
town_or_city	CharField
street_address1	CharField
street_address2	CharField
county	CharField
date	DateField

OrderLineItem Model

Field	Type
order	ForeignKey(Order)
product	CharField
quantity	IntegerField

Data Migration

To ensure a rich dataset for assessment purposes, testing data (including users, tickets) was migrated from sqlite3 to the PostgreSQL database using the following method:

Dump existing data into json format:

python3 manage.py dumpdata > datadump.json

Change DATABASES in settings.py to Postgres, then migrate:

python3 manage.py migrate --run-syncdb

Exclude contenttype data:

python3 manage.py shell
>>> from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType
>>> ContentType.objects.all().delete()
>>> quit()

Load json data into PostgreSQL:

python3 manage.py loaddata datadump.json

Technologies

Autoprefixer CSS Online : add vendor prefixes
AWS S3 : cloud object storage service for static and media files
Balsamiq : wireframes development
Bootstrap : responsive webpages on all devices
Chrome Developer Tools : device responsiveness and audits
crossfilter : enables filters to be applied to all graphs
CSS3 : styling language
d3js.org : Javascript charting library
DataTables.net : pagination and filtering of tables
DBDiagram : mapping database relationships
DBeaver : database tool to confirm successful data migration from sqlite3
dc.js : charting Javascript library built on d3.js
Django : high-level Python Web framework
Django Crispy Forms : Django form styling
Django REST Framework : API data source for dashboard charts
Django Simple History : tracking changes to model fields
Git : version control
GitHub : code repository and source branch used in deployment
Heroku : deployment
jQuery : manipulate HTML elements
LazyLoad : lazy loading of images
Material Icons : icons and fonts
PEP8 Validator : validation of Python
Pillow : processing images in database
PostgreSQL : relational production database
Stripe : accept online payments
Travis : continuous integration
VSCode : preferred code editor
W3C Validator : validation of HTML & CSS

Testing

Extensive unit and manual testing was conducted to ensure the site functions and looks well on all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) and device sizes.

Automated Testing

Django testing framework was used to conduct 34 tests. See test_xx.py files for the tests run. Travis Continuous Integration is set up to confirm the build passes on each deployment.